Violin Odyssey Itamar Zorman, Ieva Jokubaviciute, Kwan Yi

• Grażyna Bacewicz (1909 - 1969): Oberek No. 1:
• 1 Bacewicz: Oberek No. 1 01:43
• Moshe Zorman (b. 1952): Wanderings:
• 2 Zorman: Wanderings 02:17
• Joseph Achron (1886 - 1943): Kindersuite, Op. 57:
• 3 Achron: Kindersuite, Op. 57: II. Jumping with Tongue Out (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Jascha Heifetz) 01:19
• 4 Achron: Kindersuite, Op. 57: XI. Sleep, My Puppy (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Jascha Heifetz) 01:00
• 5 Achron: Kindersuite, Op. 57: XII. Birdies (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Jascha Heifetz) 01:45
• 6 Achron: Kindersuite, Op. 57: X. March of Toys (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Jascha Heifetz) 01:26
• 7 Achron: Kindersuite, Op. 57: IV. Mamma, Tell a Fairy Tale (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Jascha Heifetz) 01:33
• 8 Achron: Kindersuite, Op. 57: VIII. The Top (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Jascha Heifetz) 01:02
• 9 Achron: Kindersuite, Op. 57: XVIII. The Caravan (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Jascha Heifetz) 01:12
• 10 Achron: Kindersuite, Op. 57: XX. Parade with Presents (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Jascha Heifetz) 01:45
• Dora Pejačević (1885 - 1923): Violin Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 43:
• 11 Pejačević: Violin Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 43: I. Allegro con anima 06:22
• 12 Pejačević: Violin Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 43: II. Adagio 05:44
• 13 Pejačević: Violin Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 43: III. Allegro molto vivace 04:54
• Silvestre Revueltas (1899 - 1940): El afilador, R. 13 (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Anonymous):
• 14 Revueltas: El afilador, R. 13 (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Anonymous) 02:31
• 15 Revueltas: Tierra pa' las macetas, R. 6 02:13
• Ali Osman (1958 - 2017): Afromood:
• 16 Osman: Afromood 05:37
• Gao Ping (b. 1970): Questioning the Mountains:
• 17 Ping: Questioning the Mountains 06:52
• Gareth Farr (b. 1968): Wakatipu:
• 18 Farr: Wakatipu 05:19
• Erwin Schulhoff (1894 - 1942): Violin Sonata No. 2, WV 91:
• 19 Schulhoff: Violin Sonata No. 2, WV 91: I. Allegro impetuoso 07:01
• 20 Schulhoff: Violin Sonata No. 2, WV 91: II. Andante 04:18
• 21 Schulhoff: Violin Sonata No. 2, WV 91: III. Burlesca. Allegretto 02:24
• 22 Schulhoff: Violin Sonata No. 2, WV 91: IV. Finale. Allegro risoluto 03:37
• William Grant Still (1894 - 1942): Three Visions:
• 23 Still: Three Visions: II. Summerland (Version for Violin & Piano) 03:57
• Total Runtime 01:15:51

Info for Violin Odyssey

Violin Odyssey is the result of my lifelong interest in expanding the violin repertoire, combined with the specific conditions of 2020. Not being able to travel, I started an online series called Hidden Gems, focusing on lesser known repertoire from all over the world. I chose pieces in whose artistic merit I believed strongly, and thought that they deserved to be better known. The broadcast combined a live performance of the piece in question, together with a discussion with an expert in that repertoire. I was speaking “on air” with people from around the world, from China, to Croatia and Mexico, thus allowing me to keep at least a bit of my usual “globetrotting” self, without boarding on a plane. While the repertoire and the experts were global, my musical collaborators had to be local. Thankfully, I was lucky to have such wonderful pianists and friends as Ieva Jokubaviciute and Kwan Yi living within a driving distance away, not to mention my wife, pianist Liza Stepanova, who played with me in the earlier broadcasts. While at first I was streaming from my house in Athens GA, later on the project also helped me become familiar with other musical institutions around where we live, such as the Charlotte Steinway Gallery, or the Sigal Music Museum in Greenville SC, where we recorded some of the later broadcasts.

After nearly half a year, I had at my fingertips 10 pieces, which I thought could be the foundation for an interesting and unusual album. I particularly enjoyed the number 10 under these particular circumstances, because of the association with Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, where 10 people flee the plague to tell ten stories for ten days. The wide geographical origins of the repertoire on the album (Israel, Croatia, China, Poland, New Zealand, Mexico, USA, Sudan, Czech-Republic and Russia), as well as noticeable stylistic variety, were the origins of the name “Violin Odyssey” - a journey within the violin literature.

Two larger works set the framework of the album - Dora Pejacevic’s Slavonic Sonata and Erwin Schulhoff’s Second Sonata for Violin and Piano. These are two particularly dramatic works, and it made sense to add shorter pieces around them. The shorter pieces all have evocative titles, perhaps like little adventures and encounters on the traveler’s route.

