Grigory Sedukh
Over the course of his career, Grigory Sedukh has excelled both as a performer and as a teacher. He plays a unique new-generation violino piccolo, crafted by the violinmaker Dr. Carleen Hutchins (US). Alongside his work with the orchestra of the St. Petersburg State Philharmonia, Mr. Sedukh performs as a soloist with other city’s orchestras, grand piano, and harpsichord.
Rooted in the traditions of Russia’s classical school of violin performance, his teaching philosophy has evolved through close collaborations with eminent educators from the country and beyond—Profs. Zakhar Bron, Yfrah Neaman, and Wolfgang Marschner.
He is also known for his many transcriptions of world classics and pieces by contemporary composers.
Biographical overview
Grigory Sedukh was born on October 9, 1952, in Kharkiv, Ukraine. From 1970 to 1975, he studied at the Kharkiv Conservatory under the guidance of the brilliant violinist and educator Professor Adolf A. Leshchinsky, a student of Carl Flesch. Between 1975 and 1978, he was a doctoral student at the Leningrad Conservatory under the supervision of Prof. Mikhail Belyakov, receiving an assistantship at the institution.
From 1978 to 1980, he served as the concertmaster of the Leningrad Concert Orchestra, continuing his career between 1980 and 1989 with the orchestra of the Kirov Theater of Opera and Ballet (now Mariinsky Theater). Since 1989, he has been a member of the Academic Symphonic Orchestra of the St. Petersburg State Philharmonia, which bears the title of a merited ensemble of Russia. In 1990, as part of a team of specialists, Mr. Sedukh received a copyright certificate (No. 1589312) for the invention of a stand for string instruments of original design. Since 1994, he has taught at the String Quartet Department of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
From 1994 to 1998, Mr. Sedukh was a soloist with St. Petersburg’s Hutchins Violin Octet—an ensemble of unique violins specially crafted by Dr. Hutchins. Since 1997, he has headed the violino piccolo program at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
He participated in a recording of the Violin Octet, which reached the Grammy semi-finals in 1999. His monumental transcriptions of Bach’s cello suites for violino piccolo appeared in September 1997 with the Severny Olen publishing house in St. Petersburg.
Mr. Sedukh’s 1998 tour of the US culminated in the release of a CD titled Grigory Sedukh: Violin Soloist, with the recording Yuletide appearing in St. Petersburg that same year. In 2000, he recorded the CDs Orientale and From Nigun to Operetta. The same year, he performed a special soloist’s part for violino piccolo in Alexander Knaifel’s new opera Alice in Wonderland. The world premiere took place at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam on September 4.
In 2002 and 2003, he participated in the international Gnesin Project, which held concerts in major cities, including Amsterdam, London, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. In 2002, the release of Orientale and From Nigun to Operetta took place in Japan. In 2003, Mr. Sedukh recorded Five Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti for violin and organ, Astor Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango, and Alfred Schnittke’s Suite in Old Style. In 2005, he toured the Netherlands and participated in the First International Symposium of the New Violin Family Association in the US. In 2007, he recorded the Amor CD in Japan. On March 24, 2010, Mr. Sedukh won the Festival Bridges international competition in Vienna in the Multimedia category, where his DVD Glance into Eternity was awarded first place. In May of the same year, he won the Festival Bridges competition in Paris, with his DVD Electric Classics also being awarded first place. He went on a tour of Japan in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022.
Since 2010, Mr. Sedukh has participated in the concerts of the Festival of Russian Art in Japan, one of which was honored with royal presence: on June 21, 2010, Her Majesty Empress Michiko attended the event at the Yamaha Hall in Tokyo. On June 18, 2011, Mr. Sedukh was conferred the title of Specially Appointed Professor by the Tokyo International University.
In 2011, he was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Russian Cultural Professionals’ Trade Union for his substantial contribution to the development of culture.
In March 2015, Grigory and Natalia Sedukhs’ multimedia project Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Russian Painters won the first prize in the Multimedia category at the festival Les Étoiles de Paris 2015 in Rueil-Malmaison, Paris, and the Viva Italia 2014 festival competition in Rimini, Italy. In 2016, Grigory Sedukh and Keiko Kawashima’s multimedia project Prayer for Fukushima won first prize in the Multimedia category at the Cultural Heritage of Vienna festival.
On November 25, 2020, Mr. Sedukh won the international Art Excellence Awards competition. His music video “Sonata No. 4 by Domenico Scarlatti” was honored in the contest, earning him a gold medal. On December 16, 2020, he was elected an honorary member of the International Academy of Contemporary Arts (IACA). On May 15, 2021, Mr. Sedukh won the international Art Excellence Awards competition in the Literature category with his article “The Concept of Music Development in the Third Millennium,” which received the bronze medal. The contribution, published in Vienna in the European Journal of Arts No. 3, 2015, has been translated into English and Portuguese.
On December 30, 2021, he participated in the world’s first classical concert where live musicians performed alongside holograms, appearing as a 3D image. The event was conceived and produced by Mr. Sedukh’s artistic manager Keiko Kawashima, the executive producer of K&Associates International. The concert was held at the Tokyo Youth Olympic Center. On February 11, 2022, Mr. Sedukh was elected a corresponding member of the IACA.
Grigory Sedukh’s violino piccolo
Mr Sedukh’s primary instrument, the violino piccolo, is a unique device crafted in the mid-20th century by the renowned acoustician Dr. Hutchins. The instrument represents the culmination of her 30 years’ research into the stringed instruments created from the 18th to the 21st centuries. Although the dimensions of a violino piccolo are roughly the same as those of a 1/4 size violin, the design is very different. The violino piccolo is crafted with thick top and back plates and large F-holes to achieve a transposed violin sound and ensure that the primary resonances occur at the correct frequencies. The range of the piccolo violin is an octave higher than that of a regular violin. To play in this high range, special 0.178 mm thick E strings are used, which were commissioned by NASA and developed at Bell Laboratories in collaboration with the renowned Super-Sensitive Musical String Company. Since the length of the E string must be sufficient for the player to execute successive semitones with their fingers, the string, tuned to 1320 Hz, must be strong and thin. The material used for this purpose is space-grade carbon rocket wire, whose tensile strength is almost twice that of a conventional violin E string. Yet, this wire is also close to its ultimate tensile strength.
The main feature of this instrument is the unique and novel timbre, masterfully crafted in wood by Dr. Hutchins. The tonal qualities of the piccolo violin ensure the light brilliance of its two upper strings, which can float above an orchestra’s string section like a piccolo flute piercing through the sound of a full symphony orchestra. The two lower strings produce a lush sound that blends well with other instruments.
The new violino piccolo’s versatility in sonic characteristics and superior design make it an aesthetically pleasing instrument suitable for a wide range of music, from Baroque pieces to 21st-century compositions.