Meet Evan Drachman | Cellist, Artistic Director and Founder of The Piatigorsky Foundation

We had the good fortune of connecting with Evan Drachman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Evan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
As a performing artist, I play the cello, my goal after graduating from The Curtis Institute of Music was to perform. As is common in this profession, my telephone did not immediately start ringing with concert opportunities. I was advised that the best route towards a career was winning a major international competition. I set my sights on the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. I sent off my application along with my publicity photo and my application check. This was a non-adjudicated round. The competition cashed my check so I believed that all was set. I practiced all day every day for close to a year. The repertoire was ready to go! All of my friends began receiving their acceptance letters and instructions for travel to the USSR. Mine did not arrive. I tried calling the office in Moscow at all times of day and night. There was never anyone to answer the phone. I asked Mstislav Rostropovich (world renowned Russian cellist) for his advice. He said that if they don’t want you there is no point in going. I wouldn’t give up and contacted the American Embassy in Moscow. Under the embassy’s return address I was sent the acceptance packet for the competition. Off I went! When I arrived I noticed the concert hall did not have my name out in front like all the other competitors. The booklet did not have my photo and biography. I played the first round and was immediately interviewed by Pravda – the Moscow newspaper. They believed that I would continue to the second round. That night my translator sheepishly called to tell me that the authorities were invoking a never before used rule. Any competitor who got below a certain score could not remain in the country even until the end of the round. I was awarded straight zeros. The only western judge had not been given a visa to enter the country. I left Moscow and returned home. My parents had the audacity to be bicycling across the United States that summer. This was a time before cellular phones existed. I couldn’t stop practicing. I was like a gerbil running on a wheel. I was forced to think about my motivations. Clearly the judges did not want to hear my cello. Why was I doing this? My conclusion was that I wanted to play music for people that wanted to hear it. I remembered performing a warm-up concert in a retirement community before my graduation recital from The Curtis Institute of Music. There were close to two hundred people in attendance, a nice auditorium and a good grand piano. I started the Piatigorsky Foundation to bring live classical music into retirement communities. As I traveled across the United States, I began to realize that many people are isolated from this experience. Sometimes it was simply geographic and sometimes it was economic. Many schools had cut music from their curriculums. I expanded the mission to include all communities that did not have access to live classical music. We perform in retirement communities, schools, churches, synagogues, prisons, work places – anywhere people gather. It is now thirty-three years later and I am still happy to bring my cello on the road to perform for communities throughout the United States.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a concertizing cellist. I perform many concerts each year in both traditional and non-traditional venues. As much as I love concert halls, it is the community centers, churches, schools, libraries, museums and prisons that are in many ways the most rewarding. The audience is an enormous part of any performance. To play for an audience that truly needs music is a great joy. I have learned that the level of artistry one brings to a performance is entirely between the musicians and the audience. It is not about the fancy trappings, the well stocked green room, the newspaper critic or the “sophistication” of the audience. Even people who have never previously heard classical music know when they are experiencing something of value.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am not from Arizona. I live in Baltimore, Maryland. Each time I have visited the Phoenix area I am taken with the wonderful restaurants, exciting cultural life and gorgeous landscapes. For me, the most important thing about anyplace is the people. I am always most excited about visiting with friends and getting to spend time eating, drinking and making music together.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to thank my parents for believing in me and the importance of music. It takes a lot for a parent to believe in the arts – particularly the performing arts – as a career path for their child. They were encouraging, supportive and immensely helpful (and I hope proud) of me throughout my childhood and early adult life. Luckily my mother grew up with a cellist father, Gregor Piatigorsky, and my father, although a world renowned neurologist, was passionate about music and the clarinet he so loved. They only flinched a little when I chose music school over Harvard University!

Website: www.pfclassical.org

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