On Wednesday, March 27, 2013 at the Ukrainian Institute of America, Music at the Institute (MATI) presented a Special Event “Myroslav Skoryk: complete works for violin and piano CD release.” The concert showcased Solomia Soroka, violin and Arthur Greene, piano.
Violinist SOLOMIA SOROKA, born in Lviv, Ukraine, is among the most accomplished Ukrainian musicians of her generation. She won top prizes in three international violin competitions held in the former Soviet Union – the Prokofiev, Lysenko, and Zolota Osin competitions. Ms Soroka earned her master’s degree summa cum laude and completed postgraduate studies at the Kyiv Conservatory, and later served on its faculty in the chamber music department. She also has a D.M.A. degree from the Eastman School of Music. Solomia Soroka made her solo debut at age 10, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, and has since appeared as soloist with that orchestra on numerous occasions. She has performed with the National Symphony of Ukraine and other orchestras in Ukraine, Australia, and the United States. Praised for playing “with great warmth and authority” (BBC Music Magazine), she has performed as soloist and as chamber musician at concerts and festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, USA, Canada, China, and Taiwan. She has premiered a number of important contemporary Ukrainian compositions for violin, including works by Borys Lyatoshynsky, Myroslav Skoryk, and Yevhen Stankovych. Since her American debut in 1997, she has performed throughout the U.S. In a review of her recital in Washington, D.C. as part of the Smithsonian Institute performing arts series, The Washington Post described her as “a superbly equipped violinist… Her tone is warm and mellow on the low strings, brilliant on the high strings, perfectly controlled and expressively used.” Solomia Soroka has toured and recorded extensively with her husband, the American pianist Arthur Greene. Their Naxos recording of Four Violin Sonatas by William Bolcom was selected as a Recording of the Month with the highest ranking for both artistry and sound quality by Classics Today, and was hailed as “Another virtuoso piece…confidently delivered by this brilliant duo” (Gramophone). And their recording of the violin sonatas of Nikolai Roslavets, also for Naxos, has received international attention: “Soroka seemed utterly confident, catching a haunting, languid quality within Roslavets’s elusive harmonic idiom……” (The Strad). In the past two years Ms Soroka has been recording for Toccata Records, based in London. Her two premier recordings, the violin/piano music by forgotten American violinist Arthur Hartmann and the music by Holocaust composer Leone Sinigaglia, were released in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Solomia Soroka is currently a professor of violin at Goshen College, Indiana. She studied with Hersh Heifetz, Bohodar Kotorovych, Liudmyla Zvirko, and Charles Castleman.
Pianist ARTHUR GREENE’s dynamic and personal performances have won him acclaim in concert halls and competitions throughout the world. “A profound musician” (The Washington Post); “A masterful pianist (The New York Times); “Intoxicating appeal” (Mainichi Daily News, Japan); “A romantic splendor of sound-colors” (Ruhr Nachrichten); “Stellar Scriabinist” (American Record Guide) – these are but a few of the press accolades garnered by Arthur Greene. He is the winner of gold medals in the William Kapell and Gina Bachauer International Piano Competitions. Arthur Greene has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Czech National Symphony, the Tokyo Symphony, the National Symphony of Ukraine, and many others. He has played recitals in Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Moscow Rachmaninov Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Lisbon Sao Paulo Opera House, Hong Kong City Hall, and concert houses in Shanghai and Beijing. He has toured Japan 12 times. Mr. Greene was an Artistic Ambassador to Serbia, Kosovo, and Bosnia for the United States Information Agency. Arthur Greene has performed the complete solo piano works of Johannes Brahms in a series of six programs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. He has performed the 10 Sonata Cycle of Alexander Scriabin in Sofia, Kyiv, Salt Lake City, and other venues. His recording of these 10 Sonatas will be released in 2013. He has recorded the Complete Etudes of Scriabin for Supraphon. He has recorded the Violin-Piano Sonatas of William Bolcom and Nikolai Roslavets on two discs for Naxos, and the Violin-Piano music of Myroslav Skoryk, with his wife, the violinist Solomia Soroka. Mr. Greene received degrees from Yale University and Juilliard, and studied with Martin Canin. He is the Professor of Piano at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“Music at the Institute” was sponsored by the Ukrainian Institute of America, 2 East 79th Street, New York, NY
Solomiya Ivakhiv — Artistic Director • Mykola Suk — Artistic Advisor.
Ukrainian Institute of America 