Leonid Hrabovsky: A 90th Anniversary Celebration A Concert Featuring the Music of the Composer

Program:

Keepsake for Elissa (1988)
Forrest Eimold, piano

Trio for violin, double bass and piano (1964)
Andrii Didorenko, violin
Marguerite Cox, bass
Pavlo Gintov, piano

Hlas 1 (1990)
Clara Cho, cello

EQVIN (2019)
Alexander Yakub, violin
Forrest Eimold, piano

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Leonid Hrabovsky (b. 1935) is a Ukrainian composer, laureate of the Boris Lyatoshynsky Prize (1993), and Honorary Professor of the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy (2010). He is the author of Four Ukrainian Songs, four Homeomorphies, the melodrama La Mer for narrator, mixed choir, and large symphony orchestra on texts by the French poet Saint-John Perse, the symphony-legend Evening on Ivan Kupalo, the symphonic poem Vorzel in memory of B. Lyatoshynsky, and many other compositions. Using a wide range of modern compositional techniques developed in the 20th century, he created his own system and method of algorithmic composition. After many years of work, he completed the computerization of this method and returned to active composing. Since 2016, he has written 12 Two-Voice Inventions for harpsichord, Tetragon, ARRY, EQVIN, and STR-O(r)GAN for organ. While living and working in the U.S. since 1990, Hrabovsky has maintained a close relationship with the musical life of independent Ukraine, arranging lectures, talks, and creative meetings. His works have been performed at numerous events in Ukraine, the U.S., Europe, and both North and South America. This year, a festival celebrating the 90th anniversaries of three composers—Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, and Leonid Hrabovsky—is planned in the city of Bonn.

Forest Eimold, piano

New York-based composer-keyboardist Forrest Eimold (b. 1999) has been hailed as “incredible” and “fearless” by The Boston Musical Intelligencer, “extremely impressive” by Harmonie, and as having “ably responded to the many virtuosic demands” of today’s compositional vanguard by The Washington Post. Forrest’s compositional honors include the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts from Columbia University, a Density Labs Fellowship from the Juilliard School, a Blueprint Fellowship from National Sawdust, and multiple awards from the National YoungArts Foundation. A publication of Forrest’s organ transcription of Gerald Barry’s Chevaux-de-frise is forthcoming from Schott Music. Having graduated in 2022 from the dual program between the Juilliard School and Columbia University, Forrest currently studies composition at the Yale School of Music. Having served as Music and Organ Scholar at Trinity Church Wall Street (2018–22), he now works as Staff Pianist at the Juilliard School (2021–present).

Clara Cho, cello

Clara Cho is a Korean cellist based in New York City. She collaborates closely with living composers including Reiko Füting, Ashkan Behzadi, and Samuel Torres to contribute to the development of emerging repertoire. As she seeks to integrate diverse forms of art with her performance beyond the boundaries of classical and contemporary music, Clara has also collaborated with rising jazz musicians, choreographers, visual artists, and fashion designers including Miro Magloire (New Chamber Ballet, Columbia Ballet Collaborative), Christian McGhee, Emmanuel Michael, Nicola Caminiti, Jahari Stampley, Jingu Jun (“The Last Garment”, fashion brand), Youngsu Jo on various projects. Recently, she was featured on Reiko Füting’s latest album “distant: violin. sound”, as a part of the ensemble, Noise Catalogue. Clara holds BM, MM, and PS degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied under Julia Lichten and Philippe Muller. Her upcoming performances include a Contemporary Chamber Music Concert on May 19th at St. John’s in the Village, and a Noise Catalogue concert featuring George Crumb’s Black Angels on May 31st at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

Andrii Didorenko, violin

A New York-based violinist and composer Andrii Didorenko was born in Dnipro, Ukraine, to a family of professional violinists. He took his first violin lessons with his parents and made his debut with an orchestra at the age of 10. He earned his graduate and postgraduate degrees from Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and appeared as a soloist with Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Moscow Camerata Chamber Orchestra. From 1999 to 2004, Andrii lived in Taiwan where he taught, performed, and debuted as a composer. Since moving to New York in 2006, he has performed regularly as a soloist and chamber. Andrii is also a leader of a contemporary rock fusion ensemble, Lost World Band, which has released several critically acclaimed albums. Since the start of the war, he has written several pieces inspired by Ukrainian folk music and participated in many fundraising events to aid Ukraine.

