| Dmitry Sitkovetsky
Dmitry Sitkovetsky is a rare breed of artist whose career crossed many artistic fields. As a violinst, he has worked with world-renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, Philharmonia and the NHK Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York Philharmonic and Cleveland orchestras. He has performed at the Salzburg Festival and at the Lucerne, Edinburgh, Verbier, Istanbul and Georges Enescu festivals. Sitkovetsky has been a founding artist of the Tuscan Sun Festival since 2003.
Over the past few years, Sitkovetsky has also built a flourishing conducting career. He was the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Ulster Orchestra; has worked with London Philharmonic; BBC Symphony; San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle and Milwaukee symphonies; and the Santa Cecilia & Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Sitkovetsky is the founding director of the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra is comprised of distinguished string players from the East and West. Since 2003, Sitkovetsky has been the Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and the Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian State Orchestra. In 2006, he was named Artist-in-Residence of the Orchestre de Castilla y Leon in Spain, which will involve conducting the orchestra on tours, playing as a soloist and in chamber music, as well as giving master classes.
Since his successful transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for string trio 20 years ago, he has transcribed works by Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Dohnanyi, Bartók, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Schnittke, mostly for string orchestra.
Sitkovetsky was born in Azerbaijan, but grew up in Moscow where he studied at the Moscow Conservatory and, after his emigration in 1977, at the Juilliard School in New York. Since 1987, he has been living in London with his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Julia.
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Bella Davidovich
The prodigious Russian pianist Bella Davidovich has been touring for more than half a century. Before immigrating to the United States, she was one of the Soviet Union’s pre-eminent artists. At the age of 18 she entered the Moscow Conservatory to study with Konstantin Igumnov and Jacob Flier. In 1949, Davidovich became the youngest pianist to win the first prize at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. This event marked the beginning of her remarkable life as a consummate performing artist, and she has been touring for more than half a century.
Since 1979, when she made her sold-out Carnegie Hall debut in the United States, Davidovich has established herself as one of her adopted country’s premier keyboard artists, as well as one of a few women to achieve such international prominence.
She has worked with such orchestras as the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, San Francisco and Pittsburgh symphonies, Royal Concertgebouw, London Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus and St. Petersburg Philharmonic.
As a recording artist she has built a substantial discography with recordings for Philips, Orfeo, Novalis and Delos.
In 1988 together with her son, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, she became the first Soviet émigré musician to be officially invited to perform in her native country.
Born into a family of musicians in Baku, Azerbaijan, she displayed her prodigious talent at the age of three and began formal training at the age of six.
In 1950, Davidovich married Yulian Sitkovetsky, one of Russia’s most phenomenal violinists of the 20th century, and together they performed recitals throughout the Soviet Union. They made several important recordings, until Yulian’s premature death of lung cancer at the age of 32.
Since 1966 she has also performed with her son, violinist and conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and they have also recorded together sonatas by Grieg, Brahms and Ravel.
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