Borislav Strulev
cello
The Russian musician Borislav Strulev quickly gained a reputation as a cello player of exceptional temperament and technique. Its charm and incredible sound have captivated and captivated audiences on the world's most famous stages ever since its debut at the Kennedy Center in 1993.
The musician's creative biography includes performances with such orchestras as: Detroit Symphony Orchestra, California Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Italian Radio and Television, Cologne Symphony Orchestra, NO Tonkunstler Musical Society Vienna at Musikverein, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, La Laguna Orchestra (Tenerife), Orchestra del Principado de Asturias, NorrlandsOperan Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia. E.F. Svetlanov, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and many others. Notable are his collaborations with famous conductors: A. Leaper, N. Järvi, K. Järvi, M. Hart-Bedoya, S. Veigle, Y. Simonov, P. Kogan, A. Vedernikov, M. Parisotto, M. Gorenstein, Michael Stern, J. Pekhlevanyan, R. Milanov, A. Vit.
Borislav Strulev made his debut as a soloist at Carnegie Hall in 1999, playing with the legendary pianist Baron Janis. Particularly memorable were his performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Kravis Center, Van Wezel Hall, Auditorio de Madrid, Auditorio de Leon, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
As a chamber performer, Strulev has played with Alexander Markovich, Byron Janis, Ilya Itin, Denis Matsuev, Sergei Erokhin, Sergei Dreznin, Misha Maisky, Torleif Thedeen, Alexei Ogrinchuk, Martin Frost, Radovan Vlatkovic, Dmitry Berlinsky, Philip Quint, Julian Rakhlin, Janine Jansen, Lars Anders Tomter and many others. 
Borislav Strulev played the New York premiere of "Svyati" for cello and chamber choir (composer John Tavener) with the Little Orchestra Society and the Orpheon Chorale. With the California Symphony, he performed the American premiere of the suite for cello and string orchestra by the legendary composer Lou Harrison.
He performs a lot in Russia, a regular participant in the Crescendo festival and the Stars on Baikal festival in Irkutsk. A highlight was his performance of John Taverner's "Svyati Boje" during the Day of Slavic writing and culture in Khanty-Mansiysk in front of 30,000 spectators.
The musician's debut recording took place at the French company LYRINX and includes sonatas by Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. The same label also released his debut recording with an orchestra - Arvo Pärt's Pro et Contra concerto, Erkki-Sven Tuur's concerto, and the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder's cello concerto with the Norrlands Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christian Järvi.
As a special guest, he participated in the recording of two crossover projects by Ettore Strata: together with jazz violinist Regina Carter - "Paganini: after a dream" (Verve - Universal); and with the famous mezzo-soprano Denis Graves and the Brazilian jazz pianist Eliane Elias - the Lost Days project (RCA - Red Seal).
The Canadian film "Turbulence" by Luc Besson (composer Simon Cloquet), in which Borislav Strulev performs the leading musical part, received three awards for the best music at the Auxerre International Music and Film Festival and was nominated for the Canadian Film Academy Prize (Genie Award) ) for Best Music from a Motion Picture.
The past year was marked by several bright events in the musician's creative life. He recorded a new soundtrack by composer Simon Cloquet for the French TV channel TF1 for the new film "La Taupe" (directed by Vincenso Marano).
Borislav Strulev is Music Director of the annual Russia Day event in New York and the New Millennium Concert Hall in New York. He took part in the 6th annual Russian Rhapsody concert in London.
He was a special guest at the Oscar Peterson Gala at Carnegie Hall and performed with artists such as Clark Terry, Wynton Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater. He took part and curated a series of concerts "Russian Sundays on Y Street".
Since 2007, he has been collaborating with the popular group "Uma2rmaH"
Currently, the musician is producing the project "Mythodea: Music for the NATO Mission - 2001 Mars Odyssey" by the Oscar-winning composer Vangelis, and also successfully performs his numerous cello works. Most recently, together with the composer Sergei Dreznin, he recorded music for the famous silent film "Gardens des Peches" (directed by Olga Preobrazhenskaya, 1927). The premiere of this project will take place this year on the ARTE TV channel. This year, the musician began to collaborate with Tamara Gvardtseteli in the new show "And God created a woman." Performances are held at the Moscow House of Music, as well as in Russian cities and in New York's Avery Fisher Hall. In addition, created creative union with Evgeny Grishkovets in the form of joint performances and music for his new film Satisfaction. Borislav Strulev was an invited musical guest at the Turandot Theater Award. Borislav Strulev will perform as a special guest with Mariinsky Theater prima ballerina Diana Vishneva in New York. The concert series "Borislav Strulev and friends" has been created, which takes place in New York
Borislav Strulev began playing the cello at the age of 8 and studied at the Central Music School in Moscow. He is the son of professional musicians.
In 1992 he became the winner of the All-Russian Competition for Young Artists in Moscow and a laureate of the New Names International Charitable Foundation. Since 1994 lives in the USA. He plays the cello by the Italian master Luigi Piattellini, Florence (1777) provided to him by Dmitry Gindin.
Borislav Strulev is an active member of the Guild of Financiers. Facilitates contacts between Russian and US financiers. It is no coincidence that Borislav Strulev answered the question about his favorite phrase:
“The more we are willing to give, the more we will receive in return!”
The Guild expresses its gratitude to him for this and believes that artists, gifted with a lively sense of citizenship, can render an invaluable service to the Guild.
Borislav Strulev. Photo - Natalia Toskina
When one of the greatest musicians of our time is on stage, the instrument sounds the way a woman should sound in male hands, because the cello is feminine.
The emotions and temperament of both are so off scale that they have no chance to go unnoticed. The intensity and passion of his performances are able to melt the coldest hearts.
The musician admits that what he does with the cello sometimes shocks him.
On the eve of the VII International Festival BelgorodMusicFest - "Borislav Strulev and friends", which will be held from February 24 to March 3, we will find out how far Borislav Strulev is ready to take musical fantasy.
Tides of classics
- Borislav, two years ago during the anniversary, Fifth Festival. How did the idea come about?
- Once, the manager of the KMAruda plant, Vladimir Kantemirovich Tamaev, suggested after a concert in a friendly conversation: “Is it bad to play for the miners in the mine?” I say "No".
Time passes, they call me and say: “Borislav, will you come?” How?! Where?! What to play?! I thought… Belgorod region, the city of Gubkin, a mine, 340 meters underground. I imagined - low, as in "Batman", multi-ton machines scurry back and forth, miners, and before my eyes everything combines into one visual picture: ore - metal, metal - organ, organ - Bach.
Under concert hall set up a car repair shop. The walls were whitewashed, chairs, tables, tea were arranged ...
The miners came, assuming that something from the popular genre would probably sound, they sat down, and in front of them was me, a cellist with Bach ... I am incredibly happy with the support of Metropolitan John of Starooskol and Belgorod, who also went down with me and was present during my performances at this location.
