| "Violinist Gabriel Bolkosky displayed the overwhelming serenity of a master. He made the exceptional look simple, giving the audience the feeling that the ordinary and the magical blended together through his fingers." Vanguardia, October 2006 |
| Gabriel Bolkosky has been praised for the way he "takes audiences into his confidence and includes them" and described as having "the serenity of a master without a hint of coldness." He is executive director of The Phoenix Ensemble, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based nonprofit arts organization dedicated to helping artists and the educational community. His debut solo album, This and That, was released in 2005 to critical acclaim and features both jazz and classical music. Other recordings include explorations of klezmer with Into the Freylakh (The Shape of Klez to Come), of the nuevo tango music of Astor Piazzolla (The Oblivion Project Live), children's folk music with the children's-music group Gemini (The Orchestra Is Here to Play), and contemporary music of composers such as Xenakis and Boulez with his former group Non Sequitur (Non Sequitur). Bolkosky is a sought-after guest artist, performer, and teacher at schools and workshops throughout North America, including at Harvard, Dartmouth, Brandeis, and Princeton and many Suzuki institutes. In Ann Arbor, Bolkosky directs one of The Phoenix Ensemble's signature events, PhoenixPhest!, an annual amateur chamber-music festival held each May, and maintains a private violin studio. |
