<p><strong><em>"Musician of the first rank."</em> — The New York Times</strong></p><p>The Ukrainian-American violinist Oleh Krysa is long esteemed in the former USSR as a distinguished soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A prominent student of David Oistrakh, Oleh Krysa won major prizes in such international competitions as the Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky and Montreal, and was the outright winner of the Paganini Competition.</p><p>Oleh Krysa began his teaching career as chairman of the Violin Department at the Kiev Conservatory. In 1973 he took the same position at the Gnesin Musical and Pedagogical Institute in Moscow and, two years later, returned to the Moscow Conservatory as Professor of Violin, where he remained until 1988. Currently he is Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.</p><p>Oleh Krysa has performed in major music centers throughout the world (including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Concertgebouw, Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Teatro alla Scala, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Kennedy Center, etc.) with leading orchestras and conductors and ensembles. He has also appeared at major festivals in Europe, North America, the Far East and Australia. In addition to his thriving solo career, Mr. Krysa was the leader of the celebrated Beethoven String Quartet 1977-87.</p><p>Oleh Krysa is also a champion of contemporary music and has worked closely with Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Krzsyzstof Penderecki, Sydney Hodkinson, Virko Baley, Valentin Silvestrov and Myroslav Skoryk. He has premiered a number of their works and many have been written specifically for him. Mr. Krysa has recorded on the Melodiya, BIS, Triton, Olympia, Amadis, Polskie Nagranie, TNC and Russian Disc labels.</p><p>Oleh Krysa has served on the jury panel of the International Tchaikovsky, Wieniawski, Paganini, Kreisler, Joachim, Oistrakh, Lipizer, Quingdao, Sarasate and Montreal Violin Competitions.</p><p>Mr. Krysa is married to pianist Tatiana Tchekina who has been his partner in most of his recitals and recordings over the years.</p><p><strong><em>"...distinguished musician herself and a pianist of a notable talents..."</em> — Canberra Times</strong></p>
<p>The pianist Tatiana Tchekina was born in Moscow into a family of singers. She studied at the Kiev and Moscow Conservatories with Vsevolod Topilin and Boris Zemlyansky. Since 1967, Ms. Tchekina has been performing with her husband, the violinist Oleh Krysa, in solo and chamber music recitals in major concert halls throughout the former Soviet Union (including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory), Europe (including Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw and Semper Oper), the United States (including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea and Japan and has received world wide critical acclaim.</p><p>Tatiana Tchekina also appeared at major music festivals in Russia (“Moscow Stars”), Czechoslovakia (“Prague Spring”), Austria (Wiener Fest), Finland (Kuhmo, Korsholm), USA (Oregon Bach Festival, The Lake Winnipesaukee Music Festival, Park City International Chamber Music Festival) and Australia (Townsville).</p><p>She has recorded on the Melodiya, BIS, Triton, Olympia, Amadis, Polskie Nagranie, TNC and Russian Disc labels with violinist Oleh Krysa.</p><p>Ms. Tatiana Tchekina taught Chamber Music at Kiev Conservatory and Accompanying at Gnesin Musical and Pedagogical Institute in Moscow. Currently she is Assistant Professor of Accompanying at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.</p>
Edwin London, founder of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, has won Columbia's 2001 Ditson Conductor's Award for his commitment to the performance of American works. Composer/conductor London received the award at a performance of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, which he conducted, at Cleveland State University on November 5. The Ditson Conductor's Award, the oldest honoring conductors for their commitment to American music, was established in 1945 by the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia. Past recipients include Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, Michael Tilson Thomas and James DePriest.
Described as a "champion of new American music," London has been a major figure in the contemporary music field for more than 40 years, forming two highly acclaimed ensembles: Ineluctable Modality, a new music choral ensemble, in 1968 and the award-winning Cleveland Chamber Symphony in 1980.
Born in Philadelphia in 1929, London began his career as a horn player in both symphony orchestra and the Oscar Pettiford jazz band, demonstrating early on his ease in moving between the worlds of "concert hall" and "popular" music.
After graduating from Oberlin Conservatory (BM, 1952), London received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa (1961). At Iowa he studied composition with Philip Greeley Clapp. Subsequent teachers have included Luigi Dallapiccola, Darius Milhaud and Gunther Schuller.
London was composer-conductor for the Toledo/Antioch Shakespeare and Lyric Theater Festivals (1956-57) and later toured with the Armando Trovajoli Orchestra in Rome as a French horn player and composer. He taught at Smith College (1960-68), the University of Illinois (1973-83) and the University of San Diego (1972-73), before being named chairman of the music department at Cleveland State University in 1978.
The Cleveland Chamber Symphony is dedicated to supporting the creative work of "emerging" composers by the presentation of semi-annual concerts and recordings of competitively selected new works chosen from leading colleges, conservatories and universities. Under the leadership and artistic direction of London, the CCS has received recognition over the years for its excellence. ASCAP has awarded the Cleveland Chamber Symphony five John S. Edwards awards, the country's most prestigious honor recognizing an orchestra's commitment to showcasing American music. Other honors include the American Music Center Letter of Distinction and the Laurel Leaf Award from the American Composers Alliance.