You have to play if you go to a place where you and this format are allegedly not expected! It is not true that people do not understand anything more than the usual hits. Rostropovich got into the carriage to the driver and went where the train with passengers does not go, and played.
Richter in Siberia went to a remote village, where, except for an off-road vehicle, you can’t get there. For what? To play for the people. And we are obliged to do so. How you treat people, you get such a “return”.
Bach's miners took it lightly and beautifully. They call me again and they are already waiting for new depth. Now the rock is being cut down at a different level - I will perform at a depth of 500 meters. Everyone has their own records.
“Only musicians can afford…to be understood without words.” Photo - from the personal archive - What's this? Bringing up the classics?
- I repeat, music should go to the people. Therefore, thanks to new communication technologies - Skype, Instagram, Facebook and so on, we have to be everywhere - it's not boring.
Once, Liszt, popularizing music, went out into the hall before and after concerts to tell the audience about music and how to listen to it. If there were more people like him in our country, perhaps the classics were instilled at the genetic level, and human hearing would require more Liszt than chanson.
You know, before one of the concerts at Carnegie Hall, I performed at a regular school in New York. In America, many well-known musicians before concerts at a prestigious venue make such “tours-excursions” to school in order to attract the younger generation to serious music. So accepted. This, if you like, is such a proper PR move.
I come - Public school, in the hall there are faces of representatives of all races, the noise-gum-hum does not stop for a minute. I go on stage, sit down at the cello, announce "Rakhmaninov, Vocalise". The hall is silent. Grave silence.
I have 4 minutes. I have to invest, fall in love, attract the attention of the restless and catch the "goldfish" on the hook. And I caught her. They shouted “bravo”, clapped, but the main thing is that later I saw these children together with their parents and teachers at Carnegie Hall.
You see, there are very great musicians, whose personalities simply suck the audience with their name and stardom. But this, of course, requires financial support and, as you can see, the right PR moves.
My friend, conductor Arkady Leytush, and I orchestrated Rachmaninov's sonata and thus created Sergei Vasilyevich's new First Concerto for cello and orchestra. In 100, 200, 300 years, people all over the world will be buying sheet music and playing a cello concerto.
I hope that this year we will present the program in Russia. Unfortunately, as before, interest often first appears in the West, and only after running the program we are called here, they say: “Oh! It's fashionable!" Russia is always going through the ebb and flow of the classics. In this sense, my steps are quixotic windmills: they are often much more important than the work of managers.
Shock is our way
– Can art belong to the people?
- Tell me, but to sit down, like Rostropovich, at the Berlin Wall before it is demolished, and play Bach, is it not to be with the people? Only musicians can afford to express their attitude and be understood without words. I really respect and appreciate any artist who in Russia wants to go to the people with the classics: this is a movement both into the abyss and towards, because it does not fit into the format.
After all, many of us still think: "Classics are only for the elite." Once there was a scrap. For example, the legendary musicians performed in the summer at the Richter Festival in Tarusa with a full house. People rode trains, buses to hear, for example, Hindemith or Berg.
Make someone buy Hindemith or Berg tickets now! He will answer: “Are you laughing?” I can't help but remember how Belza and I flew from Chita to Magadan on a flight half of which were prisoners. And, to my great surprise, they recognized Svyatoslav Igorevich because they watched “Music on the Air”.
So they entered the boxing ring ...
- The concert in the boxing ring is a tribute to the memory of the great ones who have already done this before us. Claude Debussy! He played, and there were fights in the next ring. musical impressionism. But, excuse me, the degree of dedication in boxing is no less than in the cello. For the performance, along with sweat and stress, you lose several kilograms.
But unlike a boxer, there is no trainer behind me, no one is winding me up - gather your brains, hold the brush higher, take it to the left, vibrate more actively, the shoulder is lower, the phrase is brighter ... My trainer is hypothetically a composer who died many years ago.
I can’t imagine how my mother found such words that I, a child, at 9 in the morning, somewhere in Kemerovo, would go out with icy hands to a rehearsal in the hall, and not be afraid, but start creating. In those moments, it all depends on what you say to yourself. If "Winner" - so you will behave on stage. No one will even guess how you got there, how much you didn’t sleep, and what’s in your soul.
- But after such speeches, not accepted in the community of the academic genre, there probably sounds a disapproving reaction?
“You know, everything has its time. Life and books have taught me this. First, there is a discrepancy in opinions, tastes, different degrees of approval, a difference in judgment, a hype rises, which sometimes develops into a kind of scandalousness, and time passes and bam - a genius, and what you do is recognized as a classic.
Here is an example of extremely opposite assessments - the great Daniil Shafran! In my student years, they told me: “Why are you playing like that? This is saffronism!” Time has passed, we have changed and what do we hear now? - "This is a revelation!" There is not a single sound when you are not enchanted, not enveloped in the divine paint of a genius. And it used to be called "bad taste." There are many such examples. I hope that things that sometimes shock me, with time, will come to a different attitude.
Is there anything left to shock?
– No one has ever played a Bach suite on the cello with the sound of an organ. Bach is an organist, he wrote and thought behind the organ. Thanks to “my own”, so to speak, “gadgets” and a Yamaha electric cello, I extract the sound of an organ. Music is changing globally. The problems of supposedly stylistic readings are gone, so to speak, the struggle between metal and gut strings is leveled.
The sound of the organ is coming, but I'm sitting at the cello! All! People are in shock! What is this? People leave the hall in goosebumps! They confess: “We have never heard such a thing.” Such discoveries are a pill for my creativity: it makes it possible to wake up in the morning and do something new.
Billy Joel is visiting
- After 15 years of living in America, you still began to visit Russia more often. So something is changing. Recently Russian National music award nominated you in the category "Best Instrumentalist of the Year". At the Golden Gramophone, you presented the award to Philip Kirkorov.
In 2014, you were entrusted with an honorable mission - to participate in the solemn transfer of the Olympic flame at the Sochi Olympics. Are classical musicians increasingly given the green light in the country?
– Yes, I will never forget the honor of running with the Olympic flame. It was very emotional. Everything is written in the protocol: I took it, lit it, said the words, ran, ran, a photo shoot ... I had eight clothes on. When I looked at myself on television, I thought it was just some kind of bear running (laughs) ... But I really realized some responsibility for hundreds of destinies that will start breaking records: now I carefully keep this torch.
- Why not be like a bear, if the world wants to see us like that?
– You know, no one banned Tchaikovsky, Oistrakh, Rostropovich, Kheifetz… Americans love everything Russian, just like Russians love American things. I'll give you an example. Little do we know that a few years ago a well-known American publishing house released a collection of "Billy Joel: Piano Pieces".
All the fans rushed to buy sheet music along with the disc, and on it is a classic, which he composed together with my friend Richard Hyang-ki Joo, a very popular comedian, pianist, composer. Just one of the pieces - Innamorato - was written by Billy and Richard for cello and piano. I play it with great pleasure.
