Monterey Symphony

Vladimir Khalikulov
Principal Violist

Vladimir Khalikulov has played viola in the Monterey Symphony since 1991, becoming principal in 1995. He has also been principal violist with the Reno Philharmonic and Sacramento Philharmonic. In 1994, Mr. Khalikulov performed the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.6 with Abraham Rosenblit (member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) in San Francisco. In 1995, he made the North American premiere of the Concerto for Two Violas and String Orchestra by Marina Kalantaroff with violist Sergei Rakitchenkov (associate principal, San Francisco Opera), which was broadcast on San Francisco Bay Area television. Also in 1995, he made the San Francisco premiere of the Sonata per la Grand #8317, Viola e Orchestrre by Niccolo Paganini. With Phillip Levy, the first violinist of the Stanford String Quartet, he performed the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante. In 2000, he performed as soloist and conducted the Telemann Viola Concerto with the Monterey Symphony. He was a teacher and performer at the Printemps Musical au Moulin in Ande, France in 2004 and the Beverly Hills Music Festival in 2004.

Mr. Khalikulov is a native of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. His teachers were A. Rosenblit and A. Braverman. In 1977, after five years of studies with Nicolai Maschenko and Alexander Olonsky, he earned his MA in music at the Mukhtar Ashraf State Conservatory in Tashkent. He was a finalist in the All-Russia competition to Munich with Yuri Bashmet, Yuri Gandelsman, and Sergei Rakitchenkov. Mr. Khalikulov completed his Doctoral Studies in 1979 at the Moscow State Conservatory with Fyodor Druzhinin and Yuri Bashment. From 1980 to 1985, he was the violist of the Uzbek State String Quartet and studied with Victor Gvozdetsky and members of the Borodin String Quartet. He taught viola and string quartet at the Conservatory in Tashkent from 1979 to 1990. Many of his students hold major positions in professional orchestras in Russia, Uzbekistan, and other countries. He currently teaches viola and violin and coaches orchestral musicians in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas.

From 1985 to 1990, he was principal violist of the opera and ballet orchestras the Bolshoi Theater of Uzbekistan, and soloist with the Uzbek Philharmonic. In 1983, his quartet won the Third Prize of the Borodin String Quartet Competition in Talinn, Estonia. His recitals and solo performances include the Concerto for Viola and Orchestra by Ilya Dimov with the Moscow Philharmonic in 1987 (also broadcast on radio), the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante at the Glinka Festival with violinist Andrei Korsakov, performances of three viola concerti at the USSR Viola Festival, including the Concerto for Violin and Viola by Alexander Pechenyuk with violinist Mark Pover (currently concertmaster of the Royal Opera in Stockholm), and soloist in a cultural exchange between Uzbekistan and Bulgaria, including a performance and broadcast of the Shostakovich Viola Sonata. This masterpiece was dedicated by Shostakovich to violist F. Druzhinin, with whom Vladimir studied the piece. He has performed major viola repertoire with conductor’s Kiril Kondrashin, Roman Matsov, Vladimir Ziva, Zakhind Khaknazarov, Enrique Dimecke, violinist Michael Vaiman, Alexander Vinitsky, Igor Oistrakh, violist Michael Kugel, and with pianist Susanna Konstantinovsky.

He is a champion of new music of living composers and performed world premieres of four viola concertos dedicated to him as well as solo and chamber music. The Rakhimov Concerto was recorded on Melodiya and broadcast on USSR national television.

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