"Cyrus Forough...is an extremely talented violinist who balances his virtuoso technique with a noble tonal sonority and an elegant manner of performance...I have great faith and hope in him."
David Oistrakh
Cyrus Forough and David Oistrakh
"Cyrus Forough is a wonderful violinist in every respect whose qualities as an artist have been admired by the leading violinists of the world."
"Cyrus Forough is a superb violinist."
Josef Gingold
Distinguished Professor of Music, Indiana University
Josef Gingold and Cyrus Forough
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Cyrus Forough is in a handful of great violin teachers. Ruggiero Ricci |
Cyrus Forough and Ruggiero Ricci
"I have known Cyrus Forough for many years...His outstanding talent was displayed at the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition. Not only does he possess a beautiful tone and musicality, but remarkable violin mastery as well. I believe his performances will attract the admiration of both the public and musicians alike."
Leonid B. Kogan
"I congratulate you on the fine work you do (...with Rachel Lee...). My best wishes for your continued success."
Dorothy Delay
"Cyrus Forough is a talented and gifted artist. He possesses great technical freedom as well as highly refined artistry...He is an excellent violinist...and will become a remarkable and outstanding artist."
Oleh Kryssa
Assistant Professor, Moscow Conservatory
"The violinist Cyrus Forough is a highly talented musician. His fine sense of style, musicality, and instrumental perfection is rare. His execution of Shostakovich's First Concerto had a profound effect on me. He displayed his exquisite talent, penetrating the work with a profound understanding of its psychological depth."
Rudolf Barshai
Conductor
"Cyrus Forough is a remarkably interesting musician who possesses all the qualities necessary to become premier violinist. He has an extremely beautiful sonority, a superb quality of technique, and noble style of playing...His musical understating is supplemented by his rich cultural background...Forough is a true artist."
Inna Kollegorskaja
Pianist, accompanist in the studio of David Oistrakh
"This young couple [Cyrus Forough and Carolyn McCracken] is rather amazing."
Lukas Foss
Conductor and composer
Cyrus Forough and Carolyn McCracken
"Mr. Forough...is a thorough, master teacher who seeks to instill solid technical foundation as well as develop in a student a sense of what is necessary to unleash music's profound communicative powers.
A gifted violinist himself, Mr. Forough has had outstanding training from some of the 20th century's greatest international masters, including Arthur Grumiaux and David Oistrakh. Under such guidance, it is not surprising that he captured significant international competition prizes. He has amassed a wealth of high-level professional performance experience and is a recognized due recitalist.
His unusual commitment to teaching at the pre-collage level is especially noteworthy. A teacher who understands the importance of making his top tier pedagogical expertise available to pre-college students is one who is truly laying groundwork for the future health and vitality of the music profession as well as for the American culture in general."
David Cerone
President of the Cleveland Institute of Music
"Cyrus performed beautifully with impeccable rhythm, lovely tone quality, musical conviction, and strength of character. He is a violinist you ought to hear!"
Paul Polivnick
Music Director, Alabama Symphony Orchestra
"Mr. Cyrus Forough is known to me as an unusually gifted violinist. His outstanding teachers and his great successes as a concretizing artist in America, Europe, and Asia speak for a great future...in a recent concert, Mr. Forough showed himself as a brilliant violin virtuoso and a musician of depth."
Julius Herford
Professor Emeritus of Music, Indiana University.
“Forough displayed deep interpretive insight, technical mastery and skillfully revealed different aspects of his brilliant gift…a musician with a great future.”
Pravda
Moscow
“A triumph…Forough evoked a deeply poetic vision of mystic quality…he gives the music his essence and then the miracle happens.”
La Libre Belgique
Brussels
“There is little doubt that the Forough Duo has a bright and promising future. The quality of their playing was impeccable from start to finish…marvelously fresh, lively and spirited…maintaining delicate balance between parts and displaying subtle command of tempo variation. Violinist Forough offered a dashing stage presence and a superior command of the art of interpretation. One is immediately struck by the beautiful tone he evokes from his instrument…classic ingredients of success: rich, smooth, full-bodied tone coupled with a dash of the ethereal. If performances like this in front of a completely captivated audience are an example of the duo’s high caliber musicianship and professional decorum, then the world should be their oyster.”
Ann Arbor News
“A world class soloist…a musician of international stature.”