And if you hear it, you will think that it is Grieg or Chopin, but in fact it sounds like Billy Joel. This is some kind of sensation that will shake the world. And when Richard and I first came to Billy's house, to his incredible mansion, one thing struck me - the only poster that hung over the giant Bösendorfer piano with an extra bass octave was in Russian and signed by Mikhail Gorbachev.
This is a poster of his concerts in Moscow. At dinner, he did not stop talking about Russia. The West lacks daily propaganda of Russian art. A multi-million Russian audience lives in New York, but there is no Russian House. It's good that it exists, for example, in Berlin, but I stand up for "my" New York - I want it to be in Manhattan too.
What a little child
- Is it hard to travel around the world with an instrument? Nobody encroached on the value? Did not try to take away or withdraw?
– There was no such thing, but once during a trip to a festival in Ukraine many years ago, I did not declare a cello. I had a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume collection instrument from the State Collection of Russia. He was, to put it mildly, in poor condition, but I repaired it, groomed it, cherished it.
Dad paid annual insurance, and I traveled around the world with concerts, glorifying Russia. And now the wonderful festival ends, my mother and I (pianist Marina Vladimirovna Struleva - Ed.) we come back, go through passport control, and they say to me: “Where is your declaration for the cello?” And I didn’t even think about it - I only have an official passport for an instrument in my hands, which absolutely did not play any role.
Incomprehensible conversations began, they removed me from the flight, they almost put handcuffs on me with a decision that I want to smuggle an instrument belonging to Ukraine. I have been sitting at the airport for three days, paying fines, and no one can do anything.
I appeal to the Russian consulate - save the "Russian" instrument! The next day, I was brought to the gangway of the plane in a diplomatic car, and until the plane took off, the consul did not leave the gangway a single step. Now, wherever I go, I immediately run to customs to declare the cello, even if this is not required.
And when in 2005 my friend Denis Matsuev invited me to his first festival “Stars on Baikal” and I came to Russia for the first time after many years of living in America, suddenly people from the State Collection appear and say: “Oh, Strulyov has arrived! Until you leave again, you need to confiscate the tool! And they remove it on the eve of the performance. I'm being deprived of my voice.
I called Denis - they say, force majeure: tell me that I broke my arm in the entrance, I can’t perform ... The modern instrument of the Russian master Nikolai Stasov saved me. He had a worthy cello - the winner of the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Masters Competition. I played it and then bought it.
Artists of the ARTCELLO art competition decorate their instruments with such bright inserts. Photo - from the personal archive I will not forget how later, at a meeting of the participants of Denis Matsuev’s “Crescendo” festival, hosted by Vladimir Putin, he said to me: “Borislav, I have never met a cellist who plays Russian music on a modern Russian instrument.” Since then, it has sounded on many stages of the world, surprising music lovers with its origin. Now I have a cello on every continent: I have learned to play different instruments, like a pianist on pianos. But a new generation of electric cello is brewing. The tool is created according to my design - with new unique features. We are working on it now.
- With a cello, I look like with a small child?
- Under 10 kilograms of weight at least ... Plus notes, rosin, strings. Run all 15 kg. Of course, you can't trust anyone with a tool. Only you know how to deal with it. He is like a horse before the start - you won’t let anyone hold the bridle: he will take it wrong and your horse will not run.
And the cello behaves differently everywhere. You come to the Dominican Republic, and there is such humidity that the tree exudes tears: the cello is crying, water flows out of it, the neck drops, it hurts your fingers. And then you fly to the north of Sweden, where at 3 am the sun is blinding.
Not like blood, the cello sound changes, which you chase, which you feel and which lives inside you. The sound is the only thing that makes me sit for hours at the instrument and search, find and try to somehow come to the fact that someone else hears me besides me.
In the world of colors and discoveries
- In what cases can you refuse a concert?
- There is only one criterion - the performance should be interesting. Of course, there are tours, long-planned concerts, but if they ask you to perform at some kind of presentation, and people stand with their backs, eat and want loud music, this is not for Borislav.
– Even if Sting sings on it?
– I remember in Davos, when on stage du Soleil, Super DJ, opera divas from Opéra Bastille sing to my cello solo and Michelin chefs cook while we play, and in the audience presidents, businessmen, royals with glasses of champagne listen, then why not? After all, they are interested in it just as much as we are.
I worked out and created a certain format of new performances. It brought together musicians, mimes, composers, singers with different timbres of voices, ballet dancers who turn the action not into an opera, but into a "concert theater".
The people want this. He was tired of pseudo-modern "half-naked" staged operas. Born into a family of singers, I don't see the cello only in sonata or concert form. Any work for me is a mini-opera.
And it seems that we know operas from beginning to end and how they end, but people have been going to them for hundreds of years - crying in the same place, suffering because of betrayal, waiting for a stab in the back, betrayal, death, because that it should be in the opera.
This year, at my festival, we will present an excerpt from a play that I have shown many times in New York. It is based on Tchaikovsky's music for cello, violin, piano, accompanied by an orchestra. We will revive the era and present the correspondence between Pyotr Ilyich and Madame von Meck - tearful and tragic.
- Why not Yesenin's Ryazan, not Turgenev's Oryol, not Versaev's Tula, but Belgorod?
“This is a city where, after military tank battles, there was blood in the wells instead of water. It is full of dramatic history. 7 years ago, when I was in Belgorod for the first time with a concert and saw the new Philharmonic building with amazing halls where you can arrange exhibitions, master classes, conferences, I immediately accepted an offer from the regional governor.
Who will the viewer see this time?
- During the years of the festival, the great Dmitry Hvorostovsky, the great Elena Vasilievna Obraztsova, who sang almost her last solo concert here, the beloved Viktor Viktorovich Tretyakov, the most powerful basses Vladimir Matorin and Ildar Abdrazakov came to the Belgorod region ...
With Elena Obraztsova at the BelgorodMusicFest. Photo - from the personal archive In the new episode of the "Kanon" program - a special guest from the United States - an outstanding musician, virtuoso cellist Borislav Strulev. Borislav will talk with host Alexander Kruse about his childhood, about musical dynasty, about his relationship with the cello and about the need to promote classical music today. In addition, you can watch excerpts from Borislav Strulev's speeches.
Hello, dear viewers, the Kanon music program is on the air and I, its host Alexander Kruse, greet you! The great English playwright William Shakespeare said: "Music drowns out sadness." Friends, today we definitely have no reason to be sad, because the outstanding cellist Borislav Strulev specially flew to us from the United States of America.
- Borislav, hello!
Borislav Strulev is a Russian-American cellist. Born in 1976 in Moscow, in a family of musicians. Borislav's father is a singer and choir conductor, his mother is a pianist. From the age of eight, Borislav began to study music professionally, rapidly making progress in this direction, and at the age of sixteen he received an invitation to the United States from the American pianist Byron Janis and World Bank President James Wolfensohn to make his debut at the Kennedy Center. After successful performances in America, the musician enters the Manhattan School, having received a full scholarship for education. The name of Borislav Strulev became known to the general public after his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1999.
