BROTHERS born into the a musically gifted Slovakian family chose opposite routes to outstanding skill, acclaim and recording deals. Music lovers in Limerick are familiar by now with Vladmimir Jablokov, the charismatic violinist who made his home alone in Dublin whilst still a teenager. He has regular concerts, ’A Viennese Christmas’, ‘Classical Twist’ at UCH and commands an avid fan base – dashing looks no inhibitor.
On Sunday March 8 at the concert hall, Vladimir will be joined on stage by younger brother, Anton and their award-winning compatriot Adam Kuruc who is pianist, co-arranger and co-producer.
Expect a lot. Vladimir makes the point that every concert on this ‘Two Brothers’ tour “is an individual one. This show is the most exciting show for me.. an incredible inspiration”.
He is fuelled by admiration for Anton who pursued the classical education route; groomed as children for the places at the Conservatoire in Bratislava, Vlad himself bucked out and lucked out on a solo run. Little brother went on to a Master’s in musical performance in Switzerland and will continue next year in a rarefied diploma open only to exceptional students.
Meanwhile, Vlad the Bold was busking on Dublin streets before his survival skillset coined fortune and fame. Describing Anton’s vision as being a career musician with 100 others in a symphony orchestra “and he does play in a very good orchestra”, Vlad admits, “I had a completely different idea of where I was going to”.
Question: Did you really get up and run away from home?
He hesitates. “If you say so that way, yes.” Young Jablokov came to Ireland with €500 in his pocket and yes, looking for accommodation was “quite terrible” but he succeeded, inspired by the tradition of emigrés fleeing the Bloc.
Vladimir was able to get beyond what he calls commercial music and “I found tunes that I wanted to play, and now I get the same reaction from people in concert halls as I did on the street”. What Vladimir and Anton, with Adam, have done for 2015 concerts and their album ‘Rubyworks’ (released by Warner this week) is “take tunes and arrange them into something we are comfortable with.
“Take ‘The Godfather’, we are using special sounds, special techniques, their are parts where we can show off a bit. There are more tricks and music on the programme is from Europe, eastern Europe, Russian composers, taken from Hungarian Gypsy, Russian Kalinka”.
Time and again Vladimir Jablokov references the challenges, technical feats, the excitement and specialness of their creativity together. To share the joy, book at www.uch.ie and box office.
