Katya Moeller returns with Tchaikovsky's demanding Violin Concerto

By Diana Nollen, Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa – Violinist and Coralville native Katya Moeller, 21, has been running a series of regional sprints, leading up to three marathons in two days with the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra (SEISO) on April 25 and 26.

Yoga keeps her limber, and five- to six hours of practicing keeps her fingers and mind flexible to handle not only her recent senior recital at New York’s Juilliard School, but also as SEISO’s Artist-in-Residence. Her busy April featured a return to Eastern Iowa for a series of free public recitals and school appearances, culminating with SEISO’s Masterworks 3 concerts, where she will blaze through Tchaikovsky’s demanding Violin Concerto.

These Masterworks performances, rounding out the orchestra's wildly successful 75th anniversary season, will be held at 7 p.m. April 25 at Burlington’s Capitol Theater; 2 p.m. April 26 at Ottumwa’s Bridge View Center; and 6:30 p.m. April 26 in Mount Pleasant’s Chapel Auditorium. Tickets are free for children and students; $20 for adults at the door and $18.50 for adults online at www.seiso.us. Each concert features a free pre-show discussion and post-show reception for ticketholders.

A free open rehearsal will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m. April 24 in the Chapel Auditorium in Mount Pleasant, with the Tchaikovsky scheduled for 8:15 p.m.

The Ottumwa concert also includes the Ruth P. Seim Concert for a Cause, raising funds for the Fairfield Community School District’s music program. During intermission, Fairfield High School band will perform “More Cowbell,” “The Best of Henry Mancini,” and “Clarinets Packing Up Early.”

MASTERWORKS 3 PROGRAM

This weekend's concerts will open with Czech composer Bedrich Smetana’s masterpiece, “The Moldau,” and H. Owen Reed’s three-part Mexican folk music symphony, “La Fiesta Mexicana.”

Music Director Robert McConnell is coming full-circle with the Smetana. It was his audition piece that led to his now-35 years leading the orchestra

He views it as, “painting a musical picture of . . . the development of a major river, and the countryside that river travels through.

“I wanted to do it because of the character of this piece and the beauty,” he said. “It’s just a wonderful way to open the concert.”

“La Fiesta Mexicana” turns up the heat with percussion fireworks.

“This is an unusual work to have on the orchestra program,” McConnell noted. “This piece was originally written as a symphony for band and it's one of probably the top band works ever written.” Reed later rewrote it for orchestra.

“I don't know why it isn’t played more, but the audience is gonna absolutely love this piece,” McConnell said. “It captures the spirit of both a celebration at a festival and the celebration of a (Catholic) Mass,” complete with sounds evoking cathedral chimes, Native American and Aztec dances, mariachi stylings, fireworks and celebratory gunfire shot into the air.

Fireworks of a different kind continue in the concert’s second half, with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, featuring Moeller’s physical and emotional artistry. Written in 1878 and now considered a classic, it debuted to mixed reactions in Vienna in 1881. Esteemed critic Eduard Hanslick opined that "the violin was not played but beaten black and blue."

That’s not wrong -- the demands are undeniable, according to Moeller and McConnell.

“I think the piece is nothing short of a marathon, quite honestly,” Moeller said by phone from her parents’ Coralville home. “It really requires an incredible amount of endurance. In my preparation, I’ve really been working on playing through as much as possible (as opposed to starting and stopping), because it’s quite long and intense, physically.

“But also I think emotionally, it's really a journey,” she added, “because it’s such a romantic piece of music. And in the second movement especially, I have to feel what every single note means to me in order to really feel satisfied emotionally.

“The third movement is just like a workout for my left hand, with all of the fast passages, and the running and jumping all over the instrument. And it’s after like 30 minutes of music at this point,” Moeller said. “It's just incredibly technically demanding.” Followed by 20 more minutes of music, Moeller described the piece as “exhausting.”

McConnell echoes that.

“It’s a really physical feat,” McConnell said. “It's just a combination of fire and beauty. It's an impressive piece to hear live because it requires multiple skill sets for the player to play them musically and in tune, (with) a lot of double stops that are tough to line up the perfect intonation.”

WHO IS KATYA MOELLER?

Now 21, she has been soaking in all the New York City arts scene has to offer, from indie rock concerts and jazz clubs to “weird, obscure contemporary music” shows and classical events, plays, museums and hanging out with her friends – after rehearsing for five to six hours a day. She also enjoys taking trains to Upstate New York to go hiking and immerse herself in the kind of nature the city doesn’t afford.

She’s worked hard to strike a work/life balance, something she discovered while attending a music festival at a time when she was questioning her musical future.

