July 10-11: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Makes his Grant Park Music Festival Debut – Featured Soloist in Chicago Premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto Conducted by Leonard Slatkin
Photo of Yevgeny Kutik by Griffin Harrington available in hi-resolution here.
Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Makes his Grant Park Music Festival Debut
in Two Performances on July 10 and 11
Featured Soloist in the Chicago Premiere
of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto
Conducted by Leonard Slatkin
October 18, 2025 at 7:30pm
Viterbo Fine Arts Center | 929 Jackson Street | La Crosse, WI
Tickets and More Information
“polished dexterity and genteel, old-world charm” – WQXR
Chicago, IL — Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, who The New York Times describes as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” makes his Grant Park Music Festival debut with the Grant Park Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Kutik performs as the guest soloist in the Chicago premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto on Friday, July 10, 2026 at 8pm and Saturday, July 11, 2026 at 8pm at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park (201 E Randolph St.).Both performances also include Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. There will be pre-concert talks prior to both performances at 7pm, in the Chase Promenade North Tent in Millennium Park, hosted by Kutik and Laura Sauer-Shah.
Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of standard works as well as rarely heard and newly composed repertoire.
Kutik and Slatkin shared the stage in 2021 when Kutik gave the world premiere performance of Schwanter’s Violin Concerto together with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Schwantner adapted his Violin Concerto especially for Kutik from The Poet’s Hour –– a preexisting work composed in 2010 as a short soliloquy for violin and strings. The Poet’s Hour was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony to commemorate Gerard Schwarz’s retirement as the orchestra’s musical director.
“I’m so delighted to give the Chicago premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto — a work of extraordinary imagination, depth, and emotional force,” says Kutik. “It is truly one of the most special new works for violin I have encountered, and I’m thrilled to join forces again with Leonard Slatkin to bring this remarkable piece to life at Grant Park.”
Of the history behind his Violin Concerto and how he knew Kutik was the right artist to premiere it, Schwantner writes:
“I had always planned to later expand and re-imagine [The Poet’s Hour] as part of a larger scale work for violin and orchestra. When Gerard [Schwarz] also performed the music with his All-Star Orchestra and violinist Yevgeny Kutik, I was enthralled with Yevgeny’s masterful and nuanced performance and realized I had found “the” soloist to premiere this new expanded work. Yevgeny Kutik brings a dramatic and an emotional arc to his impressive technique and captivating musical personality, and that vision remained in my mind’s ear all during the writing of the concerto.”
More about Yevgeny Kutik: With a “dark - hued tone and razor - sharp technique” ( The New York Times ), violinist Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old - world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is also lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of both standard works and newly composed repertoire. Kutik is Artistic Director and co - founder of The Birch Festival.
A native of Minsk, Belarus, Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and immigrated to the U.S.with his family at the age of five. An advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the U.S., he regularly speaks and performs across the country in support of refugees from around the world. Recent and upcoming highlights include performances with the Phoenix Symphony under Andrew Litton, the Grant Park Music Festival under Leonard Slatkin, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic with Ruth Reinhardt, where he will give the world premiere of a new violin concerto written for him by Eric Nathan. In 2021, Kutik made his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of JosephSchwantner’s Violin Concerto, an expansion ofThe Poet’s Hour, which Kutik originally filmed for Gerard Schwarz’sAll-Star Orchestra, a made-for-television classical music concert series released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS. He also gave the world premiereofCântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia, at the Tanglewood Music Festival in August 2022, co-commissioned for him by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Kutik’s discography includes several titles on Marquis Classics, including Music from the Suitcase, which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Classical chart. He made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition. He holds degrees from Boston University and the New England Conservatory. Yevgeny performs on an 1850 J.B. Vuillaume violin made in Paris.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, described as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” (The New York Times) is the featured soloist in two performances on July 10 and 11 with the Grant Park Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Kutik makes his Grant Park Music Festival debut in the Chicago premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, which was adapted by Schwantner especially for Kutik. The concert program for both performances will also include Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Presented by Grant Park Music Festival
Conducted by Leonard Slatkin
What: Music by Joseph Schwantner, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
When: Friday, July 10, 2026 at 8pm
Saturday, July 11, 2026 at 8pm
Where: Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, 201 E Randolph St, Chicago, IL
Tickets and information: grantparkmusicfestival.com/events/tchaikovsky-symphony-no-5/