ALEXANDER KUTIN - 1979
Alexander Kutin was born in 1899 in the city of Zhitomir in the Ukraine of Russian parents. Little is known about his childhood, except guessing from the high level of his spoken and written Russian he came from a middle class family. He left Russia during or immediately following the Russian Revolution and ended up in Germany around 1920. (It is not clear whether he served in the Russian army and was a prisoner of war or he fled to Germany to avoid the horrors of the Revolution and the Civil War).
At this time, in Germany, a professional balalaika orchestra was being formed by Nicholas Silvesteroff (sic). Called the Russian National Balalaika Orchestra, the group was made up of former prisoners of war and other Russian expatriates. Kutin was skilled enough at this point to join the group, switching from secunda to alto balalaika as needed. Others of note who were in this group were, Boris and Paul Sabotovsky, Sergey Larionoff, Dmitri Dedziola, Dmitri Papchikin, Sergey Jeromsky (later to be one of the 2 owners of the Russian Bear in Detroit) and Gaskevitch (no first name known) whose stage name was Sasha Chorney. In 1921 the group left Germany and toured Europe, the Canary Islands, South and Central America and Mexico before the promoters made off with the money and left the musicians stranded. Somehow they entered the US through Texas and made their way to New York.
In New York the group disbanded and began working in Russian restaurants in small ensembles of 5 or 6 musicians. Kutin made his living playing in these groups on either secunda or alto balalaika and later on kontrabass balalaika. He supplemented his income freelancing as a house painter and paperhanger. He is pictured in publicity photos of the time with groups lead by Peter Biljo and Nicholas Kovac. Kutin is quoted as saying that during his breaks in the restaurants he would study and copy the scores rather than play cards as the other musicians did. He attributed ability to write and arrange music to this.
Toward the end of 1938 Kutin gathered together a large group of Russian music enthusiasts (players of balalaika, domra, mandolin, accordion and other instruments). He supplied music arranged by himself and the Russian Balalaika Musical Society was formed. One of the original members who attend the first rehearsal was Ben Petushkin, who played octave mandola. He remembered that the rehearsal was held in Kutin's apartment and it was so crowded that he could hardly play his instrument. Their first concert was in 1940. This group continued to play and concertize with varying numbers of members through the war years. In 1945 following the war the group was revitalized when musicians returning from the service rejoined. Martin Kalisky, a domra player at this time remembers that the group participated in a big victory celebration in Times Square at the end of the war.
In the early 1950s the name of the orchestra was changed to the Balalaika Symphonic Orchestra. It is not clear if this was a result of the McCarthy era persecution of anything with a Russian name or another reason, however this name remained until Kutin's death in 1986. The group varied from 40 to 60 members. In the 1950s and early 60s they played at least once and often twice a year in Carnegie Hall. They had balalaikas, domras, mandolin family instruments, woodwinds and percussion. Live concert recordings of this period boast a large rich-sounding orchestra at a fairly high amateur level. The repertoire consisted of Russian folk and classical music, folk songs and arias from opera sung by very accomplished singers, instrumental solos (most often played on mandolin by Alexander Nichil, Howard Frye or Martin Kalisky or later on violin by Stanley Hoffman) and other pieces that Kutin thought appropriate. The group continued to produce major concerts twice a year through the 1960s and 70s. In the 60s however, Kutin moved from Carnegie Hall to Town Hall, most likely because it was less expensive to rent and in the 80s he moved to Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.
A word should be said about Rita Kutin, Alexander's second wife. They married sometime in the 1950s. Rita was a polio survivor who had difficulty in walking. She was the greatest supporter of Kutin and his work. She held as many as 5 part-time jobs as a bookkeeper, to help support his orchestra and his dream. The Kutins lived at 60 W. 8th Street in Greenwich Village, in a studio apartment on the 5th floor in a building without an elevator. It was a tortuous process for her to climb the stairs but she was willing to make the sacrifice to allow their resources to go to the orchestra. (For most of the years that Kutin produced 2 concerts a year, he lost money.)
The orchestra played live on radio, on WNYC-AM in New York and on the Fordham University radio station in the 50s and 60s. Live broadcasts were also made from the Brooklyn Museum over WNYC twice a year. In later years they played at the Goldman Band Shell at Lincoln Center. Other performances throughout the year were arranged on a freelance basis. Some of these were at Rodina in Lakewood, NJ, NY Ethical Culture Society, Lincoln Center Music Library and for churches and cultural associations in the metropolitan area.
The orchestra released a long-playing recording early in the l960s, a compilation of live concert recording from previous years. Other than one-of-a-kind acetates and tapes of Carnegie Hall and Town Hall concerts, no other recordings of this group exist. The group continued to play under Kutin's baton until December, 1985. At this last concert Kutin conducted sitting down as he was stricken with cancer. He died in 1986, several months later at the age of 87. Many of the instruments in Kutin`s collection were sold to individuals who had played them through the years. The balance of them were sold to the University of Illinois Russian Folk Orchestra, were they still reside. The music collection (over 800 arrangements) was donated to the BDAA. After a number of years this collection was moved to the University of Illinois Library for proper cataloging and preservation.
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