Duo Forte (US). Artur Kaganovskiy & Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy

Artur Kaganovskiy (FOTO1) was born in April 1986 in Moscow, Russia. At age four, he began his violin studies and by age five, entered the School for Talented Children at the Moscow Conservatory. He soon began appearing concerts and was featured on several television programs. A year later, in 1992, Artur Kaganovskiy was introduced to the famed violinist Isaac Stern who moved him and his family to the States.

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Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy (FOTO2) is a current member of the Neos String Quartet and Forte Duo in New York. They are represented by Beverly Wright & Associates Management, Inc.

She is a graduate of DePaul University, Chicago (2009) Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL (2007) and the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy at Cluj-Napoca, Romania (2004).

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy was also member of the Bowdoin International Festival/Maine, Young Artists Festival Bayreuth/Germany and the International Bachakademie, Stuttgart/Germany.

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CZB: You immigrated to the US in 1992. What memories do you have of your early childhood in Russia?

Artur Kaganovskiy: I would say constant music making, because my mother was a piano professor at the Kiev Conservatory and we were constantly traveling from Moscow to Kiev all the time. My childhood in fact was very normal, considering that I had to practice a minimum of three hours a day. I had time to enjoy my childhood.

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CZB: Was it something your parents saw in you that they decided to have you start playing the violin or was it something that they wanted you to do?

Artur Kaganovskiy: The fact of the matter is that I used to go with my aunt, which was a professor at the Kiev Conservatory, when she was teaching private lessons to other students – and she would just take me there with her – and I just wound up listening to every student the whole entire day.

I was a bit of a troublemaker and when I got tired, she would take me to this lady who had the key to the vault of instruments for the whole Conservatory and I had access to absolutely every possible instrument and I chose to play the violin myself because I loved the sound and I love to get the most out of playing the violin. So, I said to my parents and my aunt that I wanted to start learning it and I started playing, after which I was sent to the Talented Children’s School at the Moscow Conservatory.

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CZB: You were concertmaster of five different orchestras, including the Manhattan Philharmonic Orchestra. What is a concertmaster?

Artur Kaganovskiy: Concertmaster means a lot of responsibility, it means leadership, as well as being a soloist. You are basically the right hand of the conductor, so it’s sort of like a medium between the conductor and the rest of the orchestra. It’s difficult coordinating 100 people together with the conductor.

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Byte. The Concertmaster (American English) or leader (British English) is the most important violinist in an orchestra, he or she will sit in the front seat, by the conductor’s left. The word concertmaster comes from the German Konzertmeister.

He has to decide how the violins will play the music and write in the bowing. He will decide where each member of the violins should sit. He will talk to the conductor about anything the orchestra are not happy about. If part of the music is marked “solo” then he will play it as a solo while the other violins stop playing.

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CZB: In 2004 you won first prize at the 5 Towns Competition in New York.

Artur Kaganovskiy: It’s a pretty famous competition, being held for a long time. There are many brilliant instrumentalists that have won the competition. It’s a very good competition in Long Island. I just decided to compete and I won First Place. I didn’t even think about it. My teachers said I should participate. I did and I won. At one point, recently, they lacked funding for this.

http://www.uk-piano.org/5towns/

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CZB: In October of 2007, you appeared on the Russian Television Network. What feelings did you have doing that?

Artur Kaganovskiy: It was an interview with a very well known Russian journalist, whose name is Boris Tenter, who’s show is streaming in all Russian communities from Russia through Canada and in the US. It was very interesting because he asked very good questions. It was a warm feeling because I was talking not just to the Russian community but also to the Americans, the New Yorkers, the Canadians – and I was able to show what I had to say about what I’ve heard about music – to be able to share this – and to get calls – this was a very communicative social network, which I loved. It was a truly great feeling to do that.

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CZB: Summer 2008. You were on tour with the Juilliard Orchestra to China. What was this experience like? Are there any differences in audience attitudes or reactions to the music or were there more foreigners in the audience?

Artur Kaganovskiy: In China it’s a very interesting situation because they are very willing to get exposed to the Western Culture, to listen to the music. They have a thirst for knowledge. The Chinese, I would say, are very capable of sitting in a concert hall listening to Classical Music. They like experiencing it. Every time I play there … like I was there a few months ago … It is very stunning. The hall was full. They want to listen. They want to know Classical Music.

I was on tour recently with an Israeli conductor, playing a Mendelssohn violin concerto in Beijing and Mongolia and when I came to the first rehearsal of the Philharmonic there, after a couple of minutes I noticed that in the first violin section, there was a lady who had a part to do in the violin concerto and she was desperately writing all the fingerings and the bowings that I was doing and it just showed that she really wanted to know – that they actually cared that much about Classical Music – because they don’t have the access to the music that we have in the United States or Romania or these kind of places, so they have a big thirst for Western Culture and Classical Music.

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CZB: When did your debut Album at Capitol Records come out? Did this happen in 2009?

Artur Kaganovskiy: That project unfortunately was left to rest due to lack of funding, from California.I also believe that this happened because of the Competitions I was taking part in 2007 *(Artur Kaganovskiy was a finalist at the Austrian 2007 Brahms International Violin Competition; he was also First Place winner of the Waldo Mayo International Competition in October 2007). Also, in 2007 I also performed with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (June 6^th, 2007, Artur Kaganovskiy made his debut in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, performing the E. Elgar Violin Concerto in B minor with the retired members of the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, under the direction of David Gilbert).

