Happy New Year from Antonevich & Katz

Happy New Year to everyone! I had a delightful time celebrating the New Year on Cape Cod, where Leo Katz and I played at the Chatham First Night event. Our concert included many of the songs from our CD.

The Town of Chatham TV Station has released a video about the event, featuring our performance of Limehouse Blues. Here is a shot from the video. 

This was the first time we played at Chatham First Night, which we were told is the largest New Year festival in Massachusetts outside of the City of Boston. We truly enjoyed it. And I was so touched to receive beautiful comments from the organizers afterwards: "We thought you guys were sensational... Bravo! Looking forward to a repeat performance next year". We certainly hope to be back!

Summer Festivals for My Students

This summer, my student Subaiou Zhang was accepted to attend the prestigious Killington Music Festival, where she was invited to be the student of the well-known concert violinist Irina Muresanu.  The festival's violin faculty include Magdalena Richter, Joseph Silverstein, and Ilya Kaler.  It is an amazing opportunity for Subaiou to work with such great violinists, as she prepares to begin her Masters' Program in Violin Performance at Boston University with Yuri Mazurkevich in the fall.

Another student of mine, Rose Chen, has also been accepted to participate in a summer festival.  She will be attending the Philadelphia International Music Festival, where she is doing the Two-Week Pre-College Program. As part of this intensive music program, Rose will get to study violin with the members of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra.

Congratulations to both Subaiou and Rose on these accomplishments! May these festivals serve as positive and influential experiences on their musical journeys!

ANTONEVICH & KATZ Going "Viral"

This morning, the viewer count for one of the YouTube videos of my Gypsy Jazz duet ANTONEVICH & KATZ has reached 1000 viewers.  This video was posted less than 3 months ago, so this is practically viral!

The song on the video, "Minor Swing" will also be performed at our upcoming concert, this Thursday May 16 at Cafe Vernissage in Brookline Massachusetts. This is an encore performance, after a sold-out event there on April 11. Here is the Facebook event page for this concert, we hope to see you there!

Accepted with High Merit Scholarships

We would like to congratulate my student Subaiou Zhang, who applied this winter to Masters Degree in Music programs at Longy, Boston University, and the Boston Conservatory. I am very proud to announce that Subaiou was accepted with high merit scholarships at every program where she auditioned!

For these very competitive auditions, Subaiou prepared a variety of challenging pieces, including Bach's 2nd Partita in D-minor, Sibelius' Violin Concerto, Shoenberg's Fantasy for Violin and Piano, Beethoven's Sonata, Saint-Saens' Introduction & Rondo Cappriccioso, and Paganini's Caprice. Congratulations on this wonderful accomplishment!!

Bringing Music Back to Life

This is about "Serenade" by Victor Pergament, a very special piece from my last concert. The score used in that performance was published in pre-revolutionary Russia. It was given to me by Maria Seletskaya. Maria's father, violinist Myron Seletsky, was known for his exquisite rendition of this piece before being executed by Stalin in 1937. Here is a photo of Myron Seletsky, circa 1936.

This piece is now on YouTube, and the description there says:
Maria was only 8 years old when she lost her parents to Stalin's terror, and she did not get to hear her father play it. She has asked Stanislav to bring back the beauty of her father's music. This is arguably the Serenade's first concert performance in the USA; it is dedicated to all musicians who were victims of Stalin's terror. Let their music come back to life!

I have just heard from Boris Rivchun, a pianist/composer who lives in Moscow. His grandfather, David Geigner, was a close colleague of Myron Seletsky; he too was executed by Stalin. Boris had a chance to hear this piece, and he wrote:

Great music, performed with such artistry and skill! How wonderful that you were able to give a "new beautiful life" to this work, this is the best possible tribute to Myron Seletsky! My mom and I were hugely delighted, thank you! 

With pleasure and gratitude,
Boris Rivchun, Moscow

I am grateful to Maria for giving me the opportunity to bring this beautiful piece back to life, and I am happy that my work brings pleasure to others whose relatives had shared Myron Seletsky's tragic fate.

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!

Less than a Week to Go

Less than a week to go until my concert "From Europe with Passion".  It promises to be an unforgettable experience! For curious minds, yes there will be amplification (electric violin) for the Jazz half of the show.

Also, I just heard from the organizers of the Anglo-Polish Society in Bristol, England, where I gave a recital last June.  They let me know that their newsletter write-up about my recital is now available online here.  By interesting coincidence, the encore that's mentioned in this write-up is the same piece that will be used to open my upcoming concert!

Here is a photo of me with the Society's President Halina, Countess of Munster, taken after the recital. She came down from London to Bristol especially for this event, and I am grateful to have had this opportunity to play for her and for other members of the Society.

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!

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.

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.

Even Better Review in BMI

I just learned about another review of the opera where I was recently concertmaster. This one was published in the Boston Musical Intelligencer on 6/24/12.  The reviewer wrote: "it is a tribute to conductor Sergei Khanukaev, concertmaster Stanislav Antonevich, and Tchaikovsky’s wonderful sense of string writing that the ensemble, even with about a tenth of the usual symphonic strings, sounded so lush."  It is always very gratifying when the long hours of hard work pay off with the appreciation of audience and press!