Today Borislav is a sought-after musician, collaborating with many orchestras around the world, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Italian Radio, the Cologne Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and many others. Borislav is a frequent guest at various music festivals. He himself is the artistic director and ideological inspirer of the BelgorodMusicFest festival. Borislav Strulev is not afraid to experiment, mixing musical styles, playing with sound and a real show on stage, which makes him one of the brightest cellists of our time.
Borislav, you are a world-famous musician, you live in two countries - the USA and Russia. Tell me, where do you feel most comfortable? Where is your home?
I feel comfortable in one place - on the stage, when I am a little covered by my expensive instrument - the cello, and when I do what I love, what I am intended for. And wherever I am, if there is a stage, burning eyes, people who need it, and if I see that there is some kind of exchange - it can be anywhere in the world - this is some kind of feeling at home, hearth.
The business of musicians is to carry the mission with their art. Of course, I, who was born in Moscow, in a family of musicians (all my relatives are singers and vocalists), had to become a singer and vocalist, and I became one, but I do it on the cello. My whole approach to instrumentalism, to playing the cello is a kind of vocalization. For me, the cello is a piece of operatic art. I even came up with something for myself - and other people can hear it on new discs or other projects, of which there are a lot - such a combination: a cello opera, when the cello plays the leading role along with the text, along with some effects : screen with different colors, mystery ...
On the making of the cello. How can it be: here is a stump, and the great master takes it. Stradivarius is the man who once made the cello to size so amazingly brilliant that it became more of a solo instrument and nothing has changed in it so far. How many already! Already the sixth iPhone, where everything works at the touch of a finger. Everything has changed: cars, buildings, houses, but the cello and violin are still the same size. As there was a bow - a hair from a horse in a cane - so it remained. People try to copy these tools, but...
Let's get back to the show. What is opera? This is history. People want to come and listen to the story. We have seen "Eugene Onegin", "Tosca", "Aida" a thousand times. Everyone knows what an opera is, what a libretto is, what it is about, but for many, many hundreds of years people have been going to the same thing. Why? Because they want to see how this or that artist hits this note, to be in this story, to listen to music. What is an opera libretto? These are the most touching, tender, militant, terrible, maybe even in some way, life lessons, stages. No wonder the great composers took certain stories for him.
So why doesn't anyone do this with instrumental music? Sometimes you hear phrases: “Oh, yes, you know, a cello, but not a format ... for such and such an event ...” I say: “Did you see, did you hear?
No wonder they say that the main instrument is the human voice. Therefore, all musicians try to repeat it.
All musicians try to repeat. The cello has four strings: the lower ones are bass (Chaliapin notes), then baritone, then tenor and the “A” string - the range, of course, is colossal. All voices, all colors can be expressed on this instrument. I remember such moments when, thank God, I have the opportunity to participate in such large events, at which the director or stage director somehow meets halfway, takes not only the cello in my hands as the leading part of this event, but also new music, which leads and gives people the opportunity to perform a certain dance around it, makes it possible for the artist to choose the right colors.
And of course my dream. I am often asked: "What are you striving for"? A lot of plans, a lot of different programs. But here at number one I have a cello opera, in which the story comes from the moment the tree is cut down. You know, once I was present at my living wonderful cello master at the moment when he put the strings on the stand for the first time in my presence. See, it's like having a baby. This first sound: "a-a", this is a cry, you understand? This, of course, is an absolutely incredible feeling, and if people haven’t experienced it, haven’t seen it, then there are similar things “packed” in such a form for this.
Let's get back to your project a little later. I still wanted to say that you talk about the cello like a child, many people talk about it like a woman, there is some special feeling for this instrument. Can you say: “This is probably the first love”? Can you remember your first encounter with this instrument? How did this miracle happen?
Firstly, I have a different attitude towards the cello, depending on the music I play. Of course, when I first found myself alone with this instrument, I could not make a single sound.
- And how did it happen, you are from a family of vocalists?
Absolutely right. This is a very funny case. I believe it is Divine Providence, absolutely. The teacher of the ordinary music school where we lived said to my mother and me when we came to him: “Borislav, sorry, but the piano set (and we went to the piano is the most popular instrument ... “we have a piano at home, everything is in order” ... "amazing") is over, and you have two options: choose the violin or the cello." Mom took my hand, and we were about to leave. Years are running out, a shoemaker without boots, a “conservatory” at home: grandfather teaches. I am already seven and a half - eight years old. People have been playing since three, and I seemed to be hanging out somewhere in limbo. Of course, I had to make a decision, and my mother told me: “Borislav, think: if you choose the violin, you will always study and play concertos standing up, and if you choose the cello, then you will have the opportunity to study and play sitting. When you travel around the world, you will have an awesome chair! How do you think?" I looked and decided: “To stand all my life? Oh my God! No, I'm taking the cello." Do you understand? The sky parted - and I saw some kind of light and some correct coloring of this phrase, because it is not known if I had chosen the violin, maybe now I would play a completely different instrument.
I relate to the cello depending on the repertoire that I perform. I have several tools. There are modern instruments that are better for playing more modern or jazzy music. There is an "Italian", in which Bach and classical music in general sound divine.
You are today a popularizer of classical music. Quite recently, I became an unwitting witness to the conversation of young people who were discussing the subject of classical music. And the personification of this music was Igor Krutoy. I was very surprised. With all due respect to the work of Igor Yakovlevich, he still cannot be called a classical composer. This is the problem of ignorance, I would say, exists in our country. How, in your opinion, can one come to understand the classics? How to attract young people to classical music?
Agree. You know, I think people need to think about what They love and want. Because everything can be called a classic. Previously, Alfred Schnittke was considered such a modernist, such a modern composer! And now it's practically our classic. Do you understand? Time changes everything! Therefore, there are people who, for example, like not to think about any specific brands, and some understand and say: “Today I want to listen to Mozart’s Requiem from beginning to end on my good speakers” or: “I want to install for yourself a “Guinness record” and listen to the symphonies of Brahms. You know, there must be some kind of craving, as for faith, for God. It is impossible to force a person to love something en masse.
Okay, let's change the question then. What is a classic today, because classics can be rock music, pop music?
This is another matter. Here your couple, who were discussing, mixed up the genres. The fact is that Igor Yakovlevich Krutoy is practically a classic. His songs are sung by the people, he made a wonderful project with the brilliant singer Hvorostovsky.
“Perhaps that is what was meant.
It's time for a crossover - mixing genres, classics popping up with pop names. This was once started by the great Yehudi Menuhin: he stood on his head with Hindu yogis, and played upside down, and traveled to India, and played with rock stars, and with Pavarotti, from Bonn ... People want to see spectacle: so that it is near some incredible building, so that the sound thunders, as, remember, in the Three Tenors project. I believe it should be. It is a pity that in Russia there is little such production. I would like to do this, I promote it all the time, but sometimes I meet people who say: “Oh, how are we going to gather people? Well, for the classics ... "I answer:" Mussorgsky, Borodin, the whole "Mighty Handful" ... "
- Is there no such effect in the West?