Milwaukee Sentinel
“The duo was nothing short of magnificent…an astoundingly brilliant performance…tumultuous and appreciative applause continued…all our expectations did not imagine that we would have been given such a rich treat of music by these artists.”
The Star
Jamaica
“The performance embodied fiery enthusiasm…in addition to an outstanding technique he revealed a marvelous musical vitality which gave us great pleasure.”
Le Soir
Brussels
“‘Don’t ever die!’ was the admiring scream of the audience after the ovations were received by the Forough/McCracken couple. Cyrus impressed the public with his technical virtuosity, the purity of his harmonics, and the skill and velocity of his staccatos in the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso of Saint-Saens. As the last piece of the program, his rendition could do no less than unleash the ovations.”
La Nacion
Buenos Aires
“Warsaw’s audience especially loved violinist Cyrus Forough. His instrumental ability and beautiful cantilenas won enthusiastic and prolonged applause.”
Warsaw News
Poland
“An abundant quantity of beauty…their rendition was of the highest level…a magnificent display of virtuosity and warmth…the Forough/McCracken Duo reached absolute ‘maestria’.”
Los Andes
Mendoza
“Forough’s rendering of the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 was especially authoritative and unusually expressive…illuminating performance.”
The Milwaukee Journal
“Forough executed his program with perfection and with profound musicality.”
Gazet van Antwerpen
Belgium
“Masterful…his performance was a revelation for everyone. His beautifully balanced control quickly gripped the audience. He has all the solidarity and sincerity of his master, the late David Oistrakh.”
Kayhan International
“”In his performance of Hindemith’s Concerto for violin, Cyrus Forough evoked a deeply poetic vision of mystic quality emanating from the purest sources…extremely luminous sonority…stark beauty of phrasing…he explores in depth an enlightened technique which is precise, pure and profound, allowing no barrier between mind and matter…most moving sincerity…it is not enough to say that he is a virtuoso of precision and depth: one must state that his lyricism effaces all artificiality and infidelity, and that he attains such a purity of style that he quite naturally transforms the most austere moments of musical art into something that ripples and flows resplendently. In expressing the classicism and hidden magic of this austere composer, Forough succeeded in conveying the intrinsic essence of the work. Deeply inspired…he expertly revealed that however authentic be the maturity, it can only really come into its own through inner happiness.”
“Le Journal”
Michel Sorouille
“His presence on stage is remarkable, grand and solid. His charm seduces the audience immediately with impressionable courage and spirited boldness.”
Vers l’Avenir
Brussels, Belgium
“…he approached the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the caresses of a tamer…a magnificent violinist, he makes the music his and enriches it; he gives it his essence and then the miracle happens…thoughtful…refined, warm phrasing…every note was a poetic world and spiritual creation that honored the composer…he possesses a clear, precise and prodigious technique, superbly free left hand and magnificently supple control of the bow, a pure and perfect use of the arm and entire body. His profound sonority is comparable exactly to the great David Oistrakh, intimate, pure and vibrant. Lyrical at all times and always in superb control of himself, of the score, and of the music entirely…he adds something angelic to the diabolical parts of the score. Because of his magnificent qualities, the second movement was unique. His technique finds in the most secret and intimate places, the most pure and vibrant face of its truth…the finale, under the fingers of the knowledgeable violinist and with flying bow (which was at the same time separated from any Paganinism) was a lesson of beautiful virtuosity, of eloquence and precision. He was justly ovationed and the public demanded encores. He gave himself magnificently. The music was served in a noble manner and we cannot thank him enough for it. With the Concerto he traveled through the royal kingdom of music and conducted us all happily to the end of the voyage.”
Michel Sorouille
Journal de Teheran
“Forough showed great confidence and precise interpretation. He drew forth from his violin the sweetest and most luscious voice. It is refreshing to see a young musician who does not, as so many “rising stars”, seem to need the help of various flairs and embellishments, but adheres strictly to pure, classical technique and musicality.”
Teheran Journal
“The Forough Duo was in perfect accord. Forough’s brilliant technique, McCracken’s florid touch and their fine attunement to each other made them a wonderfully well-matched duo. No doubt they exemplified the best America has to offer in classical music…they were an inspiration and audiences were enraptured with their performances.”
The Daily Gleaner
Venezuela
