Johanna Bourkova-Morunov and her husband, Pavel Morunov, are working hard and living the American Dream, playing with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra. They’ll be featured soloists on the opening night of the Philharmonic’s Sound of Innovation concert series on Saturday, Nov. 2.

These three concerts, which also include Feb. 15 and March 15, feature the Philharmonic’s 44 full-time musicians in the chamber orchestra format. The concerts take place in the GE Club at Electric Works, on the floor with no stage. 

Tickets are $50, but an upgrade to a $75 ticket will  get you a tasting box of food from Union Street Market and one drink ticket. You can enjoy your food and drink at your table with your friends during the concert.

Giving everyone a chance

Last month, Philharmonic Music Director Andrew Constantine told me his plan for each Sound of Innovation concert. In addition to chamber orchestra works, he programs a concerto featuring a soloist from within the orchestra — not an international star flown in for the gig as they do in bigger productions.

Now in the strict hierarchy of an orchestra, solos are supposed to be played by the principal or “first chair” musician on each instrument. But for these concerts, Constantine has a different idea.

“The soloists all happen to be what would be called assistant principals, or No. 2 in the position,” Constantine said. “It’s to show people the depth of talent in the orchestra and give (musicians) an opportunity.”

Bourkova-Morunov, known to all as Yana, is associate concertmaster, meaning the second chair in the first violin section. Pavel is the second-chair oboist. 

Constantine chose a piece for them to play together: J.S. Bach’s Concerto in C minor for Oboe, Violin, and Strings, BWV 1060R.

Making journey to Fort Wayne

I sat with Yana and Pavel at the Philharmonic’s offices to learn their story. 

“We were very fortunate to have had three beautiful daughters,” Yana said of her children, aged 12, 10, and 5, all born in Fort Wayne. “Well, we think it’s a great city for raising a family.”  

Yana calls her girls “twice exceptional.” Their eldest, having sung with the Fort Wayne Children’s Choir for a couple of years, is now studying dance with the Fort Wayne Ballet  and learning trombone.

Proud American citizens, Yana and Pavel came here by different paths from the former Soviet Union.

Yana was born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. A child prodigy, she studied violin at the famous conservatory there. When the Soviet Union collapsed, her parents took the opportunity to start a new life in Chicago.

“I grew up in a city southwest of Moscow,” said Pavel, who is about a decade older than Yana. “And then when I was 18, I got into a very good school in Moscow. For six years I worked in the New Opera House there. Then I came here (to Chicago) to study.” 

That was the School of Music at Northwestern University; Pavel was in grad school, where he met Yana, and undergrad, in late 2001. They married in 2005.

After Northwestern, they went for further studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, then to the Mannes School of Music in New York. After a grueling summer at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, Yana, with a master’s degree and “half a performance diploma,” left school when she won an audition for a full-time chair with the orchestra in Richmond, Virginia.

Full-time positions in orchestras are extremely rare and unbelievably competitive. Auditions are always “blind,” in which each applicant plays behind a curtain and those doing the hiring don’t know their age, gender, or race. A married couple is given no consideration. 

Pavel auditioned also, but was not selected.

“So we did long-distance for a year, which was miserable,” Yana said.

They learned that the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra was auditioning in Chicago, and this time, they both won seats. Unfortunately, they played in Hawaii for only two years, until that orchestra went bankrupt.

The next move was to Chicago “because that’s where my family is,” Yana said. “We had some connections to start freelancing.” 

There were no openings in the well-paying Lyric Opera or the Chicago Symphony, so they tried out for smaller groups. They would get hired for a week at a time with far-flung orchestras, often separately. 

“I call it the ‘freeway philharmonic,’ because you drive, drive, drive everywhere,” Yana said. 

Those were especially lean years. Yana and Pavel couldn’t earn enough money to start a family or even afford health insurance.

Then, in 2011, they both won auditions with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and they started a new home. 

Yana rose to associate concertmaster. 

In addition to the orchestra concerts with the Philharmonic, they play gigs every week all over the area. Yana is first violin with the Harrison String Quintet, a group that plays more jazz than classical, while Pavel plays with the Philharmonic’s Woodwind Quintet. 

Pavel completed his doctorate in music in 2015. As an adjunct professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne, he has a couple of oboe students.

Fort Wayne has been their home for 13 years, and next year they will celebrate their 20th anniversary with their three beautiful, extremely bright daughters.

The Sound of Innovation Concerts

Nov. 2 — Andrew Constantine, conductor; Johanna Bourkova-Morunov, violin; Pavel Morunov, oboe.

Janáček, Suite for String Orchestra (1926); Gounod, Petite Symphonie for wind instruments (1885); Barber, Adagio for strings (1936); Bach, Concerto in C minor for Oboe, Violin and Strings, BWV 1060R (circa 1720, arranged in the 20th century).

Feb. 15 — Andrew Constantine, conductor; Laurie Blanchet, clarinet.

Beethoven, String Quartet No. 11, “Serioso” (1810); Weber, Concertino for Clarinet in E-flat major, Op. 26 (1811); Mozart, Eine kleine Nachtmusik (1787); Ravel, Le Tombeau de Couperin (1917); Mendelssohn, Intermezzo and Notturno from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826).

March 15 — Fernanda Lastra, conductor; Vivianne Bélanger, flute. Argentinian conductor Lastra is coming from Buffalo, New York, for this concert.

Dvořák, Serenade for wind instruments, Op. 44 (1878); Mozart, Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major, K. 313, Movement 1 (1777); Gershwin, Lullaby for strings (1919); Brahms, Serenade No. 1 in D major, Op. 11, Movement 1 (1858); Elgar, Salut d’amour (1888) and The Wand of Youth,  Second Suite, No. 3, “Moths and Butterflies” (1908); Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22, Movements 4 and 5 (1875).

To learn more and purchase tickets, go to fwphil.org/events.