"Eastman in New York" concert features collaboration between Krysa and his students (11/23/03)

"Eastman in New York" concert features collaboration between Krysa and his students

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The indelible bond forged between master teacher and aspiring musician has for years intrigued the public in movies, personal letters and books. The strength of that relationship will be evident in the latest "Eastman in New York" concert to benefit the Eastman School of Music's Unrestricted Scholarship Fund: a collaboration between Ukrainian American violin virtuoso and Eastman Professor Oleh Krysa, and six of his Eastman students at Carnegie's Weill Hall, 154 W. 57th St., at 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 6.

A prominent student himself of the great violinist and teacher David Oistrakh, Mr. Krysa will display his Eastern European roots in force through a variety of works - many with personal connections - including an American and a world premiere performance.

In organizing this most original concert, Mr. Krysa tried to match his students' personalities to the music with which he is so familiar. Mr. Krysa worked at length with each of his students, who hail from Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan, and who range from sophomores to master's students, as well as a 2002 graduate. All of them already have impressive performing credentials, both in their own countries and abroad.

Accompanists will be Ji Eun Han, an Eastman doctoral student, and Tatiana Tchekina, Mr. Krysa's Moscow-born musical partner and wife, and assistant professor of chamber music and accompanying at Eastman. Ms. Tchekina studied at the Moscow Conservatory and taught at the Kyiv Conservatory and the Moscow Gnessin Institute. Ms. Tchekina has made almost two dozen recordings, and has performed throughout the world with Mr. Krysa.

The American premiere of one of composer Reinhold Glière's (1875-1956) last compositions, the brilliant one-movement Concert Allegro (Concerto for Violin and Orchestra), will be performed by master's student Ju-Hyun Lee. Glière was director of both the Kyiv (1914) and Moscow (1920) conservatories, and the work was completed and orchestrated by Glière's pupil, leading Ukrainian composer Borys Liatoshynsky (1895-1968). Undergrad-uate Ko Taniguchi will perform "Ukrainian Triptych" (1972) by Yevhen Stankovych, one of Ukraine's leading living composers. The American premiere of this work was given by Mr. Krysa. Eastman junior Chen-Han Tsai will perform the 1967 Partita for Solo Violin by Lithuanian composer Vytautas Barkauskas - a work that cleverly fuses 12-tone style with the Baroque-style partita - and a violin and piano arrangement of Dimitri Shostakovich's Two Preludes, op. 34, Nos. 17 and 5.

Master's student and prizewinner of several international competitions, Ainur Zabenova will close the concert's first half with the "Vardar" Rhapsody (1922) by distinguished Bulgarian composer, Pancho Vladigerov, a work that often was performed by Oistrakh and many other renowned violinists of the time. Ms. Zabenova won Second Prize in the 2001 International Competition for String Players and Vocalists in Almaty, and was second prize winner in the 2003 International Competition for Pianists and Violinists in Shoumen, Bulgaria.

She was also chosen as the only violinist from Kazakhstan to participate in Yo-Yo Ma's "Silk Road" project, and will perform in private chamber music concerts with Mr. Ma, Jaime Laredo and others at Carnegie Hall and at the Library of Congress in Washington, just prior to the December 6 New York City concert.

The concert's second half features sophomore Grace Lee pairing works by two Polish composers: Witold Lutoslawski's Subito (1992) and Aleksander Zarzycki's Mazurka (1884). Ms. Lee and Ko Taniguchi play off of one another in the virtuosic Two Etudes-Caprices for Two Violins, Op. 18, Nos. 2 and 4 by Henryk Wieniawski. The pieces were written in 1863, when the composer lived in St. Petersburg and worked at the Russian court as a successor to Vieuxtemps.

After hearing a recent work by Eastman doctoral student and Moscow native Vera Ivanova, Mr. Krysa asked her to compose a piece for him and Ms. Tchekina as a world premiere for this concert. The result is Fantasy-Toccata, a vigorous interplay between two contrasting instruments acting as dancers onstage. The exchange of short tunes was inspired by traditional Russian hand-made patchwork, in which small patches of different fabric create a larger mosaic-like cloth. Ms. Ivanova recently received an honorable mention at the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards.

Closing the concert will be Mr. Krysa and his former graduate student Jassen Todorov in Prokofiev's 1932 Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56.

Mr. Todorov made his New York recital debut in 1999 at Weill Hall and has won numerous competitions. After receiving his master's degree in 2002 from Eastman, he was appointed assistant professor at San Francisco State University.

Tickets for this "Eastman in New York" concert are $30; $20, seniors and students. For tickets call the Carnegie Hall Box Office at (212) 247-7800, or visit www.carnegiehall.org.

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Oleh Krysa is professor of violin at the Eastman School of Music, a position he has held since 1993. Long esteemed in the former USSR as a distinguished soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Mr. Krysa made his American debut in 1971 at Carnegie Hall with a performance that won excellent reviews from the critics. After an 18-year absence from the American concert stage, his appearances in 1990 at the Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center confirmed his reputation.

A prominent student of David Oistrakh, Mr. Krysa received first prize in the 1962 Paganini Competition and was a major prize-winner in the Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky and Montreal international violin competitions.

After completing his post-graduate work, Mr. Krysa began his teaching career as chairman of the violin department at the Kyiv Conservatory. In 1973 he took the same position at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, and in 1975 held the position of professor of violin at the Moscow Conservatory, where he remained until 1988.

He has recorded on the Melodiya, Bis, Triton, Olympia, Amadis, Polskie Nagranie, TNC and Russian Disc labels.

A champion of contemporary music, Mr. Krysa has premiered works by Alfred Schnittke, Valentin Silvestrov, Myroslaw Skoryk and Vyacheslav Artyomov, and some of them have been written specifically for him.

Mr. Krysa regularly appears in concerts throughout the world; his upcoming engagements include a concert tour this year of the U.S., Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Austria and China.

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