Vitalij Kuprij
Vitalij Kuprij (; born July 7, 1974) is a Ukrainian-American pianist, composer, music teacher, and keyboardist for Ring of Fire and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He resides in Reading, Pennsylvania and sometimes even at The Blue Falls Grove when he is not touring. Early life. Vitalij began piano studies at Kyiv's Mykola Lysenko Music Academy where he studied with Professor Nina Najditsch. After graduation, he went to Switzerland to study with Vienna's Rudolf Buchbinder at the Basel Conservatory. In 1995, Mr Kuprij was sent to the United States upon recommendation by Sir James Galway to study with  pianist Gary Graffman, President and Director of Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. From Curtis, while on full scholarship, he obtained another degree and graduated in 2000. Career. Galway chose him as his accompanist for the International Flute Seminar Master Classes held in Switzerland and for work on an international tour. Galway and Vitalij were on National Public Radio in the United States when Galway played a world-premier of one of his original compositions written for piano and flute. Soon thereafter, Vitalij was featured on WRTI for an hour broadcast from Philadelphia titled "Crossover with Jill Pasternak". On March  7, 1999, Vitalij was selected as the soloist to perform the "Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1" with the New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall, followed by performances at the Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. After performing his Carnegie Hall solo debut, Kuprij was featured in a two-page spread in the New York Times written by arts and entertainment writer Dan Wakin. During the summer of 2007, Vitalij appeared at Mexico's "Music Fest" in Mexico City. Vitalij is negotiating with the Kyiv Philharmonic to record the Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Concerto. Trans-Siberian Orchestra. In 2009, he  joined the progressive rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra as a pianist/keyboard player and has been hired back for each subsequent tour ever since. He has toured extensively with TSO in North America and Europe. Vitalij appears on TSO's first EP, Dreams of Fireflies (On a Christmas Night), released in 2012, playing piano on "Winter Palace" and "Time You Should be Sleeping". Vitalij received a writing credit for "King Rurik", a song from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Letters from the Labyrinth album. He was also featured as additional keyboardist of Savatage during its 2015 Wacken reunion show. 2Cellos. In  2017, he joined 2Cellos as keyboardist for their 2017-2018 North American tours. Compositions. When he is not touring, Vitalij works on writing and composing his own piano concerto. He plans to dedicate his concerto to the memory of his late father and mentor who was a professor of trombone and music theory in a conservatory in Ukraine.