Jan. 18: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Makes his Las Vegas Philharmonic Debut
Photo by Corey Hayes available in high resolution at: https://www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/yevgeny-kutik
Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Makes his Debut with the Las Vegas Philharmonic
Conducted by Michelle Merrill
Performing Violin Concerto No. 2 – The American Four Seasons
by Philip Glass
Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 7:30pm
The Smith Center | 361 Symphony Park Ave. | Las Vegas, NV
Tickets and More Information
“polished dexterity and genteel, old-world charm”
– WQXR
Las Vegas, NV — On Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 7:30pm, violinist Yevgeny Kutik, who is described by The New York Times as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” will be a guest soloist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, conducted by Michelle Merrill in his debut with the orchestra Kutik will perform Violin Concerto No.2, The American Four Seasons, by Philip Glass. The concert program will also include Gioachino Rossini’s Williams Tell Overture and Antonín Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony No. 9.
Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of standard works as well as rarely heard and newly composed repertoire.
Kutik says of making his debut with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, collaborating with conductor Michelle Merrill, and performing Philip Glass’s “American Four Seasons.”
“I am thrilled to be collaborating with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Michelle Merrill to perform Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 2. This work is a masterpiece of emotional depth and minimalist beauty, and I can't wait to share this incredible musical journey with the audience. What a wonderful musical companion to the Four Seasons we all know and love.”
Known as The American Four Seasons, Philip Glass composed his Violin Concerto No. 2 in the summer and autumn of 2009, for violinist Robert McDuffie. Glass wrote the work with the intent that it would serve as a companion to Antonio Vivaldi's iconic work The Four Seasons. At the same time, Glass ultimately decided to design his work to be more open-ended, particularly as it relates to the audience’s experience. In his program notes about the work, he says he saw it as “an opportunity, then, for the listener to make his/her own interpretation. Therefore, there will be no instructions for the audience, no clues as to where Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall might appear in the new concerto – an interesting, though not worrisome, problem for the listener.”
More about Yevgeny Kutik: Committed to the music of our time, Kutik regularly gives premiere and repeat performances of major works by today’s most celebrated composers. In 2022 at the Tanglewood Music Festival, he gave the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia co-commissioned for Kutik by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, he debuted with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, written for him. The concerto is based on Schwantner’s earlier work, The Poet’s Hour – Soliloquy for Violin, which Kutik recorded on episode six of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS.
A native of Minsk, Belarus, Yevgeny Kutik immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five. His 2014 album, Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures (Marquis Classics), features music he found in his family’s suitcase after immigrating to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1990, and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Classical chart. The album garnered critical acclaim and was featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in The New York Times. Kutik’s recent releases on Marquis include The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021) and Meditations on Family (2019), for which he commissioned eight composers to translate a personal family photo into a short musical miniature – a project featured on the cover of Strings magazine. Kutik’s other recordings include his debut album, Sounds of Defiance (2012), and Words Fail (2016), both released to critical acclaim.
Other recent performance highlights include debuts at the Kennedy Center presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival, as well as recital appearances as part of the Dame Myra Hess Concerts Chicago; at UCLA; Peoples' Symphony Concerts, Kaufman Music Center, and National Sawdust in New York City; the Embassy Series and The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.; and at the Lobkowicz Collections Prague presented by Prince William Lobkowicz. Festival performances have included the Tanglewood Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele in Germany, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition, and has since performed with orchestras throughout the country including the Rochester and Dayton Philharmonics; the Detroit, New Haven, Asheville, and Wyoming symphony orchestras; and more. Abroad, he has appeared with Germany’s Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock and WDR Rundfunk Orchestra Köln, Montenegro’s Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, Japan’s Tokyo Vivaldi Ensemble, and the Cape Town Philharmonic in South Africa.
Passionate about his heritage and its influence on his artistry, Kutik is an advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the United States, and regularly speaks and performs across the United States to both raise awareness and promote the assistance of refugees from around the world.
Yevgeny Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and went on to study with Zinaida Gilels, Shirley Givens, Roman Totenberg, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory. Kutik is the Artistic Director and co-founder of The Birch Festival – a festival built around connecting and integrating leading musicians with the Berkshire community, while highlighting the unique and original stories of those who make up the Berkshires. His violin was crafted in Italy in 1915 by Stefano Scarampella. For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, described as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” (The New York Times) is the featured soloist in a performance with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, conducted by Michelle Merrill, on Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 7:30pm. In his debut with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Kutik will perform Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 2, known as The American Four Seasons. A piece composed for violinist Robert McDuffie, Glass wrote it with the idea that it would serve as a companion to Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. The concert program will also include major works by Gioachino Rossini and Antonín Dvořák.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Presented by Las Vegas Philharmonic
Conducted by Michelle Merrill
What: Music by Philip Glass, Gioachino Rossini, and Antonín Dvořák
When: Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89106
Tickets and information: www.lvphil.org/events/dvoraks-new-world-symphony