Who better than his former violin students to pay tribute to the iconic Yehudi Menuhin, one of the 20th century’s finest and most celebrated classical musicians?

On 18 January 2025, violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky and Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s Concertmaster James Cuddeford – both former students of Menuhin – will join hands to celebrate the legendary violinist with a unique performance at Hong Kong City Hall, A Homage to the Legendary Yehudi Menuhin.

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin (1916 – 1999) was certainly one of the greatest violinists the world has ever seen. A child prodigy like Mozart, he was literally “the most famous kid on the planet” in the 1930s, to quote his biographer Humphrey Burton. At his Berlin concerto in 1929 when he was 13, Albert Einstein, who was in the audience, said tearfully that “the day of miracles is not over”.

A true believer in the healing and transcendent powers of music, Menuhin wanted to make the world a better place through his music. He was the first Jew to perform in Germany after World War II. An inspirational pedagogue, he poured his heart and soul into nurturing the next generation of musicians, founding the renowned Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK in 1963, and establishing the prestigious Menuhin Competition for Young Violinists in 1983.

James Cuddeford

James Cuddeford, Concertmaster of Hong Kong Sinfonietta and one of Australia’s foremost musicians, remembers vividly his lessons with Menuhin: “I first played to Menuhin when I was 11 years old, and I went to his school in the U.K. a year later. He was always tremendously inspiring in lessons, even when he was talking about the most simple and basic physical aspects of violin playing! He could make amazing links and connections between completely different ideas, and this made everything relevant and important to music making.”

From Bach’s well-loved Concerto for Two Violins in D minor and Elgar’s exquisite Serenade for Strings, to Bartók’s captivating Divertimento and the Hong Kong première of Panufnik’s Violin Concerto, the beauty and enchantment of some of the best works written for strings will be celebrated at the concert.

Hong Kong Sinfonietta Strings

“Menuhin knew three of the four composers (obviously not Bach!), so I feel it is a very personal programme. I was lucky to play the Bach Double Concerto with Menuhin conducting in London and France when I was a teenager, and Sasha (Alexander Sitkovetsky) also played a lot with Menuhin. So hopefully some of his insights are still present in our music making!” Cuddeford explains.

Cuddeford will share the stage with his former classmate, violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, Artistic Director of the renowned NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra Wroclaw in Poland, and Associate Artist at the Yehudi Menuhin School. “Sasha (Alexander Sitkovetsky) and I went to the school at the same time. Being at the school always gives you a special “bond” as it was back in the 1990s – such a small and intense place,” Cuddeford recalls.

Alexander Sitkovetsky by Vincy Ng

Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow, Russia, to a family with a well-established musical tradition. He made his concerto debut at the age of eight, and the same year moved to the UK to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School. He performed with Menuhin on several occasions.

“Spending time with Lord Menuhin was incredibly inspiring and illuminating. I actually didn’t have that many lessons with him as he was always touring around the world, but I had the opportunity to perform with him many times. The first time I played with him, I was only 9 years old and we played the Bach Double Violin Concerto, which you will hear in our programme with the wonderful Hong Kong Sinfonietta and James Cuddeford. Although I was very young, it was an incredible experience to share the stage with such a great artist and human being. One of the things that I remember from backstage is that Lord Menuhin was very good at yoga, so before the concert he showed me how he stood on his head. He was already in his 70s but he was in such fantastic physical shape and he told me that yoga was very important for that,” Sitkovetsky recalls.

Yehudi Menuhin, 1982

When asked about his special bond with James Cuddeford, Sitkovetsky explains with a smile: “We have a nickname for all of the students who have come through the Menuhin School. We are called the EX-Men which is a very fun way for us to keep that connection from our childhood. I’ve known James since I was 8 years old and although we have hardly ever seen each other since he graduated more than thirty years ago, that connection remains and it will be such a wonderful occasion to share the stage with him, especially with the theme of the concert being so appropriate for our collaboration”.

Lord Menuhin has played such an important role in the lives of so many people around the world, and those who have been lucky enough to spend time with him, and especially make music with him, have their own individual memories of the artist. For this tribute concert, Sitkovetsky has chosen pieces of music that connect him the most with Lord Menuhin.

Alexander Sitkovetsky with Yehudi Menuhin

“Both the Elgar Serenade and the Bartok Divertimento are works that I played as a student in the Menuhin School’s orchestra with Maestro Menuhin conducting. The Bach we played together when I was very young, and the Panufnik is a great contemporary Violin Concerto that was written for Menuhin and, when I was 15, I was asked to perform it as the soloist with him conducting the school orchestra in London. We had rehearsed it already at the school and we were going to perform it some weeks later, but two weeks after our rehearsal, Menuhin suddenly passed away after catching pneumonia on a plane and, unfortunately, we never got the chance to do this. As I became older and had the opportunity to programme the works that I want, I have kept performing this concerto as much as possible. I am very excited to present the Hong Kong premiere of this wonderful concerto!” Sitkovetsky says with enthusiasm.

More details on the concert can be found here: A Homage to the Legendary Yehudi Menuhin