Last Concert of MSO's 2013 Summer Season

Next Saturday, July 20, is the last concert of the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra's summer season, at Worcester's Institute Park, with Myron Romanul conducting. We will play music by Wagner, Verdi, Strauß, Copland and others; I'll be assistant concertmaster. It's FREE and it starts at 7PM but come early, bring stuff for a picnic. If it rains, the concert will be on Sunday the 21st.

Gypsy Jazz at the Vernissage and Beyond

In a week, on Thursday April 11, our Gypsy Jazz duo with Leo Katz will be performing at the Vernissage Restaurant (1627 Beacon Street, Brookline).  Our music is described as a "sizzling fusion of American Jazz and European Gypsy music, featuring Jazz favorites arranged for violin and piano in the European Gypsy-Jazz style." It should be great fun!

I feel lucky to be collaborating with Leo. We really enjoy working together, and I hope that the ANTONEVICH & KATZ DUO has a long future ahead. In fact, I can already tell you about one future event. We have been invited to participate in the New Year's Eve festival in Chatham, on the Cape. Look for our all-Grappelli concert there at 2PM on December 31, 2013!

Antonevich & Katz: YouTube Videos and Photos

YouTube now has five videos from the jazz half of my last concert, with jazz pianist Leo Loginov Katz. You can find them all by searching on YouTube for "Antonevich & Katz". My personal favorites are Nuages and Minor Swing, I hope you like them too! 

I am posting here a couple of photos where we are jazzing it up with Leo; this website has many photos of me in a tuxedo and bowtie, so here is something different for a change. It is a true pleasure to work with Leo. In these photos, we look like we were having a lot of fun working together, and we really were!!  I can't wait till the two of us perform together again.

Thank You to my Fans & Supporters

My January 26 concert "FROM EUROPE WITH PASSION" went better than anyone expected! It was standing room only and the energy was amazing! My pianists Sergey Khanukaev and Leo Loginov Katz were fantastic. The recording engineer (who is also President of the New England Professional Videographers Association) said afterwards that in his 30 year career, this was the best violin music he ever heard; you can find his words on the TESIMONIALS page of my website.

To all my fans and supporters -- thank you so much for your spirit, the concert would not have been the same without it!

1/26: From Europe with Passion

Happy New Year to everyone!

On 1/26 I will be peforming the US premiere of new violin works by Polish composer Bartosz Jazdzewski, whose world premiere took place last June at my concert in London. There are also some rarely performed Eastern European gems from early 1900's, where I am very lucky to have copies of the scores. It will be at the Makor Concert Hall in Brighton, and I will be accompanied by Sergey Khanukaev.

Sergey and I have already appeared at Makor earlier this year, as a conductor-concertmaster team for Boston Vocal Arts Studio's production of Tchaikovsky's opera "Iolanta".  After that performance, the Boston Musical Intelligencer specifically praised our team for creating "lush-sounding" music. Let's hope they like our work as a violinist-pianist team even more!

For the second half of the concert, I have the privilege of jamming with a great jazz pianist Leo Loginov Katz, in a program of European Gypsy Jazz.  I've performed this music before, but in a much smaller venue. By request, I am bringing it to Makor as part of this concert.  This will be an evening not be missed!

New Year's Eve with Needham Concert Society

This Monday December 31, the Needham Concert Society offers their traditional New Year's Eve concert of chamber music. I have been invited to participate in this concert as the principal second violin in pieces by Dvorak, Vivaldi, Bach, and Albinoni.  The concert is at 7PM at the Congregational Church of Needham, 1154 Great Plain Avenue.

This is the second time this year that I have the pleasure of playing with the Needham Concert Society, whose members are professional musicians living or working in Needham. It includes Boston Pops principals, Boston University faculty, and other professional musicians who are a pleasure to work with.  It should be a fun concert and I hope to see you there!

Concertmaster in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker

Thanksgiving is almost here. For me, this means another season as concertmaster in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, with the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra and the Worcester Ballet Company. This project has become a tradition for the orchestra, the ballet company, and the magnificent Hanover Theater in Worcester. 