In the West, for some reason, people are not afraid of the word "classic". In the West, for some reason, people sit and rejoice, smile and dance to Strauss, and I'm talking about ten or twenty thousand man - stadium! They sit and rejoice: “My God, this is our music!”
We didn't even dream of it!
We have an amazing rock festival in the field: people gather and play.
- It is in Russia? "Invasion"?
Quite right. I participated and supported Maria Syomushkina several times with the Usadba-Jazz festival, the only open-air festival of its kind, which this year takes place in Moscow, in Arkhangelskoye and in other cities, in Voronezh, now in St. Petersburg. I did an open-air project with the orchestra “From Haydn to ABBA”: the cello is a classic, slowly turning into a potpourri written especially for me, so that you can relax the people and add drums, make a mass show out of it. I believe that we need propaganda, in a good way, of our great, already done, already written, already tested, with the stamp "Made in Russia"! (How does GOST stand for condensed milk, do you understand?) There is nothing better than Rachmaninov, than Tchaikovsky, than Mussorgsky, than Borodin. This is our everything! People who haven't experienced or seen it, maybe they don't want to and are afraid because it's not the right presentation? Boring faces, people are sitting, the conductor is standing with his back. Do you understand? We need to change the form, the presentation.
I believe that there should be a lesson in classes, in schools - a trip to such a huge "gala" for all schools in Moscow. This is already a huge amount. I go to schools in different countries of the world before a concert, sit down with the cello, play Bach. And those who had just yelled and squealed (thinking: “Lord, they’ll trample me here now, they’ll break both the instrument and the bow in half on the knee, Lord!” Do you know what hooligans are?), they see the cello for the first time in their lives, and it causes them great emotions, interest. Maybe out of three thousand such students, one hundred will carry this message, but if this is not done, then nothing will work and we will lose them, and, unfortunately, this is irreplaceable.
It is clear that now it is very convenient: I pressed the button and downloaded in MP3, in terrible quality, a compressed track for twenty rubles. And what happened before that? Process! The composer wrote, the live musician played, they rented a studio, wrote, leveled the balance ... Do you understand? On the one hand, everything has become very accessible, and on the other hand, the musician has very little resource to “be on TV”. Producers say it's unprofitable.
- Yes, you said in an interview that there is no art without a sponsor.
You know, it should be like a donation to the church: different people, projects. There is an absolute duty of the state to simply take care of the young - not just the talents, but the young public. The young audience is those people who carry our future and art in general. They will create differently.
If the driver in the car listens to some classical music for at least one hour, then it will be like medicine: there will be fewer accidents, there will be more concentration. Because this music is just a different spirituality. It's like work, prayer. Yes, you need to get up in the morning, yes, you need to go to the temple, despite the weather, put a candle... Do you understand? You need to read it, memorize it by heart ... Why is everything being done? In order for a person to become human, to become closer to what he was created for. Music, prayer, attitude to God - this is one.
Borislav Borisovich Strulev(born August 21, 1976, Moscow) is a cellist of exceptional temperament and technique, one of the first to start playing jazz on the cello. In 1992 he became the winner of the All-Russian Competition for Young Artists in Moscow and a laureate of the New Names International Charitable Foundation. Borislav plays the cello by the French master Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (fr. Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume) Paris, 1844.
Lives and works between New York and Moscow, made his debut as a soloist at Carnegie Hall in 1999.
Biography
Borislav Borisovich Strulev was born in 1976 into a family of professional musicians. Father - a singer and choral conductor, worked in the Moscow State Academic Chamber Choir, mother, Marina Vladimirovna Struleva - a pianist, from the age of 16 she began working at the Gnessin School, accompanied for many years, after which she gave concerts with her son Borislav Strulyov.
Borislav Strulev began learning to play the cello in 1984 at the age of 8 with teacher Maria Yuryevna Zhuravleva, subsequently enrolling in the Central Music School.
Borislav began speaking in public after meeting Tikhon Nikolaevich Khrennikov.
After performing at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1992, he received an invitation to the United States for his debut at the Kennedy Center from James Wolfensohn and Byron Janis. After meeting and auditioning with Martina Istomin-Casals, he enters the Manhattan School of Music on a full scholarship.
He became widely known after his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1999, where he played with Byron Janis.
Creation
Orchestras
Borislav Strulev has performed with such orchestras as: Detroit Symphony Orchestra, California Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, Italian Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Cologne Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra La Laguna, Orchestra del Principado de Asturias, Norrlands Operan Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia. E.F. Svetlanov, Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic.
Conductors
Borislav's collaborations with famous conductors are very remarkable: A. Leaper, N. Järvi, K. Järvi, M. Hart-Bedoya, S. Veigle, Y. Simonov, P. Kogan, A. Vedernikov, M. Parisotto, M. Gorenstein , Michael Stern, J. Pekhlevanyan, R. Milanov and A. Wit.
Discography
- "Cello Show"
- BORISLAV STRULEV & «PAPOROTNIK» ORCHESTRA - CELLOTANGO
- Rachmaninoff: Sonata for cello and piano Op. 19, Vocalise Op. 34 no. 14 (trans. cello and piano)
- Shostakovich: Sonata for cello and piano Op. 40, Polka from "L'ge d'Or" (trans. cello and piano) - The Age of Gold (ballet suite), Op. 22a
- CELLO LOUNGE, VOL. 1 - BORISLOVE & NOIZEPUNK, GENE "NOIZEPUNK" PRITSKER, BORISLAV STRULEV
- REGINA CARTER, PAGANINI: AFTER A DREAM
- DENYCE GRAVES - THE LOST DAYS: MUSIC IN THE LATIN STYLE
- ARIELLE DOMBASLE - EXTASE
- ROGER KELLAWAY: LIVE AT THE JAZZ STANDARD, ALL MY LIFE
- The Paperboy (Movie 2012)
- La Turbulence des fluides (Movie 2002)
- La Taupe (Movie 2007)
- Gypsies (TV series 2009)
- Letters From the Dead
Russian-American cellist Borislav Strulev quickly gained a reputation as a musician of exceptional temperament, charismatic personality and virtuoso technique. The great American pianist Byron Janis said of Borislav Strulev: “He plays as if he were to the cello born. His sound, phrasing, coloring and technique already place him in position to follow the Russian tradition of cello playing. Watch this young man, and more importantly, listen to him.”
Since his U.S. debut at the Kennedy Center in 1993 Borislav Strulev’s career began to develop rapidly. Audiences on some of the world’s most prestigious stages have been fascinated by a “soloist … with a rich, singing tone” (The New York Times, the music critic wrote). Cello by French master Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, 1844 c. sounded in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and David Geffen Hall, Merkin Hall - Lincoln Center (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington), Orchestra Hall (Chicago), Kravis Center and Van Wezel Hall (Florida), Auditorio de Madrid and Auditorio de Leon (Spain), Auditorio de Torino (Italy), Musikverein Wien Golden Hall (Vienna), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Berliner Philharmonie (Berlin), Salle Gaveau (Paris), Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow), Big and Small Hall of The Moscow Conservatory, the Moscow International House of Music, Big Hall of St-Petersburg Academic Philharmonic named after D.D.Shostakovich, Mariinsky Theater Concert Hall (St-Petersburg).
