‘Inspiration by the Human Voice’
showcased on Nov. 11
Oleh Krysa explains that he “became a musician because of Ukrainian folk music” sung to him by his mother decades ago.
That bottomless well of personal and popular memory will spill over Krysa’s audience in William M. Lowman Concert Hall on Nov. 11, when he brings his violin to a performance with Dr. Douglas Ashcraft of the Idyllwild Arts Academy piano faculty.
Photo courtesy Idyllwild Arts
Born in Poland in 1942, Krysa grew up in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. As a young man, he taught at the Kiev Conservatory and later at the Moscow Conservatory. He moved with his family to the United States in 1989, becoming professor of violin at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, in 1993.
Lauded as a “musician of the first rank” by The New York Times and by The Washington Post as “a player who brings subtlety and calm elegance to every musical phrase,” Krysa’s brilliance motivated the founding in 2013 of the Oleh Krysa International Violin Competition.
This competition honors an artist who has thrilled audiences in the world’s greatest classical venues — Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center — and served as a judge for the International Tchaikovsky, Wieniawski, Paganini and Montreal violin competitions.
This Sunday afternoon, Idyllwild’s own beautiful but intimate classical venue will have space for only 300 fortunate music lovers to judge and draw inspiration from Krysa’s artistry.
The performance, which is free and open to the public, is at 3 p.m. in the William M. Lowman Concert Hall.
