Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Violinist Peter Snitkovsky has come to dread family get-togethers and social functions because he's continually asked if he knows how to play the Led Zeppelin classic “Kashmir.”
“It never fails,” Snitkovsky said. “I’ll be at a party and one of my cousins' kids or someone from my wife’s office pops the question about playing Kashmir."
Having spent a lifetime studying, practicing and performing his instrument, Snitkovsky can barely hide his annoyance. “I feel like saying. ‘No, I can’t play it. I’ve got the complete works of Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Paganini down. But I haven’t quite mastered those five notes that Maestro Jimmy Page came up with.’”
Born in the Ukraine, Snitkovsky began studying the violin at the age of 6. At age 16, he won the Ukrainian Violin Competition and two years later was invited to study at the Moscow Conservatory. At 20, Snitkovsky became a member of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra where he remained until leaving the Soviet Union for the United States in 1977.
Soon afterward, the incorporation of classical instruments into popular music has been a small but relentless source of irritation for him. He’s even begun to hide his violin case before anyone comes into his house.
“I’m just afraid I’ll have a plumber in to do some work, and he’s going to see it and ask me if I can play 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' or 'Eleanor Rigby.'”
“It never fails,” Snitkovsky said. “I’ll be at a party and one of my cousins' kids or someone from my wife’s office pops the question about playing Kashmir."
Having spent a lifetime studying, practicing and performing his instrument, Snitkovsky can barely hide his annoyance. “I feel like saying. ‘No, I can’t play it. I’ve got the complete works of Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Paganini down. But I haven’t quite mastered those five notes that Maestro Jimmy Page came up with.’”
Born in the Ukraine, Snitkovsky began studying the violin at the age of 6. At age 16, he won the Ukrainian Violin Competition and two years later was invited to study at the Moscow Conservatory. At 20, Snitkovsky became a member of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra where he remained until leaving the Soviet Union for the United States in 1977.
Soon afterward, the incorporation of classical instruments into popular music has been a small but relentless source of irritation for him. He’s even begun to hide his violin case before anyone comes into his house.
“I’m just afraid I’ll have a plumber in to do some work, and he’s going to see it and ask me if I can play 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' or 'Eleanor Rigby.'”