The young cellist is popular in every corner of the globe. Borislav collaborates with orchestras such as: Detroit Symphony Orchestra, California Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana, Sinfonieorchester Köln, Vienna Tonkünstler of the Music Society of Vienne, Antalya State Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborgs Symfoniorkeste, NorrlandsOperan Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, Symphony Orchestra of India, Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Moscow Virtuosi, Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia named after. E.F. Svetlanov, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, symphony orchestras of most South American capitals as well as of South Africa and more. Most notablylav Boris collaborates with the following conductors: Adrian Leaper, Neeme and Kristjan Järvi, Michael Stern, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Jose Luis Gomez, George Pehlevanyan, Marco Parisotto, Rossen Milanov, Zdenek Macal, Sergiu Comissiona, Irwin Hoffman, Andres Mustonen, Antoni Wit, Paul Freeman, Arjan Tien, Tan Lihua, Arkady Leytush, Adrian Prabava, Sebastian Weigle, Eugene Kohn, Pavel Kogan, Alexander Vedernikov, Dmitry Liss, Alexander Sladkovsky, Yuri Simonov.
Byron Janis, Rohan de Silva, Roger Kellaway, Tian Jiang, Per Tengstrand, Matt Herskowitz, Torleif Thedéen, Martin Fröst, Radovan Vlatkovic, Philippe Quint, Jean-Marc Phillips, Julian Rachlin, Richard Hyung-ki Joo, Alexander Markov, Randy Brecker , Lars Anders Tomter, Janine Jansen, Eldar, Regina Carter, Dorado, Amati & Samson Schmitt, Russell Malone, Franz Hackl, Eddie Daniels, Paquito D'Rivera, Michel Legrand, Roby Lakatos, Janoska Ensemble, Orosz Zoltán, Christian McBride, Marc Johnson, Brian Torff, Alex Blake, Lewis Nash, Jonathan Moffett, Joe Cocuzzo, Mia Farrow, Kathleen Battle, Eliane Elias, Denyce Greaves, Sean Lennon, Gene Pritsker, Dave Grusin, Bobby McFerrin, Sweet Plantain Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet , Denis Matsuev, Elena Obraztsova, Ildar Abdrazakov, Alexander Markovich, Ilya Itin, Sergei Dreznin, Leonid Ptashka, George Garanian, Sergei Yerokhin, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Dmitry Berlinsky, Aydar Gaynullin, Tamara Gverdtsiteli, Anzhelika Varum, Igor Krutoy, Arkady Shilkloper, Sergei Mazaev, Evgeniy Grishkovec, Igor Butman, Marimba+, Uma2rmaH, Lyasan Utiasheva, Diana Vishneva, Yulia Makhalina, Uliana Lopatkina and more.
Borislav Strulev is a multi-stylist, the Renaissance man in the music world, who extends the range of genres from classical and contemporary classical music to jazz and crossover. The musician is open to exploring new forms of music and to a unique creative experimentation. One of these rare projects — the New York premiere of "Svyati" for cello and chamber choir of the British composer Sir John Tavener with the Little Orchestra Society and Orpheon Chorale, a piece later performed before the 30-thousand-audience in the Day of Slavic Written Language and culture in Khanty-Mansiysk. With the California Symphony Borislav has performed the American premiere of Suite for Cello and String Orchestra of the legendary composer Lou Harrison.
Borislav is successfully working in film, television and radio. He regularly appears or performs in musical programs, talk shows and concerts on the main TV channels in Russia: 1st Channel, NTV, Russia, TVC, «Kultura». His recitals have been broadcasted live on WQXR, WBGO and WNYC in New York, WFMT in Chicago, France Musiques, and RAI (Radio televisione italiana). The Canadian motion picture “La Turbulence des Fluides” produced by Luc Besson, music composed by Simon Cloquet, on whose soundtrack Mr. Strulev is the featured artist has won three awards for best music at Festival International Musique et Cinéma – Auxerre – France and has been nominated for Canadian Academy Award (Genie) for best soundtrack. In 2007 with the same composer Borislav recorded new soundtrack for TF 1 to the new movie “La Taupe” directed by Vincenzo Marano. With Composer-Pianist Sergei Dreznin he recorded music for a complete restoration of a legendary 1927 Soviet silent film “Garden des Peches” (dir. by Olga Preobrazhenskaya) which was shown on ARTE twice in 2008.
Discography includeslav Boris's debut recording on French label LYRINX of Rachmaninov and Schostakovich sonatas. The same label released his debut orchestral recording of Arvo Pärt’s Pro et Contra, Erkki-Sven Tüür’s concerto, and Daniel Schnyer’s cello concerto (world premiere) with Norrlands Symphony Orchestra under direction of Kristjan Järvi. In 2011 on Naxos Label Borislav releases “Cello Lounge” with New York composer Gene Pritsker (Borislove & Noizepunk). As a special guest Borislav is on significant crossover recordings produced by Ettore Stratta with jazz violinist Regina Carter on “Paganini: after a dream” (Verve – Universal), with celebrated mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and Brazilian jazz pianist Eliane Elias on “Lost Days ” (RCA – Red Seal) with singer and actress Arielle Dombasle on “Extase” (SONY).
Musical and personal ties with Russia are fatidic and natural to Borislav Strulev. He was born in Moscow into a family of professional musicians and began playing the cello at age 8. He graduated from the Central Music School at the State Moscow Conservatory. Borislav has luck with the teachers. A huge influence on the development of the creative personality of the young musician has a composer Tikhon Khrennikov. In 1992, Borislav wins the All-Russia competition of young performers of the Assemblies of Music in Moscow, and the winner of the International Charity Foundation "New Names". With the support of James Wolfensohn, formerly World Bank president and at that moment director of Kennedy Center, prominent violinist Isaac Stern and pianist Byron Janis, Borislav gets a solo concert in the USA — debut in the famous Kennedy Center in 1993, and after that , an invitation from the president of Manhattan School of Music, the world-famous Marta Casals Istomin, accept a scholarship of the conservatory… Since 1994 he has been living in the United States. In the West, Borislav participates in master classes with such great artists as Mstislav Rostropovich, Yo-Yo-Ma, Lynn Harrell, David Geringas, Steven Isserlis, Philippe Muller, William Pleeth, Marta Casals Istomin, Marion Feldman and Valentin Berlinsky of the Borodin Quartet.
