Arts and Entertainment

Violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv to present recital Sept. 14

Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Solomiya Ivakhiv, a violin and viola professor at the University of Connecticut, will present a guest recital at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 14, in Esber Recital Hall on Penn State's University Park campus. Titled "Ukraine–Journey to Freedom: A Century of Classical Music for Violin and Piano," the program will feature repertoire from her new CD with Labor Records and Naxos of America. Ivakhiv will be joined by pianist Angelina Gadeliya, a piano faculty member at the University of Colorado. The recital is co-sponsored by the Penn State School of Music and the Penn State Ukrainian Studies Program. The recital is free.

In addition to the recital, the performers will present a masterclass at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 15, in Esber Recital Hall. The masterclass is also free and open to the public.

Program

  • Dreams and Impromptu, Op. 4 — Viktor Kosenko
  • Sonata Post Scriptum — Valentyn Silvestrov
  • Hutsul Triptych: Allegretto and Dance — Myroslav Skoryk (arranged by the composer from the film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" for string chamber orchestra)
  • Angel’s Touch — Yevhen Stankovych (commissioned by the Ukrainian Institute of America for Solomiya Ivakhiv to celebrate the 25th Anniversary MATI Series in New York)
  • An Episode in the Life of a Poet: A Fantasy Based on the Opera "Interrupted Letter" — Oleksandr Shchetynsky (written for Solomiya Ivakhiv and Angelina Gadeliya to celebrate Shevchenko's bicentennial at Merkin Hall in New York City)
  • Sonata, Op. 19 - Borys Lyatoshynsky

A Ukrainian-born violinist, Ivakhiv has quickly earned a reputation for performing with “distinctive charm and subtle profundity” (Daily Freeman, New York) and a “crystal clear and noble sound” (Culture and Life, Ukraine). Known for her work as a soloist and chamber musician, she regularly appears on prestigious solo concert series in North America, Europe and Asia, and her performances are often broadcast on National Public Radio, Voice of America Radio, Ukrainian National Radio and Television, and Chinese Hunan Television.

Her 2015-16 season included solo appearances with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra, as well as solo recitals and chamber concerts at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, and the Syrinx Concert Series in Canada. Recent concert seasons featured Ivakhiv at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, CBC Glenn Gould Studio, Piano Forte Foundation, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, University of Nevada–Las Vegas Symphony Orchestra, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tchaikovsky Hall in Kyiv. Her first solo album, "Ukraine: Journey to Freedom – A Century of Classical Music for Violin and Piano," recorded with Ukrainian pianist Angelina Gadeliya, was released on Labor Records (NAXOS) in February 2016.

Highly sought as a chamber musician, Ivakhiv has been featured in many national and international chamber music festivals including Tanglewood, Embassy Series, and Newport Music Festival (U.S.), Ottawa Chamberfest (Canada), Prussia Cove (England), Musique de Chambre à Giverny (France), and Verbier Festival and Kammermusik Bodensee (Switzerland). She has been artistic director at the Institute (MATI) Concert Series in New York City for five years, where she is also a frequent performer. She has conducted chamber music coachings and masterclasses at Yale University, Columbia University, Boston Conservatory, Temple University Music Preparatory Division, Curtis SummerFest, and Guangzhou and Hunan Conservatories in China, and taught at New York Summer Music Festival in Oneonta. She also regularly collaborates with high schools in outreach programs throughout the United States.

Ivakhiv is the recipient of several international honors, including the Sergei Prokofiev and Yaroslav Kocian International Competitions, the Fritz Kreisler and Charles Miller Award from the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Award from the President of the Ukraine.

She is assistant professor of violin and viola at the University of Connecticut and professor of violin at Longy School of Music of Bard College. She graduated from Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with the late Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank and the late Rafael Druian. She received her master's degree from M. Lysenko Music Academy in Lviv, Ukraine, studying with Oresta Kohut. She holds a doctor of musical arts degree from Stony Brook University, where she studied with Pamela Frank and Philip Setzer.

Praised for her "refined and exceptionally phrased and stylized" playing (Telavivcity.com), and her "rare ability to make music speak" (The Gazette), pianist Angelina Gadeliya was born in Sukhumi, Georgia, where she began her musical studies at the age of five, and continued them in Ukraine up until moving to the United States in 1990. She studied at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Juilliard School, Mannes College, and holds a doctorate from Stony Brook University.

Her work with Ensemble ACJW and the Decoda ensemble has brought her to the stages of Carnegie Hall, Germany, Abu Dhabi, Princeton University, the Trinity Wall Street series, and various New York locales. She has appeared as soloist with the Boulder Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, as well as with the Fort Worth, South Dakota, Oberlin, and Stony Brook symphonies, and at numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Fontainebleau, Aspen, Banff, the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, the Metropolitan Museum of Art lecture series, and the Emerson String Quartet's 2007 Beethoven Project at Carnegie Hall.

Gadeliya’s debut solo album, "Music of Tribute: Schnittke and His Ghosts," was released in 2015 with Labor Records and Naxos, and has garnered high praise. Her new CD with Ivakhiv, "Ukraine: Journey to Freedom, A Century of Classical Music for Violin and Piano," is set to release in 2016. She has given many premieres of new works and has worked closely with composers John Harbison, John Adams, Thomas Adès, Steve Reich, Steven Mackey, Matthias Pintscher, George Oakley, Ofer Ben-Amots and others. Gadeliya divides her time between New York City and Colorado Springs, where she resides with her husband, Misha, son Felix, and daughter Anastasia. She currently serves as piano faculty at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

 

Last Updated September 14, 2016