The Faculty Artist Series presents Mikhail Kopelman, Professor of violin, together with Anna Gurfinkel, piano, Monday, March 26, at 8 p.m., in Kilbourn Hall, at the Eastman School of Music. The program includes Brahms’s String Sextet, Op. 111, and selections from his Hungarian Dances, featuring Eastman faculty members Willa Finck, violin; Masumi Per Rostad and Alex McLaughlin, violas; and Steven Doane, cello.
A Professor of Violin at Eastman since 2002, Mikhail Kopelman graduated from the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Maya Glezarova and Yuri Yankelevich. In 1973 he won second prize in the Jacques Thibaud International Competition in Paris. A former member of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kopelman was appointed first violin of the Borodin String Quartet in 1976, and played with the ensemble for two decades.
As a member of the Borodin Quartet, he has been awarded the state prize of the U.S.S.R. and has been named People’s Artist of the Russian Federation. From 1980 to1993, Kopelman was on the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory, teaching both solo violin and string quartet. He has given master classes at the Guildhall School of Music in London, the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, UK, in Tour (France), Rome, Florence, Turku (Finland), Stockholm, the Hochschule in Hamburg, and the Hochschule in Vienna.
Since 1993, Kopelman and his family have lived in the United States. In 1995, he received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award and the Concertgebouw Silver Medal of Honor. He was first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet from 1996 to 2002, and formed the Kopelman Quartet in 2002. From 1996 to 2002, he was also a professor at the Yale School of Music, coaching chamber music.
Kopelman has performed in many international festivals, such as the Edinburgh Festival (UK), Hong Kong, Schleswig-Holstein, Florence, Salzburg, Tour, Moscow, the Ravinia Festival, Santa Fe, Caramoor, Norfolk, and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City.
For over 15 years he was closely associated with Sviatoslav Richter in numerous performances and recordings. He has also collaborated with Mstislav Rostropovich, Gidon Kremer, Natalia Gutman, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Alicia de Larrocha, Christoph Eschenbach, Yuri Bashmet, Victor Tretyakov, Eliso Virsaladze, Peter Donohoe, Boris Berman, and Emanuel Ax. Kopelman has made numerous recordings for the Melodia, EMI, Virgin Classics, Teldec, Philips, Nimbus, and Wigmore Live labels.
Kopelman has also served as a jury member for several international competitions. These have included the Evian, ARD Munich, and Bejing String Quartet competitions, as well as the Indianapolis and Queen Elisabeth International Violin competitions.
In 2002, with the purpose of continuing the rich traditions of the Russian School of Quartet Playing, he founded the Kopelman Quartet, together with some of his contemporaries from the Moscow Conservatory.
The Faculty Artist Series is generously supported by Patricia Ward-Baker.
Tickets for Eastman’s Faculty Artist Series are $10 for the general public and free to current Season Subscribers. Tickets can be purchased at the Eastman Theatre Box Office, 433 East Main St.; by phone (585) 274-3000; or online at http://eastmantheatre.org
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About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training. The current dean is Jamal Rossi, appointed in 2014.
About 900 students are enrolled in Eastman’s Collegiate Division—about 500 undergraduate and 400 graduate students. Students come from almost every state, and approximately 20 percent are from other countries. They are guided by more than 95 full-time faculty members. Six alumni and three faculty members have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music, as have numerous GRAMMYÒ Awards. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 700 concerts to the Rochester community.