Moshe Zorman’s Wandering sets the scene for the journey.

Joseph’s Achron’s Children’s Suite is a collection of miniature “Scenes from childhood”, from a March of Toys to Birdies chirping. Il Afilador and Tierra p’a las macetas by Silvestre Revueltas are encounters with street vendors in Mexico, in which one hears their cries as well as the sharpening wheel.

Grazyna Bacewicz’s Oberek no. 1 is an exhilarating fast Polish folk dance.

Gao Ping’s Questioning the Mountains ponders over a Szechuan song over the tragic circumstances of an earthquake. Ali Osman’s Afromood combines African rhythms with Jazz influences to produce a humor-filled dance

Gareth Farr’s Wakatipu is inspired by an old Maori folk tale about lake Wakatipu rising and receding. William Grant Still’s Summerland is a vision of of beauty in the afterlife.

I am so thankful to David Murphy and First Hand Records for taking on this project, as well as producer Judith Sherman, who guided us through this vast amount of repertoire with assurance, patience and plenty of good suggestions. I would especially like to thank the two pianists on the album, Ieva Jokubaviciute and Kwan Yi (and special guest, percussionist Julia Thompson), for embarking on this unusual journey with me.

Itamar Zorman, violin
Kwan Yi, piano
Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano

Itamar Zorman
is one of the most soulful, evocative artists of his generation, distinguished by his emotionally gripping performances and gift for musical storytelling. Since his emergence with the top prize at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, he has wowed audiences all over the world with breathtaking style, causing one critic to declare him a “young badass who’s not afraid of anything.” His “youthful intensity” and “achingly beautiful” sound shine through in every performance, earning him the title of the “virtuoso of emotions.

Awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award for 2014, violinist Itamar Zorman is the winner of the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia.

Mr. Zorman has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the Mariinsky Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, KBS Symphony Seoul, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, German Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Kremerata Baltica, RTE National Symphony Orchestra (Dublin) and American Symphony. He has worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson-Thomas, David Robertson, Valery Gergiev, James DePreist, Karina Canellakis, Yuri Bashmet, and Nathalie Stuztmann. Mr. Zorman has performed around the world in halls such as Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Zurich Tonhalle, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, and Teatro Massimo Palermo. As a recitalist he performed at Carnegie Hall's Distinctive Debut series, Wigmore Hall, People's Symphony Concerts, Merkin Hall, the Louvre Museum, Suntory Hall Laeiszhalle Hamburg and HR-Sendesaal Frankfurt.

Mr. Zorman was invited to the Verbier, Marlboro, Rheingau, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brevard, Classical Tahoe, MITO SettembreMusica, and Radio France Festivals. He has also collaborated with a number of legendary artists such as Richard Goode (including performances at Carnegie Hall and Library of Congress), Mitsuko Uchida, Steven Isserlis and Jörg Widmann.

Mr. Zorman’s latest CD, “Violin Odyssey”, a collection of works for violin from five continents, was released in 2022 by First Hand Records to critical acclaim. As part of an ongoing exploration of the music of Paul Ben-Haim, Mr. Zorman released a CD of the works for violin and orchestra with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Philippe Bach for BIS Records, in April 2019, entitled “Evocation”. His first solo CD recording, entitled “Portrait”, features works by Messiaen, Schubert, Chausson, Hindemith, and Brahms and was released by Profil - Editions Günther Hänssler.

Described as a “poet of the violin”, Itamar Zorman is also a committed chamber player. He is a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project and a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, with which he won the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Grand Prize in the 2011 Coleman Chamber Music Competition, 1st prize in the 2011 Arriaga Competition, and a bronze medal in the 2010 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Born in Tel-Aviv in 1985 to a family of musicians, Itamar Zorman began his violin studies at the age of six with Saly Bockel at the Israeli Conservatory of Music in Tel-Aviv. He graduated in 2003 and continued his studies with Professor David Chen and Nava Milo. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance as a student of Hagai Shaham, and his Master of Music from The Juilliard School in 2009, where he studied with Robert Mann and Sylvia Rosenberg. He then went on to receive an Artist Diploma from Manhattan School of Music in 2010 and an Artist Diploma from Julliard in 2012 under the tutelage of Sylvia Rosenberg, and he is an alumnus of the Kronberg Academy where he studied with Christian Tetzlaff and Mauricio Fuks. He is also the recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and has taken part in numerous master classes around the world, working with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Shlomo Mintz, Ida Haendel, and Ivry Gitlis.

Mr. Zorman is currently on faculty at the Eastman School of Music. He plays on a 1734 Guarneri del Gesù, from the collection of Yehuda Zisapel.

Booklet for Violin Odyssey