The violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky founded the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra in 1990 at the Korsholm Festival in Finland, of which he founded and served for ten years as the Artistic Director. The NES brings together the most respected string players from top European ensembles. They have toured throughout Europe. Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s transcription for string orchestra of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) was recorded by the New European Strings for Nonesuch Records and was released to tremendous critical acclaim in the summer of 1995. In February 1997, they made their first USA tour performing in 14 cities from Los Angeles to New York. The New Yorker, in a review of this recording, wrote: “[T]he New European Strings Chamber Orchestra combines interpretive insight with exemplary playing; even suspicious purists will hear contrapuntal felicities that keyboard players can only suggest.”