He came to Kansas City to hone violin skills. It got him a prestigious orchestra spot

In a just world, Park University’s International Center for Music would be as well-known and revered in Kansas City as the Chiefs or the Royals.

This world-class, boutique music school in Parkville has been cranking out musical champions since 2003 when it was founded by Van Cliburn gold medalist Stanislav Ioudenitch.

Recently, pianist Ilya Shmukler, a current Park student under Ioudenitch, was a finalist in the Cliburn Competition. And now, former ICM student David Radzynski has been chosen to fill one of the most prestigious orchestral positions in America: concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Radzynski, who is currently concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic, began studying at ICM in 2013 under the tutelage of the director of the school’s violin studio, Ben Sayevich.

“It’s Ben’s fault,” Radzynski said. “He’s one of the greatest teachers in the United States today. He’s had one of the biggest impacts on me and my playing and in my development, not just as a violinist but as an artist and as a musician. He remains to this day my mentor, my best friend, my family. We’re very, very close.”

Radzynski comes from quite the musical family. His mother is a piano teacher, and his father is a composer who taught at Yale and later at Ohio State University. Radzynski says music has been an important part of his life as long as he can remember.

“My parents told me that even when I was a baby, I would just stand there and stare at the speakers,” he said. “I was mesmerized by music. They felt that there would be something to do with music in my life. I started with piano and then played both violin and piano for some years, until I just gravitated to violin more and more.”

Before he even graduated high school, Radzynski was studying with the renowned violin teachers Roland and Almita Vamos.

“The Vamoses really took me in when I was around 12 years old,” Radzynski said. “They told me, OK, you practice four hours a day minimum, and here’s a Bruch concerto and a Mozart concerto. They really pushed me. That was really great because a lot of their students went on to do amazing things, and the level there was always very, very high.”

Radzynski would eventually go to Indiana University to study with Mauricio Fuks and then to Yale, where he studied with Syoko Aki.

“I love all of my teachers, and they were all extremely important in forming me into the musician that I am now, but Ben is the one that I keep coming back to,” Radzynski said.

He found out about Sayevich and the International Center for Music through a friend of his father’s who was roommates with Sayevich in college. He told Radzynski that he should play for Sayevich and that he just might be the right teacher for him.

“So I went to Ben and met him and saw the place and met Stanislav, as well, and it just felt like that was the place I needed to be at that time,” Radzynski said. “I was at ICM for three years, and I got the job in Israel right after that. Ben worked with me and prepared me for that audition. When I was preparing for my audition for Cleveland, of course, I went to Ben. I always come to Ben, and I play for him and ask his advice. His door is always open.”

Radzynski is justifiably proud and excited to be named concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, which he calls “the best orchestra in the United States.” Since the legendary George Szell molded Cleveland into a world-class orchestra in the late 1940s, it has maintained its illustrious standards under subsequent music directors, like Loren Maazel, Christoph von Dohnanyi and its current music director, Franz Welser-Möst.

In an era when so many major orchestras play at a high standard but basically sound the same, the Cleveland Orchestra has retained its distinctive sound.

“When you hear the Cleveland Orchestra play, there’s something very silky, a silvery velvet tone to the sound that really makes it stand out from other orchestras,” Radzynski said. “I think because Franz is Viennese, he wanted to add some warmth to the sound. I think he wanted more in terms of the quality of the sound, something warmer, and you definitely hear that now.”

Radzynski’s tone fits right in with the Cleveland aesthetic. Although he has great respect for contemporary violinists, Radzynski has always looked to the violinists of the past for inspiration.

“Somebody like Fritz Kreisler can do more in one note than what some players now do in a thousand notes,” Radzynski said. “When you take Kreisler, Ysaÿe, Heifetz, Oistrakh, Menuhin, they each had such a distinct signature to their playing, to their sound, to their style, you could tell immediately who was who.”

Radzynski credits Sayevich for helping him bring out even more of that old school warmth in his playing.

“Both Ben and I as musicians are old souls,” Radzynski said. “We don’t really adhere too much to the modern style. During Ben’s time, he could go and hear David Oistrakh live. And he heard some of these great violinists live. It was a different kind of culture back then, and people played very differently.”

Sayevich, as one can imagine, is immensely proud of his former student.

“From the moment David came to play for me, I was immediately struck by his signature tone production,” Sayevich said. “It was radiant with the right kind of natural warmth and opulence that potentially makes one a great violinist.”

Radzynski will soon be moving back to the United States from Israel to take up his position with Cleveland, although an official start date has yet to be announced. He says that he fully intends to return to Kansas City often to give master classes and recitals for the International Center for Music.

“ICM is a huge and very important part in the cultural development of Kansas City,” Radzynski said. “The people who come to ICM to study end up achieving world-class status, and they keep coming back to Kansas City, and it feeds the culture of Kansas City. I think the city should feel very proud of the International Center for Music and what it is contributing to the community.”

For his part, Sayevich is looking forward to the continuing success of his protégé and friend.

“Knowing David for so many years first as a student and later as a colleague, experiencing personally his great demand on himself, not being satisfied with anything less then the absolute maximum from his playing, I have complete confidence that he will be one of greatest American concertmasters.”

Learn more at davidradzynski.com. To learn more about Park University’s International Center for Music, icm.park.edu.

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.