Marguerite Cox, bass

Marguerite Cox is a double bassist from Northeast Ohio, currently a fellow in Carnegie Hall’s renowned Ensemble Connect program. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music—where she was the first person to earn a master’s degree in double bass performance—and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she also earned a minor in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities.A versatile musician, Marguerite’s work spans classical, experimental, folk, and improvised traditions. She performs regularly with ensembles such as A Far Cry, Palaver Strings, New Canaan Chamber Music, and Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. Recent highlights include appearances with the Baltimore and Charleston Symphonies, and solo recitals presented by Illuminate Women’s Music, Summer Strings Academy for Girls, and the Cincinnati Bass Club’s 2025 tribute to François Rabbath.Marguerite is a dedicated advocate for new and experimental music. She has premiered works by Nick Dunston, Matt Aucoin, and Ted Babcock; performed at the ensemble mise-en festival and the Museum of Modern Art; and held creative residencies at Avaloch Farm and Brown University. In 2023, she was a member of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra.She is also a core member of Big Bend, an improvising folk band that has toured nationally with performances at Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), Constellation (Chicago), The 5 Spot (Nashville), and studio collaborations with Grammy-winning producer Shahzad Ismaily. Her improvisation duo, Goal Weight, with violinist Jennifer Gersten, has performed at P.I.T., Cutelab, and Freddy’s Bar.Marguerite has held fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and the Music Academy of the West, and studied with mentors including Edgar Meyer, Paul Ellison, Tim Pitts, Leigh Mesh, and Tracy Rowell.

Pavlo Gintov, piano

Pavlo Gintov has been described as “a poet of the keyboard” by Marty Lash of the Illinois Entertainer, a “musical storyteller” by the Japanese publication Shikoku News, and “a fantastic pianist and extraordinary artist” by Jerry Dubins of the Fanfare Magazine. Following his debut at the Kyiv Philharmonic Hall at the age of 12, Pavlo has been touring throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the United States, appearing at such stages as Carnegie Hall in New York, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Teatro Verdi Nationale in Milan and Kioi Hall in Tokyo. He has been a soloist with Tokyo Royal Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic and Manhattan Chamber Orchestra under such conductors as Michiyoshi Inoue, Victor Yampolsky, Thomas Sanderling, Volodymyr Sirenko and Tomomi Nishimoto.

Alexander Yakub, violin

Alexander “Sasha” Yakub received a graduate diploma in violin performance in 2024 as the first student of Leila Josefowicz at the Mannes School of Music on a full scholarship, where he also completed his masters as a President’s Scholar under Miranda Cuckson in 2022. Sasha holds a bachelors in music from Harvard, where he received the 2020 Robert Levin Prize in Musical Performance and was a 2019 Harvard Office for the Arts Development Fellow. Sasha was also a 2022-2024 Akademist at the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, 2021 Bang On a Can Summer Festival Fellow, 2020 Yamaha Young Artists Competition honorable mention winner, and a 2017-18 Tanglewood Music Center Violin Fellow, during the second year of which he served as concertmaster for the 2018 Myrios recording of “In Seven Days” by Thomas Adès (Kirill Gerstein, soloist). The eponymous album—containing it—was the 2021 winner of the contemporary category in the International Classical Music Awards. In 2024, he won runner-up at the Mannes School of Music Concerto Competition for his performance of Adès’ Concentric Paths violin concerto. Some of Sasha’s notable public performances include the world premiere of Paul Mortilla’s violin concerto “Animal Brain: ad infinitum perplexus confixium” with New Music New Haven at the Yale School of Music and the performance of “Synchronisms No. 9” at the Harvard Music Department’s memorial concert for Prof. Emeritus Mario Davidovsky. Sasha lives in New York, where he has contracted with Lincoln Center Stage and the American Composers Alliance and serves as concertmaster of the BeComEnsemble.

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