Nov. 7-9: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik is Featured Soloist in Three Concerts with the Phoenix Symphony Conducted by Andrew Litton
Photo of Yevgeny Kutik by Griffin Harrington available in hi-resolution here.
Violinist Yevgeny Kutik is Featured Soloist in Three Concerts
with the Phoenix Symphony
Performing Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77
by Dimitri Shostakovich
Conducted by Andrew Litton
Friday, November 7, 2025 at 11am
Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 7:30pm
Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 2pm
Symphony Hall | 75 North 2nd Street | Phoenix, AZ
Tickets and More Information
“polished dexterity and genteel, old-world charm” –WQXR
Phoenix, AZ — Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, who The New York Times describes as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” is the featured soloist in three performances with the Phoenix Symphony, conducted by Andrew Litton. Kutik will perform Dimitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77 as part of a performance that will also include Ludwig van Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No. 3. This concert program will be performed on Friday, November 7 at 11am, Saturday, November 8 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 2pm. All three concerts will take place in Symphony Hall (75 North 2nd Street).
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.
“I grew up with Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 as a constant presence—its intensity and honesty became part of my musical language from an early age,” says Kutik. “Each time I return to it, I discover anew how music can embody strength, resilience, and vulnerability all at once. I’m especially thrilled to bring it to Phoenix this November with Maestro Litton.”
Composed between 1947-48, Shostakovich called his Violin Concerto No. 1 “a symphony for violin and orchestra.” Part of his inspiration for this concerto was the extraordinary violin playing of his friend, David Oistrakh. After Shostakovich finished composing the work, he and Oistrakh performed it together privately on violin and piano, however the concerto could not be performed publicly because of Soviet censorship until 1955, two years after Joseph Stalin’s death. Oistrakh premiered the concerto with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Evgeny Mravinsky. As time has gone on, the work has come to be thought of as one of the great violin concertos of the 20th century.
More about Yevgeny Kutik: Committed to the music of our time, Kutik regularly gives premiere and repeat performances of major works by today’s most celebrated composers. This season, he gives the world premiere of a new work by Jonathan Leshnoff with pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner presented by Newport Classical. In January 2025, he made his debut with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, led by Michelle Merrill, in a performance of Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 2. In 2022 at the Tanglewood Music Festival, he gave the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia co-commissioned for Kutik by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, he debuted with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, written for him. The concerto is based on Schwantner’s earlier work, The Poet’s Hour – Soliloquy for Violin, which Kutik recorded on episode six of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS.
A native of Minsk, Belarus, Yevgeny Kutik immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five. His 2014 album, Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures (Marquis Classics), features music he found in his family’s suitcase after immigrating to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1990, and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Classical chart. The album garnered critical acclaim and was featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in The New York Times. Kutik’s recent releases on Marquis include The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021) and Meditations on Family (2019), for which he commissioned eight composers to translate a personal family photo into a short musical miniature – a project featured on the cover of Strings magazine. Kutik’s other recordings include his debut album, Sounds of Defiance (2012), and Words Fail (2016), both released to critical acclaim.
Other recent performance highlights include debuts at the Kennedy Center presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival, as well as recital appearances as part of the Dame Myra Hess Concerts Chicago; at UCLA; Peoples' Symphony Concerts, Kaufman Music Center, and National Sawdust in New York City; the Embassy Series and The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.; and at the Lobkowicz Collections Prague presented by Prince William Lobkowicz. Festival performances have included the Tanglewood Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele in Germany, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition, and has since performed with orchestras throughout the country including the Rochester and Dayton Philharmonics; the Detroit, New Haven, Asheville, and Wyoming symphony orchestras; and more. Abroad, he has appeared with Germany’s Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock and WDR Rundfunk Orchestra Köln, Montenegro’s Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, Japan’s Tokyo Vivaldi Ensemble, and the Cape Town Philharmonic in South Africa.
Passionate about his heritage and its influence on his artistry, Kutik is an advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the United States, and regularly speaks and performs across the United States to both raise awareness and promote the assistance of refugees from around the world.
Yevgeny Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and went on to study with Zinaida Gilels, Shirley Givens, Roman Totenberg, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory. Kutik is the Artistic Director and co-founder of The Birch Festival – a festival built around connecting and integrating leading musicians with the Berkshire community, while highlighting the unique and original stories of those who make up the Berkshires. His violin was crafted in Italy in 1915 by Stefano Scarampella. For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com.
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 three performances with the Phoenix Symphony, conducted by Andrew Litton. Kutik will perform Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77. The concert program will also include Ludwig van Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No. 3.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Presented by Phoenix Symphony
Conducted by Andrew Litton
What: Music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Dimitri Shostakovich, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
When: Friday, November 7, 2025 at 11am
Saturday, November 8, 2025 7:30pm
Sunday, November 9, 2025 2pm
Where: 75 North 2nd Street Phoenix, AZ 85004
Tickets and information: www.phoenixsymphony.org/shows/litton-conducts-tchaikovsky