BACHANALIA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

 

NINA BEILINA

Violinist, Founder

EMIL ISRAEL CHudnovsky

Violinist, Artistic Director

 

“[Headline] Cheers for Chudnovsky…Saturday's IPO concert may be remembered as the night Emil Chudnovsky came to town…to say he was soloist would be to miss the point. Chudnovsky was the center of the music…The flamboyant cadenza by itself was worth the price of admission…a wonderful performance…a sublime, almost erotic sound.”

The Star Newspapers (2004)

Chicago, Illinois

EMIL ISRAEL CHUDNOVSKY hearkens back to the grand romantic tradition of the golden age of violinists. His lush sound and inimitable ability to connect with audiences have garnered him accolades from listeners, presenters and critics alike. Recent seasons have been full of firsts, including his debut this season at the Seoul Arts Center in South Korea with the KammerSymphonie Berlin, and his recent inaugural recording with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Equally notable benchmarks include Chudnovsky’s debut with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco in Mexico, when he replaced an indisposed soloist for a previously unknown concerto on ten days’ notice. Other recent appearances included Chudnovsky’s recital debut in Auckland, New Zealand, and concert debuts with the Manassas Symphony, Macon Symphony, the Palm Beach Symphony and the Orquesta de la Ciudad de los Reyes in Lima, Peru. On radio, Chudnovsky has been featured on NPR’s “Performance Today”, Boston’s WGBH and the UK’s BBC3. His chamber music activity has also been intense, with repeated festival appearances at the famed Newport Music Festival and at Germany’s Henselt Festival, as well as concerts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, New York’s Merkin Hall and London’s Wigmore Hall.

A veteran of the competition circuit, Chudnovsky is the winner of top prizes from nine international competitions. He holds 1st Prize from the XI International Curci Violin Competition (Naples), 1st Prize from the Young Artists Competition of the National Federation of Music Clubs and, most recently, 1st prize from the Valsesia-Musica International Violin Competition (Milan). Twice a laureate of the “Premio Paganini” International Competition, he also holds 2nd Prize from the D’Angelo International Competition, as well as awards from the Rodolfo Lipizer, Szeryng and Enescu international competitions.

Chudnovsky has performed in Great Britain, Italy, Israel, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. In the United States, he has played recitals and concerts with orchestra in Washington DC, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, New York, South Dakota, Maryland, California and Florida, including multiple appearances at Carnegie Recital Hall, and a debut at the Encore Summer Festival in Ohio that gave him the unique distinction of being the only non-CIM student or alumnus invited to appear on the Festival’s Blue Ribbon series.

Releasing his first solo album, “So, What Have You Done Lately?” in 2000, Chudnovsky followed it in 2002 with a live concert recording of the Bruch and Saint-Saens #3 violin concerti. His third CD – “The Golden Age” (JB Records) – was released in 2005, making him the first American violinist to record in China for a Chinese label. As a frequent soloist with the Israeli chamber orchestra "The King David String Ensemble," Chudnovsky has also toured in Belgium, Turkey, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Burma, and Japan.

Chudnovsky began concertizing at the age of eleven with a solo performance on Uruguayan television and in concert with the Montevideo Chamber Orchestra. The same year, he was featured in a series of live radio broadcasts from the Mostly Mozart Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa. Since then, Chudnovsky has performed to great critical acclaim all over the world, having toured extensively in Europe, Asia, North and South America.

Emil Chudnovsky was born in Moscow, Russia to renowned violinist Nina Beilina and the late eminent opera conductor, Maestro Israel Chudnovsky. After immigrating to the United States, Chudnovsky began violin studies at the Mannes College of Music pre-college division. Having studied at The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music, he holds degrees from the Mannes College of Music and Yale University.

Chudnovsky plays on a copy of the ex-Joachim del Gesu made for him in July 2010 by Howard Needham.

 

 

 

                       David Winkler

                                                                   Composer, Executive Director

 

 

New York composer David Winkler has composed over 200 works for orchestras and ensembles worldwide. He has received a Martha Argerich Project Commission, Leonard Bernstein Composer Fellowship, and additional commissions from I Musici di Parma, the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, Aspen Music Festival, The Verbania Arts Center, New York Philharmonic Ensembles, Il Suoni Dal Golfo Music Festival, a BMI Young Composer Award and a special ASCAP award, etc, etc. 

 

Recent commissions in 2019 included his 4th Symphony premiered at the Suoni Dal Golfo Music Festival in Lerici, Italy; a new work for Organ and Orchestra for an August 2020 premiere at the Ocean Grove Music Festival (New Jersey), his “Lyric Preludes for Strings” premiered in February 2019 in Lugano, SW by I Musici di Parma under the direction of Enrico Fagone, and Rhapsodies for Violin and Orchestra premiered in July by the Sinfonica de Cuenca, in Ecuador. The new Ballet, Alice in Wonderland, commissioned by the Axelrod Arts Center was premiered to excellent reviews in August 2019.

 

David Winkler has been composer in residence with the Vahktang Jordania International Conducting Competition, Aspen Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Suoni dal Golfo Music Festival, Opera/Omaha the Chautauqua Opera, Verbania Arts Centre and the Lincoln Center Institute.

 

Other recent premieres include his symphonic, Concert Prelude No. 3 by the Karoly Vary Symphony, Prague, Czech Republic, String Quartet No. 4 by the Amernet String Quartet, and the Piano Quintet for the Martha Argerich Project/Lugano Festival, the orchestral Concert Prelude No. 2 for the Philadelphia International Music Festival and the Symphonic Overture "Forza Vita" for the International Beethoven Festival-Chicago, Illinois:

 

Prior premieres include those by  United Strings of Europe, The Paris Chamber Orchestra (Dubai, Sharzah, South Korea), The National Symphony of the Ukraine; The Symphony Un Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina; National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia, The Korean Broadcasting System, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Queen's Chamber Band (NYC) , Houston Grand Opera, Kharkov Philharmonic (Ukraine) as well as commissions from The Alabama Symphony (Birmingham, AL), Long Island Mozart Festival (NY, USA), The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts National Symphony, and the Aspen Music Festival.

His works have been recorded on Naxos International including the “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra” and “Elements Concerti” and on Crystal Records, “Warhol Appassionata”. His theatrical works include the recent one-act opera, "Pullman Car Hiawatha" based on the play by Thornton Wilder and the two new ballets, “The Little Prince Ballet” (Two Acts) based on the famous book by Antoine de St. Exupery and Alice and Wonderland (Two Acts) based on the iconic book of Lewis Carroll.

 

He has also received a fellowship grant by the New York Foundation for the Arts (2001)to support the creation of a variety of new symphonic works; and a commission grant by the New York State Council on the Arts for choral music.

David Winkler has served as the Executive and Artistic Director of Chamber Players International (chamberplayersinternational.org) since 1998 and also currently serves as Executive Director of the Long Island Concert Orchestra (LIconcertorchestra.org). He is also noted in IMDb for his film score for the award wining dramatic short"The Waltz", directed by Trevor Zhou. And has also collaborated with world renowned photographer Robert Dutesco by scoring the original music to Mr. Dutesco's film/video “Universality”