This year, the production has been expanded, and we will be playing the score in its entirety in the original order that Tchaikovsky wrote for the ballet. I look forward to working with our conductor Kallin Johnson and with the whole orchestra on this project.

Composing & Performing Music for Moufy's Video

Recently, I had the opportunity to compose and perform background music for a short promotional video for pop artist Moufy. I just learned that our video is now out on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKkrv3QfooU

It was a fun experience working with Moufy and his team. My special thanks go to director Frank Kelleher, for inviting me to be part of this project. It's quite amazing that this video has already had over 15,000 views in less than two weeks!

Proud of my Student

I have received photos from the September 22 concert by the Needham Concert Society, that took place in Needham's Great Hall. I am posting one of the photos here, taken during Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C major. It shows me on the right, violinist Peter Zazovsky on the left, and cellist Ronald Lowry in the middle.  The petite woman next to me is my violin student Subaiou Zhang. Subaiou was my assistant in this concert, and I am very proud of her work! I believe she has a big future as a violinist ahead of her.

9/22: Principal 2nd violin in Needham

On Saturday September 22, the Needham Concert Society is having a concert to celebrate Needham's 300th anniversary. It will be held in the newly renovated Great Hall of Needham Town Hall at 8PM, presented jointly with Needham Bank Great Hall Concert Series.

I have been invited to participate in this concert as the principal second violin in Tchaikovsky's Serenade in C-major for Strings (1st movement). This is a special piece, where professional musicians will play side by side with violin students. As part of Needham's music community, I am always happy to help out with community events like this. Other Needham musicians include Peter Zazovsky and Robert Miskey, violins; Lila Brown, viola; Ronald Lowry and Timothy Roberts, cello; Carolyn Fryer, bass. More information can be found here.

The concert will be recorded for local TV. I am told that tickets are expected to sell out, so please order in advance if you plan to go.

World Premiere at Longy in 1999

As readers of my blog know, this summer I performed in England a world premiere of several works by Bartosz Jazdzewski; I will soon be performing a US premiere of these works in Boston.  When looking through my old records today, I found mention of another premiere I did in 1999 as a graduate student at Longy, that I wanted to share. It was a Sonata for Violin and Piano (The Storm) by Alexandra du Bois, completed in 1999.  It received its premiere during December of that year at Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA by violinist Stanislav Antonevich and pianist Deborah DeWolfe-Emery. Ah, those good ol' Longy days!

Concertmaster at MSO's Last Concert of Season

This Friday, July 27, the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra concludes its 62nd season of free outdoor summer concerts with a concert in Auburn.  Myron Romanul will conduct, and I am serving as concertmaster. It is always a pleasure to work with Maestro Romanul, and I look forward to Friday's concert. UPDATE: due to the weather, this concert has been moved to Sunday July 29 at 7PM.

Here is a photo of Maestro Romanul conducting the MSO earlier this summer.  I can be seen from the back across from Maestro Romanul (with the short haircut and glasses). This photo comes from an article in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette about this upcoming event.

MSO Summer Season in Full Swing

The Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra is in the middle of its summer season, the most popular outdoor summer music series in central Massachusetts! This year MSO has added concerts in Millbury and Auburn to the program. I have been with this professional orchestra for almost 20 years, currently serving as assistant concertmaster (I used to be concertmaster, but when I went away to the South in early 2000's to work as university professor for several years, they had to find someone else).

Here is a photo taken after yesterday's concert, as I am chatting with my two old friends and MSO violinist colleagues Peter Hughes (in the middle) and Scott Knopf (on the left). We have two concerts left, on July 21 in Worcester and July 27 in Auburn.  I hope that you can come to one of them!

Back from England

I am back from playing two concerts in England, one in London and the other in Bristol. The concert in London featured the world premiere of several violin pieces by Bartosz Jazdzewski, who was also the pianist. A video of the encore piece from this concert (2nd movement of Sonata for Piano & Violin) is available on YouTube. Here is a photo of Bartosz and myself, bowing together at the end of the concert. I think he has a great future ahead of him as a composer!

