ABBA

Concertmaster and violinist from St. Petersburg, Russia, who attended the conservatory there where his father Boris was his teacher. In 1989, he furthered his studies in Germany under the watchful eye of Zakhar Bron. He took part in the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1994, with Emma Zhokova as his accompanist.

1996 was a breakout year for Arkadi: He studied at the Lubeck Musikhochschule, debuted in The Netherlands with the “Violin Concerto” of Benjamin Britten with the famous conductor, Valery Gergiev, performed Felix Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64” with the Rumanische Staatsphilharmonie, and appeared on the album, Max Bruch: Concerto for Violin No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 – Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120 with the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1998, he performed Hans Pfitzner’s “Violin Concerto” with the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Grote Zaal (Great Hall) near Amsterdam. He was quite active with the RSO and was the soloist on William Walton’s “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra” on 30^th June 1999, also at the Grote Zaal. On 2^nd May 2004, he performed with them at the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht in a program that included Aram Khachaturian’s “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor”. They returned to the same venue on 10^th September 2004 and Arkadi again was the featured soloist on Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Op. 35.

He teamed up with the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra on 23^rd September in a performance of Alexander Arutunian’s “Violin Concerto” at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. In October 2005, he was the concertmaster of the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra in a series of concerts featuring Mikhail Glinka’s Russlan en Ludmila overture and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4 in F” and “Violin Concerto in D”, with Lara St. John as the featured soloist. From Romantic to Baroque: Arkadi was the featured soloist in the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra’s Bach-Corelli-Locatelli concert, which included Bach’s “Violin Concerto No. 2 in E, BWV 1042”.

On 1^st April 2006, he joined the Dmitri Ferschtman Ensemble for a recital of chamber music by Dmitri Shostakovich at the Doopsgezinde Kerk in Middelburg. Arkadi, along with Dmitri Ferschtman and Frank va de Laar, accompanied vocalist Olga Zionvieva on 28^th February 2007 in a concert at Kerk Evangelische Broedergemeente. They did the same for Charlotte Riedijk on 2^nd April 2007 at Concertgebouw Amsterdam in a performance of Shostakovich’s “7 Romances on Texts by A. Block, Op. 127”. In May, he was a member of Ensemble Phoenix in a program entitled “The Music of the Count of Saint Germain (1696-1784)” at the St. Nicolai Church in Eckenforde. He was in the orchestra pit for the world premiere of Mandolino, a children’s opera composed by Ron Ford, on 16^th November 2008, at the Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn in Utrecht.

As of 2010, Arkadi was the first violin of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, for whom he has also served as concertmaster. For a sampling of his virtuosity, check out his rendition of Mozart’s “Violin Concerto No. 5” with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra on the Rosa Classic label.

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