Virtuoso violinist returns to solo with QCSO

Like for many of us, life has changed so much for the virtuoso violinist Bella Hristova since she was the spotlight soloist with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra in November 2017.

Then, the acclaimed native of Bulgaria (she’s now 37) performed a violin concerto written for her by her husband, David Serkin Ludwig. That concerto was co-commissioned by eight orchestras across the country, including the QCSO. Hristova came to the QCs already warmly familiar with Mark Russell Smith, QCSO music director and conductor, and fellow alum from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music.

This weekend, she returns to perform the 1948 Dmitri ShostakovichViolin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77, on Saturday night at the Adler Theatre, and Sunday afternoon at Centennial Hall. The QCSO concert will start with the Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F, Op. 90.

Hristova played the Brahms Violin Concerto at Curtis in 2008, conducted by Smith.

“I felt we had a shared musical understanding — of course the Brahms concerto was very different than David’s piece and I thought that was he did a fantastic job with David’s piece and I loved our interpretation on that,” Hristova said recently. “So now to do the Shostakovich, which is another sort of bread-and-butter piece of the violin repertoire I’m really excited for.”

“I feel really comfortable on stage with Mark,” she said. “What I mean by bread and butter is, it’s one of the great standard by now violin concertos, that’s part of the core repertoire.”

For a 2016 performance of the Shostakovich with the Erie Philharmonic in Pennsylvanian (hear her play an excerpt HERE), Hristova wrote:

“The Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 is a very haunting and emotionally powerful piece.” The finale is “thrilling, never letting up on its relentless character all the way up to the end. The Shostakovich 1st Violin Concerto is truly one of my favorite pieces to listen to and to perform,” she said then.

It’s pretty common for soloists to feature a different solo piece in each concert on tour, but this month is a little crazy, the violinist said.

“I have four different concertos in five weeks,” Hristova said. “I can do it people do it. It’s not the most relaxing I suppose because I’ve had to be very organized. Like I practiced all four of these concertos back in the fall, when I had a few weeks off.”

Enjoying being back on tour

Hristova is the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and she’s won numerous awards including First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, and is a Laureate of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

After graduating from Curtis in 2008, Hristova earned her Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University in 2010. She plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner.

Like most performers, her career was sidetracked by COVID cancellations in 2020-2021.

Hristova’s first live performance back was in March 2021, for the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, a chamber concert with two violins and piano, with an audience of about 90 (everyone masked, including musicians).

“It was such a moving performance because people were coming out after over a year that you had played in front of people,” Hristova said recently. “For me, just being in the same room as people and people also taking a risk with their health and being there, it was very early with vaccines then, so it was very meaningful.”

Her first full orchestral concert back was in the fall of 2021.

“Each concert is meaningful. But I think we’ve all sort of realized how close we came to losing live performances and I think the audiences are really excited to be in the hall and for us on the stage, you feel that energy in the in the audience,” Hristova said.

“I don’t wanna say that the concerts before the pandemic were not meaningful, but I think there’s a new sense of appreciation for what we do and it’s just a pleasure to be able to play for people,” she said.

Big career move to Big Apple

Ludwig and Hristova met at the historic Marlboro Music Festival in 2010 (a coveted chamber music retreat in Vermont), when he was composer-in-residence.

Ludwig holds degrees from Oberlin, The Manhattan School, Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, and the University of Pennsylvania. He was the director of the composition faculty of Curtis in Philadelphia, from which Hristova graduated in 2008.

Ludwig’s grandfather was the legendary pianist Rudolf Serkin, who co-founded the Marlboro Music Festival and was artistic director until his death in 1991.

Ludwig (whose uncle is the famed pianist Peter Serkin) became dean and director of the prestigious Juilliard School’s Music Division in June 2021, in New York City.

Hristova also loves doing chamber music, which she said informs all her playing.

“Even when I play with orchestra, I think of that is just very large-scale chamber music. It just means that you’re playing with others and you’re listening and that’s what we should all be doing on stage in an orchestra concert too.”

To learn more about the violinist, click HERE. To reserve tickets for the QCSO concerts, click HERE.