Vitalij Kuprij, the respected Ukrainian-American keyboardist, producer and music teacher, passed away on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, at the age of 49. The sad news was shared by Kuprij’s musical colleague Lars Eric Mattsson, the Finnish guitarist, owner of Lion Music Record and producer (you can check the original post below)
Kuprij was part of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra lineup on their latest tour, which ran through November and December last year. Before rejoining the symphonic heavy metal outfit in 2021, he had played with them as a regular member between 2009 and 2019.
All in all, he took part in 17 winter tours with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. As you probably know, these tours always go hand in hand with a number of albums tied to the Christmas season, and the lavish stage sets have always backed that up.
Vitalij Kuprij was born on April 6, 1974. As a musician he made a name for himself above all with his virtuosity on the piano and his wide-ranging, colorful musical knowledge and chops, which let him slot in brilliantly across all kinds of genres and crossover territory. His main focus, though, was classical music and progressive genres, which in the end led him to help shape the symphonic metal sound of Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Over the years of his career, Kuprij put his name on plenty of recordings by various artists and musical projects. Worth singling out in particular is his joining the neoclassical metal band Artension in the late nineties, since his keyboards gave the band’s sound real depth and a more complex character, making for a successful collision of classical influences and metal.
Besides his work with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Artension, Vitalij Kuprij also played with Ring of Fire (alongside guitarist Tony MacAlpine and vocalist Marco Boals) and Vivaldi Metal Project.
