Michael Kugel

Michael Kugel (Ukrainian: Михайло Бенедиктович Кугель; born December 5, 1946) is a Ukrainian viola player and composer.

Education

Born in Kharkiv, USSR, he studied at the Beethoven School of Music, at the Music College in Kharkiv and later at the Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) Conservatory.

Career

From 1975 to 1990 Michael Kugel was the soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic Organisation, violist of the Beethoven Quartet and professor at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1990 till 1996 Michael Kugel was a professor at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance.

In 1996 he settled in Belgium and now he is a professor at the Ghent Conservatory (Belgium) and at the Conservatorium Maastricht in the Netherlands.

Kugel has appeared as a soloist and conductor with many symphony orchestras. He has taken part in festivals in Schleswig-Holstein, Lockenhause, Lille, Rolandseck, Passau, Jerusalem, Rizor, Orebro, Krems, Divonn, Menton, Mürzzuschlag, Venezia, Festival van Vlaanderen, Dubrovnik and Cincinnati. He has given masterclasses in Germany, England, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Mexico, Israel, France, Belgium, Croatia, Holland and Canada.

Kugel has been a jury member for competitions including:

• V Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, Workshop and World Viola Congress, 1994
• First International Viola Competition in Vienna, 1998
• Primrose Memorial Viola Competition, 1999
• IX Lionel Tertis International Viola competition and Workshop, 2006

Kugel is the founder and president of the Belgian Viola Society.

Awards

In 1975 he won first prize (joint with Zoltan Toth) at the International Viola Competition in Budapest.

Books

• The history of an era. An interpretation of two works for viola (2002, ISBN 978-2-87304-001-7)

Selected compositions

Kugel's compositions are published by Alain Van Kerckhoven Editeur.

• Il Carnevale di Venezia for Viola and Piano (2001)
• Classical Preludes for Viola and Piano (1999)
• Sonata-Poem for Viola Solo (1987)
• Suite in Memoriam Shostakovich for Viola and Piano (1988)

Discography

He has recorded about 20 discs and also made records as a viola d'amore player. He made them in the former Soviet Union but most of those records are unavailable.

His recent recordings include:

• In Memoriam Shostakovich. Michael Kugel (viola), Vesna Podrug (piano), 1998, ASIN B000068VGR
• The recorded viola. Volume IV. Pearl GEMS 0039, PhonCD R2448 reva v.4, 1998
• Mark Kopytman, Beyond all this... The Israel Camerata, Avner Biron (conductor), Michael Kugel (viola), 1999, IMI-CD-1929-03
• Glinka, Paganini, Bizet, Waxman. Michael Kugel (viola) Asir Rozenberg (piano), 1999
• The greatest Russian violists (MELODIA)-2009.
• Michael Kugel - Boris Berezovsky (MELODIA - 2014)

External links

• Official website of Michael Kugel
• Michael Kugel at New Consonant Music
• Budapest Philharmonic, Hall of fame
• First International Viola Competition in Vienna
• New Consonant Music, Composers
• A & E Vienna Limited, Michael Kugel bio
• University of Cincinnati, Bios
• Orford Arts Centre, Biographies, teachers/interpreters