Kick off the NightLites series with a bold, high-contrast program that moves seamlessly from 20th-century edge to lush Romanticism. Conducted by Ziwei Ma, the evening opens with Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, performed by Yevgeny Kutik. Known for its driving rhythms, lean textures, and unexpected lyricism, the concerto is both direct and emotionally charged. The program continues with Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, a work often described as his most relaxed and luminous, filled with sweeping melodies, pastoral calm, and an exuberant final movement. Together, these works create a dynamic and approachable Friday night concert that balances intensity, beauty, and momentum.

Ziwei Ma
Conductor

Ziwei Ma is currently the Conducting Fellow at the New World Symphony. She has been named a 2026–2028 Award Recipient of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. In 2025, Ma served as Cover Conductor for The Philadelphia Orchestra under Stéphane Denève and appeared as Offstage Conductor with members of the orchestra in performances of Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony.

Ma was invited to return to the Lakes Area Music Festival in 2026, following her first year as Conducting Fellow in summer 2025. In the summers of 2021, 2022, and 2023, Ma was selected as a Conducting Fellow at the Eastern Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the National Orchestral Institute + Festival, respectively. During her conducting studies in the United States, she gained experience under the guidance of Marin Alsop, James Ross, Robert Spano, Alan Gilbert, Gerard Schwarz, and Federico Cortese. Ma later participated in conducting workshops with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2024 and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in 2025, where she received mentorship from JoAnn Falletta and Andrew Constantine, respectively.

Ma’s European experience includes participating in conducting masterclasses with the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester in Germany and the Silesian Philharmonic in Poland in 2023, where she worked under the guidance of Johannes Schlaefli and Lawrence Foster. In the summer of 2024, she conducted members of the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra as part of a masterclass led by Vasily Petrenko.

Born and raised in Beijing, Ma graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music before earning her master’s and doctoral degrees in orchestral conducting at The Hartt School under the mentorship of Edward Cumming.

Yevgeny Kutik
Violin

With a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique” (The New York Times), violinist Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is also lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of both standard works and newly composed repertoire. Kutik is also Artistic Director and co-founder of The Birch Festival.

A native of Minsk, Belarus, Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and immigrated to the US with his family at the age of five. An advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the US, he regularly speaks and performs across the country to promote the assistance of refugees from around the world. Kutik’s discography, all on Marquis Classics, includes The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021), Meditations on Family (Marquis Classics 2019), Words Fail (2016), Music from the Suitcase (2014), and Sounds of Defiance (2012). Music from the Suitcase is being developed into an immersive stage and performance production for the 2024-2025 season. 

Yevgeny Kutik was a featured soloist in Joseph Schwantner’s The Poet’s Hour– Soliloquy for Violin on episode six of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, a made-for-television classical music concert series released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS. In 2021, Kutik made his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, an expansion of The Poet’s Hour, written specifically for Kutik. Kutik gave the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia, at the Tanglewood Music Festival in August 2022. The work was co-commissioned for Kutik by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, he made his debuts at the Kennedy Center, presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival. Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition. In 2006, he was awarded the Salon de Virtuosi Grant as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Jules Reiner Violin Prize. 

Kutik holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory and currently resides in Boston. Kutik’s violin was crafted in Italy in 1915 by Stefano Scarampella.