Ukrainian Quartet Will Open Chamber Music Series
The Leontovych String Quartet, founded in Kiev in the former Soviet Union in 1971, will give the opening concert of the Spokane Chamber Music Association’s series at The Met on Sunday afternoon.
The Ukrainian ensemble will perform quartets by Beethoven, Borodin and Shostakovich, along with a new work by the Russian composer Myroslav Skoryk.
The Leontovych Quartet was founded by cellist Vladimir Panteleyev, then professor of cello and chamber music at the Kiev Conservatory, and three of his colleagues in the Kiev Philharmonia.
“The formation and naming of an ensemble in the former Soviet Union was not an easy matter,” says Robert Guralnik, the group’s manager.
“The entire process was controlled by the Central Committee of the Communist Party.”
Panteleyev and his colleagues were given permission to form a string quartet and the Central Committee bestowed the name “Leontovych” (pronounced lay-on-TOE-vich) on the ensemble in honor of Nicolai Leontovych, a minor composer and collector of folk music best known not for chamber music but for his choral arrangements of folk songs.
Since its founding the quartet has had a number of personnel changes, leaving its cellist, Panteleyev, the only original member. In 1991, the group emigrated to the United States. By this time the Leontovych Quartet had become well known in chamber music circles as a winner of the Leo Weiner String Quartet Competition in Budapest, through hundreds of performances in Europe and the United States, as well as through radio broadcasts and recordings.
Violinist Yuri Mazurkevich, a pupil of the legendary David Oistrakh and a winner of international violin competitions in Helsinki, Munich and Montreal, joined the Leontovych as its first violinist after the group’s emigration in 1991. Mazurkevich is currently professor of violin and chairs the string department at Boston University.
Yuri Kharenko, the Leontovych’s second violinist, has been a member of the group since 1983. He graduated from the Lysenko Special Music School, the Kiev Conservatory and was winner of the Outstanding Artist of the Ukraine.
Borys Deviatov studied viola at the Vorutka Music School and at the Cherkassy Music School in Ukraine and later at the Lvov Conservatory. He has toured extensively as a solo violist and as a conductor. Deviatov joined the Leontovych Quartet in 1990.
The works on the Leontovych Quartet’s program Sunday include Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 95 (“Serioso”), Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 14, Borodin’s Quartet No. 2 and the Partita No. 3 for String Quartet by the contemporary Russian composer Myroslav Skoryk. xxxx LEONTOVYCH STRING QUARTET Location and time: The Met, Sunday, 3 p.m. Tickets: $12 ($10 for seniors and students) available at Hoffman Music, Street Music and G&B outlets