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.

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.

Feedback and Clips from Recent Jazz Concert

I have been forwarded a description of my 1/12 Jazz concert, here it is: <<Last night with Stanislav was amazing! So was his piano man Joe Reid. Together they improvished away thru Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, George Gershwin, Antonio Carlos Jobim and more. Stanislav was animated, full of surprises, always great violinist. Everything was first rate musical performance. Standing ovation at the end.>>  I am so glad that people had a good time!  Also, three of the pieces from the concert have just been added to YouTube: Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael, Sophisticated Lady by Duke Ellington, and In a Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington. I hope you enjoy them!

Zigeunerweisen Finally Added to Music Clips

In March 2010, I mentioned in this blog how sorry I was that the video of "Zigeunerweisen" (a.k.a. Gypsy Airs) from a recent performance did not come out.  It is one of my favorite pieces, I find it quite arresting. Well, it's finally here, recorded in Ottawa in May of 2011!!  I just added it to my MUSIC CLIPS page.  Janice Tucker Rhoda, a violinist and author of "ABCs of Strings", was one of the first people to listen to it, and she shared it on Facebook with the following comment:

This is a WONDERFUL rendition of Zigeunerweisen just posted to YouTube! Excellent Violinist Stanislav Antonevich is on Facebook and living in the Boston Massachusetts, USA area. A must-listen!!

Thank you Janice!

Julia Blinova and me

People have been asking how my Ottawa concert went.  It was very successful; here is a photo of the pianist, Julia Blinova, and me, taken right afterwards. This was my first collaboration with Julia. I was very impressed by the balance in our playing. The way we sounded together as an ensemble, and felt each other musically, is a miracle given the limited time we had to rehearse together. The audience sat enthralled. My girlfriend Dina overheard a man confessing  afterwards that he had found himself crying during the concert, which he is not used to. Many people told me that had they known what it was going to be like, they would have brought all their friends to hear our music.  Perhaps this means that I should return to Ottawa to give more people a chance to come hear us -- we'll see.

Surrounded by Beautiful Women

I just heard from Nicholas Shaplyko and Ekaterina Sorokina, co-founders of the Museum of Modern Renaissance in Somerville. I performed there on Sunday to a full house, as part of a Benefit Concert in honor of Nicholas' 50th birthday.  They wrote:  "We would like to thank you again for the pleasure that your performance gave us. Your violin is a key to a transcendent dimension." Nicholas and Ekaterina are incredible artists, here is a photo taken right after the concert that gives a good idea of how they have decorated the whole Museum with their own amazing artwork. Pictured L-R: Lidiya Yankovskaya, Natalie Polito, Kathlyn McKellar, myself, Tatiana Shrago, Zhanna Alkhazova, Tanya Zadorskaia, and Katya Nehaeva. Tatiana and Lidiya served as my accompanists at the concert; I appreciate the work that they have put into it. In case you are wondering, there were other male performers on that stage, but they did not make it into the shot -- I guess the photographer liked the sight of me surrounded by beautiful women.

Warm Feedback from my 1/16 Concert

Today, I heard from Iyawata Schneider, who is producing a cable TV show of my 1/16 performance of Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3. She wrote: "It was both a pleasure and an honor to meet you... To watch you play was inspiring and heartwarming. As I listened and observed you seemed at one with your instrument. Because of this relationship, I experienced a deep impression of the music that I had not experienced in the past. It is like taking a very deep breath. Awesome! Thanks for the wonderful music and expressive playing!" I've always drawn the inspiration for my playing from the effect that my music has on the listeners, trying to touch their hearts and their souls. I am happy whenever I hear that I've succeeded.

Beautiful Words from Composer Paul Gay

I have recently received from Paul Gay a new revision of his Sonata for Violin and Piano.  Paul is a respected trombonist / conductor / composer.  I had the great pleasure of playing under his baton for many years, when he served as conductor of the Indian Hill Symphony Orchestra. Paul is a very perceptive person, and I've always felt that he keenly understood my approach to music. On the cover of his Sonata, he wrote the following: "To Stanislav Antonevich, With great respect for your talent, your passion, a great attitude and a love for life and the mysteriously lovely violin!" I look forward to collaborating with Paul on giving voice with my violin to his beautiful compositions.

Marcus Parris and the Messiah

On December 19, I served as concertmaster at a performance of Handel's Messiah in Boston, led by a great young conductor, Marcus Parris. His musical understanding and sensitivity were outstanding, as always. Afterwards, Maestro Parris hugged me and thanked me for my contributions to the performance.  In addition to serving as concertmaster, I found the musicians for the orchestra, and helped with the rehearsals.  His words of thanks were so touching that I almost cried.  Here is a photo of the two of us that was snapped at that time.  I thank Marcus for giving me this opportunity to make music, and look forward to collaborating with him again in the future.