A Big Day for my Students

Yesterday, my studio (www.newtonviolin.com) had a children's recital.  The repertoire ranged from "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in A minor, depending on how long the student has been taking lessons. I would like to thank pianist Tanya Shrago for serving as our accompanist, as well as for giving a short performance afterwards.  After the recital, Tanya mentioned that, having accompanied many violin recitals in her life, ours was exceptional for the tone quality and intonation that all the kids exhibited, even though most of them are beginners.

Yesterday was a big day for my students, because another student of mine from Needham Music had a concert at his school, where he played Rieding's Violin Concerto in B minor. I heard from his mother today, she wrote: I wanted to let you know that our son did a wonderful job at the concert... Several people came up to him after he played and complimented him and asked us where he took lessons. There was a family there with three children... Their father also spoke to us and complimented our son.  He said he has also played violin as a child so he understood the technique involved. He said he could tell that our son was taught well because his technique with the bow was so good. I wanted to let you know and thank you for all of the hard work you have put in to our son.

I would like to thank the parents of all my students for their dedication in helping their kids practice at home; the sound quality and good technique that their kids exhibit would not be possible without everybody's hard work.

Great Review in Today's Boston Globe

Today's Boston Globe has a great review of Sunday's performance of Tchaikovsky opera "Iolanta", where I am concertmaster.  The reviewer's best words were reserved for our orchestra, they said it "performed miracles". It's a pleasure to be working with our conductor Sergei Khanukaev, he is wonderful. (Here is a photo of the two of us at a reception afterwards, with one of the singers.) The Boston Globe also chose today's performance of our opera as their "pick of the day"! I hope everyone will have a chance to come today, because this is our last show.

5/20 & 5/22: Concertmaster in Russian Opera

Next week is the International Rachmaninoff Russian Music Festival in Boston.  As part of it, the Boston Vocal Arts Studio presents Tchaikovsky’s opera “Iolanta”, where I am concertmaster.  There will be two performances, on Sunday 5/20 at 5PM and on Tuesday 5/22 at 8PM.  Both will be at the Makor Concert Hall, at 1845 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA. More details can be found here.

About a year ago, I had a chance to work with the Boston Vocal Arts studio, when we presented "La Serva Padrona" by Pergolesi.  It was a great experience, and I look forward to these performances of “Iolanta”.  I hope you can come and join us.

Two Concerts in England, June 23 and 24

A month ago, I posted news about winning an international competition, where the London composer Bartosz Jazdzewski will be writing music for me.  I concluded that post with "I look forward to collaborating with Bartosz on beautiful new music, and I hope you can all come to my concert next year."  Well, it turns out that you'll have to travel to England to hear my world premiere of Bartosz' music!  Our concert will take place at the POSK Concert Hall in London on June 23; here is the poster.

While in England, I am also giving a Charity Concert in Bristol on June 24, for the Anglo-Polish Society of Bristol and the West Country. My CALENDAR page has details about both concerts; Bartosz's website also has some information about our concert in London.

Winner of Talenthouse Competition

Arresting development! I am thrilled to share some great news about the international Talenthouse competition, "Compose and Perform with Bartosz Jazdzewski":
http://www.talenthouse.com/compose-and-perform-with-bartosz-jazdzewski
A video of my performance from last fall, that was entered in this competition, has been selected by the London-based composer Bartosz Jazdzewski as the winning entry! Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-hYFlezSRY
I look forward to collaborating with Bartosz on beautiful new music, and I hope you can all come to my concert next year.

Old Jazz with a New Twist

I am delighted to announce a jazz concert that I am playing on Thursday, January 12 (the day before the Old Russian New Year, for those who know what that is).  It is called "Old Jazz with a New Twist", featuring favorite works by Duke Ellington and others, rearranged for violin and piano -- some in a traditional style and some gypsy-style.  The pianist is Joe Reid; I last played with Joe in early 2010, when we did a short jazz concert for a radio station in the Boston area. I love playing jazz, and often include a couple of jazz pieces in my concerts, but this is my first full-length all-jazz concert!! It will be at 8PM in Cafe St. Petersburg in Newton Center.