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CZB: About the Record Company … they contacted you?

Artur Kaganovskiy: Yes, because a very close friend of mine was a producer there. Actually this record contract transgressed to one of the biggest music recording studios, from Chicago, Pressure Point Recording Studios. They have one of the biggest studios in America. I also had the chance to work with a fantastic Spanish composer, Paula Marquez. This was a very interesting experience, because one day I met her and she showed me the piece and the next day we went to the producer, Sergio Dow, in the studios and we recorded. That was actually a very successful project.

(Violin solo composed by Paola Márquez and performed by Artur Kaganovskiy of the Juilliard School of Music. Produced by Ximena Gutiérrez and Sergio Dow. Directed by Sergio Dow and photographed and edited by Gene Fojtik. Recorded at Pressure Point Studios in Chicago, IL USA.)

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http://www.pprecs.com/about.php

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CZB: You play a rare Joseph Guarneri Del Gesu violin (from 1736), loaned to you by Julius Miklossy. How did this relationship come about?

Artur Kaganovskiy: He’s a good family friend, from my wife’s side of the family. After he watched me play, he was kind enough to say that I should be playing on this fiddle – and I’ve loved it ever since. It’s a great partner. I feel like it’s an extension of my hands. With an orchestra it’s fantastic.

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CZB: How many Guarneri violins are there left in the world?

Artur Kaganovskiy: About 500.

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About The Quadro Art Gallery Cluj

Artur Kaganovskiy: It’s an incredible Gallery and Székely Sebestyén György, the patron is a great friend of ours. He knows exactly how to make everything happen right.

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy: For this exhibition, for instance, Székely Sebestyén György knew the composer and was so thoughtful to cover his musical activity alongside of his artistic work.

Artur Kaganovskiy: The Quadro Art Gallery is the only place where this kind of thing happens.

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy: No, it’s not the only one but Székely Sebestyén György is very thoughtful.

Artur Kaganovskiy: No other Art Gallery has performing arts alongside the Art exhibits, not even the New York Metropolitan Museum.

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy: Székely Sebestyén György called us two days before we left for Cluj and asked if we wanted to play a song here. He sent us the partitures and we learned the songs in a couple of days.

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Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy – viola

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I studied here in Cluj. I came from Odorheiu Secuiesc. I finished my masters here at the Music Academy and then I left to study on full scholarships from 2005 to 2007 at Western Illinois University and from 2007 to 2009 at DePaul University in Chicago, where I remained for two years. Then I went to Summer Camp in New England. That is where I met Artur Kaganovskiy.

When I studied here at the Music Academy, I got to travel all over the place with the orchestra. We toured through France, Spain, even Gibraltar and of course all over Romania.

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CZB: When did you meet?

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy: At the Summer Camp in New England. At the Bowdoin International Music Festival, which is a six week festival.

Artur Kaganovskiy: We were assigned to be in the same team, by my teacher actually, who is the President of the Festival. The Bowdin International Music Festival is dedicated to Chamber Music from the first day to the last. We also played with Faculty. It was beautiful there …and the atmosphere was amazing.

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy: It was great and we started making music together …happily ever after.

http://www.summermusic.org/

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CZB: How did you adapt to life in the SUA?

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy: I have hardly adapted. It’s a great contry but it’s because I think I am quite sentimental, like food, home, friends, family.

CZB: It’s a different lifestyle too.

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy: Yes and I feel that in the US people are more isolated too. It’s not like in Europe where you go out and there are people walking on the streets. I have even found myself on occasions that walking on the street in the US is not a good thing to do. People in the US do not walk on the sidewalks. They use the car, the bicycle.

The US has given me the greatest experiences. I have found the most amazing people over there.

It was a great experience. I think everyone should travel at some point because then you see everything differently. You see your real friendships, you see people working in different situations. What I like about the US is that people there know what it means to work on a day by day basis – and then also, they know what they have because they worked for it. In Romania, the situation is different.

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CZB: How often do you come back to Cluj?

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy: We come quite often. At the beginning, in 2005, I used to come home once a year. After a while I just couldn’t resist and I started coming home every half a year. After I got married, we started coming together.

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CZB: You are founding members of the Neos String Quartet.

Artur Kaganovskiy: There is stuff on the internet. We are in the process of building a good website. We had some members changed. We have now a fantastic cellist. She is Hungarian, from Budapest and the second violinist is an incredible violinist – a great colleague of mine from childhood. He’s Greek and his name is Regi Papa. He has a Russian passport (because his mother is Russian), lived in Greece and was born in Albania.

We are thinking of bringing the Quartet to Quadro’s Art Gallery. Of all the places I have played, this is my favorite.

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CZB: You have also founded the New York Chamber Virtuosi Orchestra.

Artur Kaganovskiy: That was in our past life. We have nothing to do with that anymore, because of difficult scheduling. We could not manage to play with the Quartet because of that.

Eszter Szilveszter Kaganovskiy: It’s very hard to manage everything. Artur had his Masters and has just graduated from Juilliard. He wants to be a soloist but it’s very hard to maintain yourself as a soloist. It’s the hardest thing to be a soloist – and we have concerts as a duet (Forte Duo), and we also want to continue the Quartet. We also need to keep up our repertoire. I like to play Chamber Music. I have my own experience. Our orchestra has everything. We studied with different schools and partners. We have gained a certain experience together and I will always prefer to be part of an orchestra.

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By RiCo for CZB.ro

Posted for the first time on 6.SEP.2010

 

 

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