Baruch Berliner’s Violin Concertos to Be Performed at the 11th Kogan Festival

On November 10 and 12, the Honored Artist of Russia, violinist Graf Mourja, will perform two violin concertos by Baruch Berliner at the 11th Kogan Festival in Yaroslavl—an annual tribute to the renowned violinist Leonid Kogan. Since its inception in 2014, the event has evolved into the Yaroslavl region’s principal cultural and musical identity.

On November 10, Mourja, accompanied by the Yaroslavl Governor’s Academic Symphony Orchestra, will perform Fantasia Concertante №2 for violin and orchestra, a piece inspired by Dr. Berliner’s symphonic poem The Binding of Isaac.

On November 12, Mr. Mourja and the distinguished pianist Pavel Dombrovsky will present the Jacob’s Dream sonata-fantasy for violin and piano.

Mr. Mourja, a violinist of Russian-Hungarian descent, is a brilliant, gifted, and original performer. At the age of 16, he distinguished himself in two prestigious international competitions—the Premio Paganini in Genoa (1990) and the Vianna da Motta International Music Competition in Lisbon (1991), where he received a special prize for his performance of the chaconne from Béla Bartók’s sonata for solo violin. Mr. Murzha graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and completed his doctoral studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with the highest grades in the history of the institution. He also received a prize from the Hattori Foundation in London for outstanding academic achievements. Since 1990, Mr. Murzha has given solo recitals and collaborated as a soloist with symphony orchestras, esteemed conductors, and renowned musicians throughout Russia and Europe, performing at prestigious concert venues. An Associate Professor at the Moscow Conservatory, he conducts master classes in the UK, France, Russia, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The internationally acclaimed violinist has served on the panels of judges for Russian and international competitions since 2005.

Pianist Pavel Dombrovsky graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he started under Prof. Lev Naumov, and completed his postgraduate studies at the Moscow Conservatory under the guidance of Professor Andrei Diev in 2006. Mr. Dombrovsky is an associate professor of the Department of Solo Piano Performance at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. He is a laureate of the 4th International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz (Kyiv, 2001, Second Prize), the 5th Sabitov Open Competition for Performing Musicians (Ufa, 2002, First Prize), and the Marguerite Long–Jacques Thibaud International Competition (Paris, 2004), as well as a diploma winner of the 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, 2002).
He has performed in Russia, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Poland, France, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan.

The Yaroslavl Governor’s Academic Symphony Orchestra, one of Russia’s oldest and most esteemed ensembles, was founded in 1944 by Alexander Yefimovich Umansky, who had been teaching at the Yaroslavl Music College since 1939.

Pianists Alexander Goldenweiser, Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter, Yakov Zak, Lev Oborin, Nikolai Petrov, Vladimir Krainev, and Alexei Talanov; violinists David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Igor Oistrakh, and Gidon Kremer; cellists Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniil Shafran, and Natalia Shakhovskaya; and vocalists Irina Arkhipova, Galina Vishnevskaya, Elena Obraztsova, and Alexander Vedernikov have performed with the orchestra.

In 1996, the orchestra was granted the title of “Governor’s,” and in 1999, it received the designation of “Academic.”