The spotlights of Borislav's career after the arrival in the USA are: 1995 - South American debut as a soloist with the Orchestra National de Colombia, 1996 - performance with the Orchestra National de Chile. 1997 - South African debut with solo performances in Cape Town and Johannesburg. During the 1997-98 season - the first tour in 10 cities in Japan as a soloist in the JAL Young Artists Series, and the recognition of the Japanese audience after performing at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Festivals – Ravinia in Chicago, Reims and Tours in France, Verbier and Lausanne in Switzeland. 1999 - debut with solo concert at Carnegie Hall with pianist Byron Janis with Frederic Chopin Sonata. 2001-2002 - solo tour in Sweden, concerts and master-classes in France, Spain and Finland. Performance of the concerto in A minor Saint-Saens with the National Symphony Orchestra of Italian Radio and Television under the baton of Kristjan Järvi, which was broadcast "RAI" on radio and television throughout Europe. Participation in the International Festival of Chamber Music Umea in Sweden, Scandinavian stations which aired live on television. Performance of the Concerto in A-minor by Saint-Saens with the National Symphony Orchestra of Italian Radio and Television under the direction of Kristjan Järvi, which was broadcasted by "RAI" on radio and television throughout Europe.
Participation in the International Festival of Chamber Music Umea in Sweden, which aired live on television by Scandinavian stations. Month tour of South Africa, recitals, and performance with the orchestra to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Johannesburg Musical Society. Performance with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Neeme Järvi, and Variations on a Rococo Theme Tchaikovsky and the Concerto in A-minor by Saint-Saens. Performance of Joseph Haydn Divertimento in Alice Tully Hall Lincoln Center with "Orpheus" chamber orchestra. W. Walton Concerto performance with the Symphony Orchestra NorrlandsOperan in Sweden, Variations on a Rococo Theme by P.I. Tchaikovsky with the Orchestra del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo; Spain, under the direction of Juan Jose Mena, Don Quixote by Richard Strauss with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, and Antonin Dvorak Concerto with the National Orchestra of Colombia and Panama.
2008 - he appears as a special guest at a Tribute to Oscar Peterson at Carnegie Hall among artists such as Roger Kellaway, Clark Terry, Wynton Marsalis and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
The last five years, Borislav lives and works between New York and Moscow. This has contributed not only to the intensity and tension in his life and career, but also led to the creation of interesting creative projects. In New York he founded a concert series "Borislav Strulev and Friends". In Moscow, together with Tamara Gverdtseteli created a new show, “And God Created Woman…,” which was a great success at the best venues in Russia, CIS and abroad. A notable phenomenon in the musical life of Moscow was a program of "Cello Tango" with orchestra "Paporotnik", which successfully mixed folk, rock, pop and jazz. The show was enthusiastically greeted by the spectators of "Usadba Jazz", Russia's largest open-air jazz festival. There are new creative alliances — with Igor Butman, Arkady Shilkloper, Sergei Mazaev, groups and Uma2rmaH and Marimba +, Diana Vishneva, Laysan Utyasheva, and original music-theater projects with Eugene Grishkovets, Vladislav Malenko, Yevgeny Knyazev, Elina Bystritskaya.
Borislav is an active participant in the Denis Matsuev's "star" festivals "Crescendo" and the "Stars on Baikal". With Denis he frequently tours in all corners of Russia.
The fame opens up exciting opportunities for creative plans and obtaining the highest recognition. Borislav has been privileged to play for the honor of political leaders as well as stars of show business, such as: Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Michael Bloomberg, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Silvio Berlusconi, Prince Alexis N. Obolensky, Natan Sharansky, Billy Joel, Michel Legrand, Sean Lennon, Lord Lloyd Webber, JAY-Z, U2's Bono, Wanda Toscanini Horowitz, Leonardo DiCaprio. He has performed at the opening of the cultural program of the economic forum in Davos and the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg Petersburg in the presence of Vladimir Putin and "G8 leaders", in The 6th Russian Rhapsody Charity Gala in London, at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver representing Russia in the framework of Olympics cultural program.
The high authority of the musician, leader and experimentalist allowed Borislav to be appointed as the Music Director of: International BelgorodMusicFest — "Borislav Strulev and Friends", an annual event, "Day of Russia" in New York, the Guild of Russian financiers.
«Borislav Strulev» – is turning into the brand: » Borislav Strulev's Lounge» on Radio »Russia» and in the House of Actors, a concert series «Borislav Strulev and Friends» at the Birdland, the legendary club in New York, which will soon make its debut in Moscow, “Cello Tango” with the “Paporotnik” Orchestra, “BasniCello” at the Taganka Theater with Vladislav Malenko and Noizepunk & BorisLove with ''Cello Lounge'' new CD and program.
Borislav Strulev was a nominee for The “Russian-American Person of the Year” 2014 Award in New York.
Borislav Strulev - Yamaha Artist and plays Yamaha Electric Cello SVC 110SK.
The public ambassador of the XIX World festival in Sochi of youth and students.
BORISLAV STRULEV - "Miracle cellist."
“He plays as if he were to the cello born. His sound, phrasing, coloring and technique already place him in position to follow the Russian tradition of cello playing. Watch this young man, and more importantly, listen to him.”
Byron Janis
"The feeling was that Borislav Strulev assumed the decisive power of Herbet von Karajan."
Vasterbottens-Kuriren, Sweden
new york post
"Borislav Strulev - he is a phenomenon who can achieve all possible heights with his cello."
Vasterbottens-Kuriren, Sweden
"The enormous power reminded of massive interpretations of this pieace by Yo-Yo Ma."
Vasterbottens Folkband, Sweden
“The ensemble with the individual orchestra members was finely achieved and the cellist with secure and clean intonation let the playfulness of this piece flow freely again. "
Kolnische Rundschau, Germany
"However, he did not only impress with the beauty of his performance, but rather with its sovereignty, with which he gleaned the field of suspense of stylized conversation in Rococo manner and the deeply emotional characterization."
Kolner Stadt Anzeiger, Germany
“The young Russian cellist Borislav Strulev mastered with superior style all the virtuosic finesse of Tchaikovsky’s work. The power of his playing expressed the eternity of feelings. Strulev played with precision and sensitivity, energy, pertness and necessary drama."
Bonner Generalanzeiger, Germany
“The Russian boasts an enormous, gripping sound, full of bright colors and effortless power; when he plays, he commandeers the sonic spotlight with ease."
San Francisco Chronicle
"Borislav Strulev avery mature artist, who has a clear interpretive vision, the right touch for large scaled music and the skills and charisma to perform in front of a symphony orchestra."
Kaleva, Finland
The New York Times
“The high point of the concert was Borislav Strulev in the G-minor Cello Sonata. The 23-years -old cellist from Russia played with a browny tone and sure technique."
Chicago Tribune
"The cellist's interpretation was total. In lyric parts he leaned himself backwards with his eyes shut; in the fast parts he seemed to get flying up from his chair. The dynamic range of his was wide from whispering to straight cry. In fortissimos Mr. Strulev was torturing his cello with apocalyptic intensity and it was a miracle how the instrument survived from it."
Kaleva, Finland
"Borislav Strulev showed the sensitivity of the interpretation, but he can stir up a storm by getting at the nerve center of violence."
