Violinist Valeria Vilker Kuchment and bassist John Stovall performed their last concert with the orchestra after 38- and 36-year careers respectively
On 28 July, Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) violinist Valeria Vilker Kuchment and bassist John Stovall performed their last concert with the orchestra after 38- and 36-year careers respectively. On social media, the BSO expressed its gratitude towards the long-standing members: ’We will miss them onstage and wish them the best as they embark on their next adventures!’
Before entering the BSO in 1986, Valeria Vilker Kuchment studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Yuri Yankelevich, after which she joined the faculty at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory College. She was a prizewinner at various competitions, including in Prague and Munich, and performed as a recitalist, soloist and chamber musician throughout the former Soviet Union, Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Italy, and France and with artists such as Gil Shaham, Garrick Ohlsson, and Emanuel Ax.
Vilker Kuchment moved to the US in 1975, promptly becoming a renowned orchestral leader in ensembles throughout the country, such as the Apple Hill Chamber Players, SinfoNova, Harvard Chamber Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, and Boston Philharmonic. She then joined the BSO in the 1986-87 season and has since appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra. She is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, Longy School of Music, Tanglewood Music Center, and Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
Originaly from Wyoming, US, bassist John Stovall studied with Stuart Sankey at the University of Texas, before moving to the New England Conservatory to study with BSO assistant principal bass Lawrence Wolfe, where he received his bachelor’s in 1983. During the summers of 1981 and 1982, he was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, and has also participated in the Grand Teton and Aspen music festivals and the Congress of Strings in Seattle, Washington. Before joining the BSO in 1988, Stovall played with orchestras such as the Houston and New Orleans symphonies and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
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