Ben SAYEVICH Print

‘An exceptionally brilliant and fiery player’ (The Boston Globe)

Lithuanian-Israeli violinist Ben Sayevich began his studies at the Churlonis School for the performing Arts in Vilnius. His teachers have included Felix Andrievsky, Dorothy Delay, and Eric Rosenblith. He is a recipient of the prestigious Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, where he was also the Teaching Assistant to Eric Rosenblith.

Sayevich has concertized extensively throughout North America, Europe and the Far East and has appeared on radio and television both as soloist and chamber musician. He is featured as the soloist in a recording of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. One of the most important works in his repertoire is the Violin Concerto by Alban Berg and his interpretation carries the tradition that comes down directly from the composer, through Sayevich’s work on the piece with the late Louis Krasner, the commissioner, dedicatee and the violinist at the work’s premiere. It was Krasner who chose Sayevich to perform the work in Boston at the celebrations of the composer’s centenary.

Sayevich was Professor at the University of Kansas from 1987 until 2006, and since then is Professor of Violin at Park University in Kansas. His other posts have included the Concert Master position of the Kansas City Camerata and the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has made numerous concerto appearances, including Violin Concertos of Vieuxtemps, Glazunov, Mozart, and Beethoven. He has taught at the Hartt School of Music from 1987 to 1992, and at the New England Conservatory in Boston in 1995, as well as the Yellow Barn Music Festival in Vermont. He is also the leader of the Quartet Accorda, based in Kansas City.

He is now regarded as one of the finest violin teachers in America and several of his students are in the Chicago, Pittsburgh, Dallas and other major orchestras. More recent successes include the position of associate concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic and David Radzynski’s appointment as the new concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic.

He now plays a Giovanni Grancino violin, Milano 1709, one of the master’s most admirable examples.