El Diario Vasco, Spain
"He produced a gorgeous sound."
Daily News of Japan
“In the Rococo Variations the cello soloist Borislav Strulev, who seemed terribly young. His tone was beautiful and huge: it seemed to fill the hall all by itself!!! The flutist's dialog with the cellist was exquisite."
American Record Guide
"With grace, power and even a sense of suffering, he gave his cello a soul………………."
Le Maurienne, France
“What a way to feel! What expression! words are not enough to express what it meant to us to listen to this unreal talent - musical genius!!!"
El Norte, Mexico
"and cellist Borislav Strulev, channeling no one, or perhaps God"
Associated Press, USA
"Stylistically, Borislav has his own identity on the instrument, and he made a boldly vibrant musical statement"
Variety, USA
"He merges body, soul and instrument to evoke the piece's full emotional force"
Honolulu Star Bulletin
"Borislav Strulev an unique extrovert cellist with personality like Orson Welles and Jack Black."
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Will Friedwald
"The only cellist on a planet who can sing on his instrument like Pavarotti"
Belgorod Daily News
By Will Friedwald
"Borislav Strulev an unique extrovert cellist with personality like Orson Welles and Jack Black."
— THE WALL STREET JOURNAL —
"His playing has a big, warm sound……rich and elegant" -Chicago Tribune-
Carnegie Hall - Oscar Peterson Gala
…and cellist Borislav Strulev, channeling no one, or perhaps God.
— Bloomberg News —
"The feeling was that Borislav Strulev assumed the decisive power of Herbet von Karajan."
- Vasterbottens-Kuriren - Sweden
"Borislav did not only impress with the beauty of his performance, but rather with his sovereignty, with which he gleaned the field of suspense of stylized conversation in Rococo manner and the deeply emotional characterization."
— Kolner Stadt Anzeiger — Germany
"Borislav Strulev, the cello soloist, played with a rich, singing tone and conveyed a sense of the line's devotional shape."
— The New York Times —
"Byron Janis returned to play at CARNEGIE HALL with cellist Borislav Strulev, and the full house gave both of them a warm reception."
— New York Post —
BORISLAV STRULEV cello
Critics call him a “soloist ... with a rich, singing tone” - The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle said he “boasts an enormous, gripping sound, full of bright colors and effortless power; when he plays he commandeers the sonic spotlight with ease.
”Associated Press wrote '"cellist Borislav Strulev, channeling no one, or perhaps God."" "He plays as if born with a cello" "Sound , sentence structure , nature of the playing and technique make it a successor of the Russian tradition of playing the cello. Look at this young man, and more importantly listen to him." (Byron Janis)
Borislav Strulev - an outstanding cellist of exceptional temperament, charismatic personality, powerful sound and virtuoso technique, a musician of faerie energy and drive, one of the first who started to perform jazz on cello, lives and works between New York and Moscow.
Borislav Strulev - universal multi-stylist, Renaissance-man - has performed virtually all classical repertoire for cello and toured all corners of the world - Borislav presents today his vision of crossover, classical music, jazz, tango and even rap - a stylish, high -quality fusion, on the edge of shocking.
Mr. Strulev performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall Lincoln Center (New York), Orchestra Hall (Chicago), Kravis Center and Van Wezel Hall (Florida), Auditorio de Madrid and Auditorio de Leon (Spain), Auditorio de Torino (Italy), Musikverein Wien Golden Hall (Vienna), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Berliner Philharmonie (Berlin), Kölner Philharmonie (Koln), Salle Gaveau (Paris), Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Big and Small Hall of The Moscow Conservatory, the Moscow International House of Music, (Moscow) Big Hall of St-Petersburg Academic Philharmonic named after D.D. Shostakovich, Mariinsky Theater Concert Hall (St-Petersburg).
The high authority of the musician, leader and experimentalist allowed Borislav to be appointed as the Music Director of: International BelgorodMusicFest - ""Borislav Strulev and Friends"", an annual event, "Day of Russia" in New York, the Guild of Russian financiers.
After debut at The Kennedy Center, Borislav had his debut at Carnegie Hall - played with legendary pianist Byron Janis and also was a special guest at the ceremony dedicated to Oscar Peterson at Carnegie Hall. Participated in the recording of the soundtrack for the film ("La Turbulence des fluides") Luc Besson.
Borislavs collaborate with orchestras such as: Detroit Symphony Orchestra, California Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana, Sinfonieorchester Köln, Vienna Tonkünstler of the Music Society of Vienna, Antalya State Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborgs Symfoniorkeste, NorrlandsOperan Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, Symphony Orchestra of India, Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Moscow Virtuosi, Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia named after . E.F. Svetlanov, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, symphony orchestras of most South American capitals as well as of South Africa and more. Most notablylav Boris collaborates with the following conductors: Adrian Leaper, Neeme and Kristjan Järvi, Michael Stern, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, George Pehlevanyan, Marco Parisotto, Rossen Milanov, Zdenek Macal, Sergiu Comissiona, Irwin Hoffman, Andres Mustonen, Antoni Wit, Paul Freeman , Arjan Tien, Tan Lihua, Adrian Prabava, Arkady Leytush, Sebastian Weigle, Eugene Kohn, Pavel Kogan, Alexander Vedernikov, Dmitry Liss, Alexander Sladkovsky, Yuri Simonov.
Borislav Strulev had the honor of carrying the Olympic Torch for The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
As chamber performer Borislav Strulev is known by collaboration with top artists from all over the world, such as:
Byron Janis, Rohan de Silva, Roger Kellaway, Tian Jiang, Per Tengstrand, Matt Herskowitz, Torleif Thedéen, Martin Fröst, Radovan Vlatkovic, Philippe Quint, Jean-Marc Phillips, Julian Rachlin, Richard Hyung-ki Joo, Alexander Markov, Randy Brecker , Lars Anders Tomter, Janine Jansen, Regina Carter, Dorado, Amati & Samson Schmitt, Russell Malone, Franz Hackl, Eddie Daniels, Paquito D'Rivera, Michel Legrand, Roby Lakatos, Christian McBride, Marc Johnson, Brian Torff, Lewis Nash, Jonathan Moffett, Joe Cocuzzo, Mia Farrow, Kathleen Battle, Eliane Elias, Denyce Greaves, Sean Lennon, Gene Pritsker, Dave Grusin, Bobby McFerrin, Sweet Plantain Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Denis Matsuev, Elena Obraztsova, Ildar Abdrazakov, Alexander Markovich, Ilya Itin, Sergei Dreznin, Leonid Ptashka, George Garanian, Sergei Yerokhin, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Dmitry Berlinsky, Aydar Gaynullin, Tamara Gverdtsiteli, Arkady Shilkloper, Sergei Mazaev, Evgeniy Grishkovec, Igor Butman, Marimba+, Uma2rmaH, Lyaisan Utyasheva, Diana Vishneva Yulia Makhalina and more.
Borislav Strulev was a nominee for The
