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Musical Beginnings<\/strong><\/p>\n Kovetski grew up in Boca Raton, Florida\u2014his dad\u2019s side all dentists, and his mom\u2019s side, musicians.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up, I would intently listen to my grandpa play the cello,\u201d recalls Kovetski. \u201cHearing him play and seeing him perform made me a very musically inclined kid.\u201d<\/p>\n His grandfather was the principal cellist in the Minsk Philharmonic Orchestra in Belarus. Seeking a better life for his wife and children, he immigrated to the United States in 1977 and worked as a traveling cellist. After Kovetski\u2019s grandfather retired, he focused on teaching his young grandchildren\u2014including Kovetski, his older brother, and two younger sisters\u2014how to play cello.<\/p>\n Koveski and his siblings were classically trained. But as they grew older, he and his brother, Emil, started to lean into their unique \u201cdueling cellos\u201d style and decided to take their musical interpretations into a different direction.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started experimenting with different genres of music,\u201d says Kovetski. “We played around with rock and metal music, fusing it with the classical fundamentals we were trained in. That\u2019s when we knew we were onto something cool. Of all stringed instruments, the cello is the closest to the range of the human voice. It can sound both like a delicate violin or a bombastic electric guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n The Big Break<\/strong><\/p>\n At 13 and 15 years old, the brothers started uploading their unique rock music duet videos to YouTube. Little did they know their lives as cellists were about to change.<\/p>\n In 2013, a producer at \u201cAmerica’s Got Talent\u201d reached out asking the brothers to audition for the show\u2019s ninth season. Kovetski recalled thinking immediately that\u00a0the request was fake, as they only had a couple of hundred subscribers on their YouTube channel.<\/p>\n But before they knew it, Kovetski and his brother were competing in the final round of the nationally televised competition, in front of celebrity judges, thousands of people in the audience, and millions of viewers at home.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the most surreal, incredible experience ever,” Kovetski says. “We\u2019d only played in front of our family and at a restaurant party. Never anything this big.\u201d<\/p>\n Amidst all the excitement of performing on the national stage, Kovetski\u2019s grandfather\u2019s reaction to the brothers\u2019 audition, which received a standing ovation from all four celebrity judges and the entirety of the packed concert hall, was the most meaningful and memorable part of the experience.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the performance, we look over to the wings and our grandpa is crying,\u201d he recalls fondly. \u201cIt was probably the most emotionally touching moment. As a 13-year-old kid, I really didn’t fully get it, but just thinking back to what that moment meant to him\u2014he came to this country with his cello and a dream, and seeing us on that stage meant the realization of his American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n After the performance, the brothers\u2019 subscriber count on their YouTube channel skyrocketed, growing from a modest 400 to over 40,000 and millions of views. They also continued to travel, playing music just as their grandfather did.<\/p>\n The Road to Dentistry<\/strong><\/p>\n As the brothers continued their musical pursuits, they also became eager to begin their journey towards becoming dentists, largely inspired by their father, a practicing general dentist in North Miami, Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are three generations of dentists on my dad’s side, and three generations of musicians on my mom’s side,\u201d says Kovetski. \u201cI feel incredibly lucky that we grew up in a musical family, and that dentistry found us at a point in life when my brother and I were looking for meaning. Dentistry is a vessel through which we knew we would have a profound impact on people\u2019s lives, and that’s when we started thinking about how we can specialize our skillsets to take our training as far as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n After graduating from the University of Florida with a Microbiology and Cell Science Degree, Kovetski received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of North Carolina Adams School of Dentistry.<\/p>\n When it was time to choose a specialty, prosthodontics was a no-brainer for Kovetski. To him, it is a specialty that contains a great deal of artistry, reminding him of his musical background.<\/p>\n \u201cI draw a parallel between musical performance and prosthodontics a lot of times. We often see patients who require a lot of complex work, many of whom come to us with no teeth or failing teeth, and they want a functional, highly aesthetic smile again.<\/p>\n \u201cArtistry is in everything we do as prosthodontists. If I had to summarize what we do, it is a marriage between classical engineering principles and artistry. Patients seek our care when they are looking for a highly functional, beautiful smile. It’s also incredibly hands-on; whether we are designing a new smile or performing implant surgery, we are using our hands to craft our creative vision for our patients. Prosthodontics is the specialty of harmoniously integrating beauty, biomechanics, and engineering, all rooted in science. The thing that really attracted me to the specialty is I get to be a doctor who practices as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n UConn Graduate Prosthodontics was a dream program for Kovetski. As a dental student, he heard a great deal about the program\u2019s national reputation and closely followed the work of program director, Dr. Avinash Bidra.<\/p>\n \u201cSpeaking with prosthodontists, both in private practice and at conferences, they all said, you have to go to UConn, they\u2019re doing stuff on another level,\u201d Kovetski says. \u201cI also spoke with the residents at UConn and learned about their experience in the program firsthand. It was clear to me that this residency would give me an exceptional education in prosthodontics. That made me laser-focused on getting into this program.\u201d<\/p>\n Several months into his first year of residency, the program exceeded his expectations. Kovetski enjoys the robust, one-on-one, hands-on teaching approach, which reminds him of his cello lessons with his grandfather.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are only seven residents total in the program, and we are getting one-on-one attention,” he says. “It is remarkably similar to how, in music, I grew up being classically trained by my grandpa; it was always one-on-one master classes. Similarly, in residency, every one of our individual strengths and weaknesses gets highlighted. You’re doing great here, you’re deficient there. I want to work with you on this, and we can take it easy here. It\u2019s truly a masterclass education to use a music analogy.\u201d<\/p>\n Kovetski also admires the rigorous nature of the program, noting how, from the beginning, he and his fellow residents jumped in \u201cheadfirst.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have already gotten through so many fundamental courses and gotten exposure to advanced patient care,” he says. “It’s extremely accelerated. I thought I was busy in undergrad, and then I thought I was busy in dental school. Residency is on a completely new level. It\u2019s very fast-paced.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up in Florida and going to dental school in North Carolina, Kovetski says he doesn\u2019t mind enduring New England weather for a world-class education in prosthodontics.<\/p>\n \u201cThe winters are part of the challenge. So far, it\u2019s kept me motivated to stay busy. Next stop after Connecticut is the North Pole,\u201d Kovetski jokes. \u201cI can always play the cello to stay warm!\u201d<\/p>\n Looking to the Future<\/strong><\/p>\n Even though the prosthodontics program at UConn is rigorous, and the specialty is a sufficient creative outlet for him, Dariel continues to make time to play his cello daily, saying that it is essential for his overall mental health and well-being.<\/p>\n After residency, Kovetski intends to continue to carry on his family\u2019s legacy, blending music and dentistry. He has plans to work with his brother, a practicing periodontist, and open a multispecialty practice back home in Florida.<\/p>\n And will they continue to play music together as dentists, running their own family practice?<\/p>\n \u201cOf course,” he says. “It never stops!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First-year prosthodontics resident blends music and dentistry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":239181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1711,1822,156,2166,2235,2227,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2177],"class_list":["post-238920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-postdoc","category-profile","category-sdm","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-edu-homepage","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 15:52:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238920"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239385,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238920\/revisions\/239385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/239181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238920"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=238920"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=238920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"group](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Unknown-5.jpeg\")