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AMERICAN
RUSSIAN YOUNG ARTISTS ORCHESTRA
Auction Helps
Create
Music In Two Countries
Story
By Roger Webster
Photos by Patrick McMullan
 ECEMBER’S
icy weather made all New Yorkers feel like they were in Moscow,
St. Petersburg or Novgorod, but few got the opportunity to make
the best of it like the supporters of the American Russian Young
Artists Orchestra (ARYO), who had their 15th anniversary gala at
Tavern On The Green.
Henry
Luce III and Yuli
Vorontsov, former Russian ambassador to the US and UN, were
the gala chairs; WQXR’s Gregg Whiteside the emcee; Bard
College president and ARYO music director Leon Botstein the
keynote speaker; and Rita Mehos the Dinner co-chair along
with Stephen de Angelis and Bente Strong.
Los
Angeles patron of the arts Richard Colburn was guest of
honor.
Founding
president Edythe Holbrook, retiring this year, was praised
by absolutely everyone, especially chairman John H. Bell,
vice chairman Gregory Guroff and her successor Christine
Loomis. She was likened to a “Mother Superior” to
successive generations of musicians, starting hundreds of them on
solid music careers.
Violinist
Joshua Bell, who went on ARYO’s first tour of Russia,
when he was 22, in 1990, played a piece by Tchaikovsky and
a medley by American John Corigliano, from the movie The
Red Violin.
Violinist
Mikhail Simonyan played a variation on Yankee Doodle,
by Henri Vieuxtemps, the same that was playing at
the Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg the night Rasputin was
killed.
The
AMIRUS Players, consisting of violinist Inna Khriplovich,
cellist E. Scott Brady and pianist Alexei
Podkorytov, wowed the crowd with a “trio” by Dmitri
Shostakovich. There were also two amazing trumpeters: Micah
Krillion and Sycil Mathai.
Among
the 270 lucky guests were three former American ambassadors to
Russia: Arthur Hartman, James Collins and Jack Matlock,
Jr.; Svetlana Ushakova; Ambassador and Mrs. Heyward
Isham; Catherine Reynolds, whose foundation just donated $100
million to the Kennedy Center; Librarian of Congress; Dr. James
Billington; Paul Volcker; Consul Pavlovsky; Barbara
Haskell, Prince Vladimir and Princess Tatiana Galitzine;
Phyllis and Harvey Lichtenstein; Luisa Lopez;
William and Louisa Potvin; ARYO Young Chairmen Marc
David Miller and Katya Varlamova; Susan Bloom; Peter and
Lili Root Bianchi; Alexandre Gertsman; Brian Jorde and Marina
Arsenijevic; George, Sr., George, Jr., and Miriam
Loomis; Lisa Puchner; Mary and Howard Phipps; Marianne and
John Wyman; Hyon Whiteside; Virginia Mancini; Mr. and Mrs. Marc
Stern and Erica Zielinski.
There
was also a silent auction of a sexy silver fox stole designed by Helen
Yarmak. It certainly looked appealing on young flautist Valerie
Chermiset, who modeled it during the evening. It was purchased
for $6,000 by Dr. James Watson for his wife Elizabeth.
Dr. Watson won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962 as the
co-discoverer of DNA.
Alexander and Lisa Katsman won the door prize, a trip to St. Petersburg
with a stay at the luxurious Astoria Hotel.
This
day, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg had proclaimed American
Russian Young Artists Orchestra Day lived up to its promise. Over
$160,000 was raised to continue their good work sponsoring
worldwide concerts, residencies, a permanent chamber ensemble, and
community outreach programs in both countries.
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