As a composer, London has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Fromm Foundation, Ohio Arts Council, ASCAP and Meet the Composer. He has received the Cleveland Arts Prize and was named Individual Artist of the Year by the Ohio Arts Council.
Igor Ivanovich Blazhkov was born Sept. 23, 1936 in Kiev, Ukraine. He received his diploma summa cum laude from Kiev Conservatory, graduating from the conducting class of Professor Alexander Klimov (1959). He completed his post-graduate studies under the guidance of Evgeny Mravinsky at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, Leningrad (1967). In 1959, Blazhkov won the Conducting Competition of the Republic of Ukraine (Kiev). From 1958 to 1961, Blazhkov was conductor of the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine; thereafter he held the position of conductor for the Leningrad Philharmonic (1963-1968).
Excerpt from the interview of Gennady Rozhdestvensky to the weekly "Nedelia" ("The Week"), March 23, 1968:
“Nedelia“: Who do you consider to be the most promising among the new breed of young conductors?
Rozhdestvensky: I see among those recently emerging some quite interesting ones-- Zubin Mehta, Igor Blazhkov, Yuri Temirkanov, Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado.
Beginning in 1958, Igor Blazhkov vigorously promoted the music of Igor Stravinsky on many a concert podium of the former Soviet Union while maintaining extensive correspondence with the composer.
From 1969 to 1976, Igor Blazhkov served as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Kiev Chamber Orchestra, molding it into one of the most prominent chamber music groups in the USSR. “Igor Blazhkov and the Kiev Chamber Orchestra are a phenomenon of genuine importance for our concert music scene”, Dmitri Shostakovich observed. The composer maintained a close friendship with Blazhkov, who championed many of his works over the years. It was during these years that Blazhkov premiered many works by Valentin Silvestrov and other Ukrainian composers who have now achieved prominence, such as Yevhen Stankovych and Oleh Kyva (see Upcoming TNC Classical Releases and News from Ukraine).
In 1977-1988, Blazhkov was affiliated with the concert agency Ukrconcert, and from 1988 to 1994 he was the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine. At the same time he was leading and mentoring the Perpetuum Mobile Orchestra (1983-2002).
Igor Blazhkov conducted the premiere of the ballet, The Twelve, by renowned Leningrad composer Boris Tishchenko, choreographed by Leonid Yakobson, at the Leningrad Kirov Theatre in 1964. In 1970, he revived from obscurity and brought back into the spotlight Boris Lyatoshynsky’s opera, Schchors [The Commander], conducting it at the Taras Shevchenko Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kiev, Ukraine.
In 1990, Maestro Blazhkov was honored with the title of People’s Artist of the Ukraine “for outstanding achievements in launching and promoting the works of musical art and for the high professional level of his concert performances”.
In 1986, the patriarch of Soviet conductors, Evgheny Mravinsky, wrote about Blazhkov: “Being a musician of rare expertise and exceptional knowledge, Blazhkov truly deserves his reputation as a talented and profiled conductor. His innovative, sensationally original programming is realized with both the immaculate technical precision and artistic inspiration listeners cannot resist. A genuinely hard-working musician, his highly educated tastes and preferences manifest in both the selection of compositions performed and their original interpretations. These qualities are intensified by Blazhkov’s quest for new frontiers and goals that never vanish, and by his extensive practical experience in the realms of concert music, opera and ballet. All said, these are the reasons why he became known as one of the most interesting and conspicuous conductors of his generation.”
The list of Blazhkov’s recordings adds up to more than 70 titles. He collaborated with such renowned CD producing companies as Denon, EMI, Olympia, Claudio Records, Wergo, Melodiya, Russian Disk, SoLyd Records, TNC, ESS.A.Y Recordings, Analekta, Angel SR, Eurodisc, HMV ASD, Shinsekai, JVC VIC, Chant du Monde, and Toshiba. A December 1990 “Montreal Gazette“ review of his CD Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique (recorded for Canadian company Analekta with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine) states: “The performance is rock-solid and impressive… the orchestra sounds much more vivid than the Moscow Philharmonic”. The Canadian Association of Sound Recording, Performing Arts and Video Industry awarded the title “Best Classical Album of 1990” to another Analekta disk with Blazhkov and Canadian violinist Angele Dubeau featuring music by Prokofiev. Tchaikovsky, and Kabalevsky.
The touring itineraries of Blazhkov include performances in Poland, Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, the United States, and Japan. The Polish newspaper “Sztandar Ludu reported: “Featured at our September Music Festival in the city of Lublin was one of the leading Soviet orchestras – the State Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine…under the artistic direction of Igor Blazhkov…. The Kievans played brilliantly, showing not only carefully polished technical mastery but also genuine emotional involvement. The Russian music fans which filled the concert hall to capacity were completely satisfied, for the concert stood out as a remarkable event of the month”. The Leipzig, Germany newspaper “Union“ observed: “…the State Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine from Kiev under the baton of its Chief Conductor Igor Blazhkov affirmed its reputation as a perfect musical ensemble.… In compositions by Stravinsky and Prokofiev, it demonstrated all at once wonderful precision, togetherness, finesse of sound, robust energy and timbre sophistication. In sum, this evening’s concert shall be remembered as a memorable one”.
Since 2002, Igor Blazhkov has made his home in Potsdam, Germany.
