Eugene Gratovich
Eugene Gratovich, Associate Professor of Violin/Chamber Music, made his successful debut in London’s Wigmore Hall in 1974 and in Carnegie Hall in l976. He has appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony among others.
He also performs as a member of the Gratovich-Golmon Duo. The Duo has performed extensively in the US including in New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Los Angels, San Francisco, and throughout Europe including London, Amsterdam, Cologne, Milan, Ljubljana, among others and throughout Latin America. The Duo has recently released a CD “Music of Spain and Italy” on Wildwood Productions.
Eugene Gratovich studied with some of the greatest performers of the 20th century including the late Jascha Heifetz, Max Rostal, and Roman Totenberg. They were all child prodigies and Gratovich observed the ease and comfort of their exquisite performances. Gratovich also studied with renowned violin pedagogues including Ivan Galamian, Paul Rolland, Raphael Bronstein. These master teachers had the ability to explain the intricacies of violin technique and coordination. It is this combination of ease, comfort, and confidence that guides the teaching philosophy Eugene Gratovich in his violin studio at The University of Texas at Austin. He has also consulted with David Oistrakh to better understand the so-called “New Russian Violin School,” of Odessa, Ukraine, and with George Neikrug to study the teachings of D.C. Dounis. Dr. Gratovich was invited to the Odessa Conservatory and to the Staliarsky Special Music School to observe violin teaching in Ukraine and to listen to their students. His violin studio includes students from across the US and from the European Union, Russian Federation, Latin America, and Asia. He stays in touch with his current and former students through his webpage (Gratovich.com) and through his blog offering both professional mentoring and musical suggestions. Students can hear his performances at the Butler School on Youtube.com (Gratovich Nin). His many students enjoy successful careers as soloists under management, principal players of major orchestras, chamber musicians of touring ensembles, and professors across the world. Eugene Gratovich performs both the standard classical repertory and contemporary music. As a performer of contemporary music, Eugene Gratovich has performed with many celebrated composers including Aaron Copland, Ralph Shapey, John Cage, George Flynn, Virko Baley, and Sidney Knowlton among others. Many composers have written solo and chamber compositions for him.
He has presented world-premier performances of these compositions at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Wigmore Hall among others. He has commissioned 16 original etudes, funded by the American String Teacher Assoc., which he recorded on “20th Century Concert Etudes for Solo Violin” with Titanic Records (Ti-199), funded by The National Endowment for the Arts. This recording is available online. He has served as concertmaster for the San Jose (CA) Symphony Orchestra, San Gabriel (CA) Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, and Acting Concertmaster of the Austin Symphony Orchestra and the Austin Lyric Opera Orchestra. He has toured extensively with the Boston “Pops” Orchestra under the late Arthur Fiedler, John Williams, the late Erich Kunzel, among others. He has also worked with legendary conductors including Gunther Wand, Istvan Kertez, Sara Caldwell, Richard Burgin, George Cleve, among others. An active chamber musician, he was the founding member of “The Chicago Soundings Ensemble,” the Esterhazy String Quartet, and the Arcturis String Quartet. He has also performed with the Boston New Festival Quartet. A published author, he is a leading authority on the violin sonatas of Charles Ives and has contributed to the book, “An Ives Celebration.” He has written articles for The Strad Magazine, American Teacher, American String Teacher, Instrumentalist, among other publications. His article on the violin music of J.S. Bach has appeared in the journal, “International Violin Symposium,” (Gorizia, Italy). Gratovich has taught on the faculties of Cleveland Institute of Music (Head of Graduate Violin Department), DePaul University School of Music (Head of the String Dept.) University of California, San Diego, San Francisco State University, University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Summer), and currently at The University of Texas at Austin-Butler School of Music. In the summers, he has been invited to participate in music festivals in California (Strawberry Creek, Batequitos, Mendocino), Maine (Kneisel Hall, Down East), in Europe in St.Petersburg, Portugal, Germany, Spain, and in Italy.
Eugene Gratovich received his musical education at the Boston Conservatory with Frank Kneisel, his B.M. degree from Boston University School of Music, Master of Music from the University of Illinois-Urbana, and his Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University. He also holds an Artist Diploma from the Cologne Hochschule of Musik and a Post-Doctorate Certificate from USC-Los Angeles.
Born in Ukraine during the Second World War, his family emigrated to the U.S. with the help of the Tolstoy Foundation. He was able to continue his musical studies with the financial help from the Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra Music Talent Fellowship. He won numerous music competitions and appeared on national and local television.
He has recorded “Sonatas of Arthur Foote and J.A.Carpenter for Orion, “Music of Cage, Ives, Messiaen, and Flynn” for Atlantic, “Romantic Violin from Ukraine,” for Yevshan, “Music of Respighi and Nin” for Musical Heritage, “20TH CENTURY VIOLIN ETUDES FOR SOLO VIOLIN, on Titanic, “20th CENTURY UKRAINIAN VIOLIN MUSIC,” on Orion. He is currently recording music by Willaim Grant Still and by Henry Burleigh. He has been awarded the Fulbright Grant, the National Endowment Grant, and the Ducleux Grant at UT. In celebrating the 300 anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg in Russia, Dr. Gratovich was invited to present a Lecture-Recital on Jascha Heifetz in the same studio where Heifetz studied with Leopold Auer. To celebrate the US Bicentennial, Eugene Gratovich was invited to play a program of American music at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. This special program ended with a performance of “At the River,” by Charles Ives. Dr.Gratovich has adjudicated national and international violin competitions.
He serves on the board of the Jascha Heifetz Society and is the Vice-President of the Macfarlane Music Foundation. He has been invited to serve as a nominator for the MacArthur Foundation in awarding the “Genius” awards. His studio is always open to interested students for further musical growth and for professional advising.