Esteemed teacher, conductor, and violinist Victor Yampolsky has stepped down from his position as Carol F. and Arthur L. Rice Jr. University Professor in Music Performance at the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music on September 1st 2022 after serving for 38 years.
He stepped down from his position of Music Director of the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin in 2019, after serving for 34 years.
He is also Music Director Emeritus of the Omaha Symphony, the Honorary Director of the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and Professor Emeritus of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.
Born in the Soviet Union in 1942, Yampolsky – the son of the great pianist Vladimir Yampolsky – studied violin with the great pedagogue Mikhail Garlitsky (1949-1961) at Central Music School in Moscow, the legendary David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory (1961-1966) and conducting with Maestro Nicolai Rabinovich at the Leningrad Conservatory (1968-1973). He was a member of the Moscow Philharmonic as both violinist and assistant conductor, under the direction of renowned Maestro Kyrill Kondrashin (1965-1972).
Yampolsky emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1973, where an audition for Zubin Mehta and Leonard Bernstein resulted in a scholarship at Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. Two weeks later, Yampolsky accepted a position in the violin section of the Boston Symphony (1973). He was later appointed the orchestra’s Principal Second Violinist (1975-1977).
From 1977-1982 Yampolsky was music director of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the conductor of the Young Artists Orchestra at Tanglewood (1979-1983).
In 1979 he was appointed Adjunct Professor of Violin and Director of Orchestras at the Boston University School of Music, a position he had for 5 years.
From 1979 to 1984 he participated in the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax as violinist, conductor, and teacher.
Yampolsky was appointed director of orchestras at the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music in 1984. He has also been principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Johannesburg (1993-1994) and music director of the Omaha Symphony (1995-2004). In 2022, he led the Omaha Symphony in its debut recording, Take Flight, and the following year in the world premier of Philip Glass’ Second Piano Concerto, which received an award from the Nebraska Arts Council.
Yampolsky has conducted over 80 professional and student orchestras throughout the world, including repeat engagements with orchestras in the United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, South France, South Korea, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Israel and Chile. Last decade, engagements abroad include concerts with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic and Cape Philharmonic (Durban and Cape Town, South Africa), and the Stellenbosch Chamber Music Festival in South Africa. US appearances include concerts with the Illinois Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, and Green Bay Symphony. In March 2011 he returned to his native Moscow to conduct Svetlanov State Academic Orchestra after 40 years. In December 2011, he gave conducting master classes at the St. Petersburg Conservatory as well as conducting KMV Philharmonic in Kislovodsk, Russian Federation.
In 2012-13 seasons he conducted Cape Philharmonic and Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Tennessee. He debuted with the New Mexico Philharmonic and Elgin, IL Symphony orchestras, as well as conducting in Tambov (Russia), Reno, Nevada and Albuquerque, New Mexico, Cape Philharmonic (South Africa) Symphony Orchestra of Chile (Santiago) and Nevada All State orchestra in Las Vegas. In June 2014, he toured Israel with Kibbutz Chamber orchestra and in October directed Conductors Guild workshop with the Richmond Symphony followed by engagements with Hawaii Symphony and return engagements with Richmond and Cape Philharmonic orchestras.
In 2015, Prof. Yampolsky appeared for the first time with the RCO Chamber Orchestra in Houston, TX and Wintergreen Music Festival in Virginia. In 2017 he returned to ROCO, Wintergreen, Hawaii Symphony, and Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2018-19, season Prof. Yampolsky appeared with Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic in Pittsburgh, PA, Nashville Symphony, L’viv Philharmonic, Ukraine National Symphony in Kyiv, Ukraine, 5th return to Wintergreen Music Festival, Weidner Philharmonic in Green Bay, WI and Wroclaw Philharmonic in Poland.
His last guest conducted appearances were in February 2023 (University of Tennessee at Knoxville) and in May 2023 (National Symphony orchestra of Mexico). A dedicated educator, Yampolsky had been invited to give conducting master classes throughout the world. He has taught at the State Conservatory of St. Petersburg, Stellenbosch Conservatory, the Cape Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in Cape Town, Emory University, and the Universities of Akron, Victoria, Nevada and Western Ontario, Suwannee Summer Festival (7 times), Wintergreen Music Festival (5 times).
Other activities included serving as Panel Member of the American Symphony Orchestra Leagues (now the League of American Orchestras) Conductors’ Continuum Committee and as a juror for the Prokofiev International Conducting Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia and the Len van Zyl conducting competition in Cape Town, South Africa, as well as Conductors Guild and CODA associations.
Victor Yampolsky has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Doane College in Crete, Nebraska and Honorary Professor Emeritus of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University and has recorded for Pyramid and Kiwi-Pacific Records.
He currently lives with his wife, Carol, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
vya974@gmail.com