She became enamored with violin as a preschooler, while attending symphony concerts at the University of Iowa, where her mother, professor Ksenia Nosikova, is chair of the piano department.

At age 4, Moeller’s parents enrolled her at Iowa City’s renowned Preucil School. At age 8, she began studying with acclaimed professor Almita Vamos in Chicago, then spent her high school years as a fellowship member with the Music Institute of Chicago, before heading to Juilliard. She will graduate May 22 with a Bachelor of Music degree, then embark on a full scholarship there toward a master’s degree.

Along the way, she has performed professionally on stages around the world, garnering accolades and awards for her musical excellence and community service dedication.

Her parents have provided the foundation for her achievements.

Her father, Tom Moeller, logged countless miles driving her back and forth to Chicago and other sites. Her mother not only introduced Katya to music, but has performed with her around the globe for 15 years as the Avita Duo. (www.avitaduo.com)

The mother-daughter performing and recording twosome dazzled audiences in April in SEISO regional recitals, part of Katya’s Artist-in-Residence appearances.

Both also have performed separately as soloists with the SEISO, and McConnell recognized the depth of Moeller's talent while she was still in high school. He was eager to have her return when her academic schedule allowed.

Nosikova, a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the University of Colorado, recognized her daughter’s musical acumen from the beginning.

“I’ve been working with talented kids through my life, so I kind of know what it is when it's just so natural,” Nosikova said following their SEISO recital April 15 in Burlington’s First United Methodist Church.

“She's been always surrounded by music,” Nosikova said. “I was practicing my solo concerto when she was in my tummy.” From infancy, “she heard me practicing (and) she would go to sleep with the music.”

Moeller has fond memories of lying on her back, looking up at the underside of the piano as her mother practiced.

But in typical teen fashion, Moeller wasn’t sure she wanted to pursue such an arduous career path.

“I had a really strained relationship with practicing, as any teenager does,” she said. However, around ninth grade, attending the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine flipped a switch. She discovered people her own age sharing a passion for music, performing together, and being coached by “really awesome faculty,” she said.

“I think through that, I understood that I could have fun. I could have friends and people who understood the kind of time and discipline it takes to really be good at something. I had grown up always saying, ‘yeah, sorry, I can't come to this birthday party, I have to practice,’ or ‘I can't come to dinner, I have to practice,’ and it was always a point of angst.

“And then at Bowdoin, it was like, oh well, we can all practice together and then go to dinner afterwards. And that was a really important shift for me, because I really am a social person and I love spending time with people.”

“She came back a different person,” Nosikova said.

Watching her daughter grow in her artistry, Nosikova describes Moeller as “fluent on her instrument” and has achieved “an incredible voice.”

“She has a very clear idea of how she would like to have things sound. . . . But she has something that I think sets her apart in my mind from many musicians -- that she's sincerely communicating. It's not just amazing violin playing, but there is something that she’s saying.”

The audiences will experience that when Moeller steps into the spotlight, guiding director McConnell and the orchestral musicians through Tchaikovsky’s twists and turns.

Tchaikovsky’s twists and turns.

It’s a fitting conclusion to the organization’s 75 anniversary year – one that McConnell said “dramatically exceeded expectations.”

“We've essentially doubled our season ticket sales in one year and that's unheard of,” he said. “We've sold out a couple of concerts and attendance has dramatically increased.” The choral sound continues to evolve, as well, with a children’s and regional adult choirs joining the orchestral concerts.

Far from time to rest on those laurels, this weekend’s audiences also will get a sneak peek at season 76, as the downbeat goes on.

AT A GLANCE

What: Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra’s Masterworks 3 concerts

Program: Smetana’s “The Moldau,” Reed’s “La Fiesta Mexicana,” Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, featuring Artist-in-Residence Katya Moeller

Burlington: 7 p.m. April 25, Capitol Theatre, 211 N. Third St.

Ottumwa: 2 p.m. April 26, Bridge View Center, 102 Church St.; featuring Ruth P. Seim Memorial Concert for a Cause spotlighting Fairfield High School Band

Mount Pleasant: 6:30 p.m. April 26, Chapel Auditorium, 601 N. Main St.; free open rehearsal 7 to 9:30 p.m. April 24

Tickets: Free for children and students; $20 for adults at the door and $18.50 for adults online at www.seiso.us

PHOTO CUTLINE

Katya Moeller’s expressive style enhances the beauty of Lili Boulanger’s “Nocturne” for violin and piano, performed April 15, 2026, in Burlington’s First United Methodist Church. Moeller, Artist-in-Residence for the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra, was featured in a series of regional recitals and school presentations. She will perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the orchestra April 25 in Burlington and April 26 in Ottumwa and Mount Pleasant. (Photo by Diana Nollen)