Vitalij Kuprij

[TSOd]

Vitalij Kuprij passed away Feb 20 2024 of a heart attack at age 49. Gone too soon. He studied in his native Ukraine Switzerland and the Curtis Institute in the USA. The Curtis Institute is more prestigious than Julliard. His teacher was Gary Grafman a professional concert pianist in his own right. I have seen videos of Vitalij at the Curtis Institute and with symphony orchestras. Vitalij recorded an album of Chopin and Liszt music. He also has a wonderful neo-classical/contemporary album of original piano music '12 Months of the Year.' Prog/Rock was his main focus with quite a few albums. I have the 'Forward and Beyond' because it has some of the music he played with TSO as his solos. I saw Vitalij when he started with the East 2009? and played the second half and 2 years/3 shows BLN 2011 once /2012 twice. Luckily I have his autograph from 2011. At the final  BLN in 2012 my wife spoke to him in Russian at the meet and greet. He was so surprised he almost jumped over the table. Rest in Peace Maestro. As the Russians say: Memory Eternal. Vitalij was laid to rest in Pennsylvania. He leaves two relatives his  "significant other" Vanessa  and his pets. There is/was a Go Fund Me page to help defray funeral expenses since Vitlaij had no life insurance.

[danfromnj]

Yes, very sad. VK and I got pretty close over the years after I did our career-spanning interview 8 years ago, and we would talk often.  He called me in July and invited me out to hear the new music he was working on with his band Circle of Sanity,  and we wound up doing a new interview with he and his bandmates that coincided with the first single.  In fact, he was out til the wee hours of Feb 20th working on more new CoS music. Composing and performing til the end.  I paid my respects at his funeral/service and burial and it was so sad saying goodbye to someone who was always the life of the party and was the one that always made sure everyone was good.  One of the all-time great prog metal keyboardists for sure, and one of a kind as a person.

There will be 4-5 new songs coming out from what he left us, as his CoS bandmates Josh and Kevin complete the tracks.