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Interview: Ray Ushikubo on Playing the 1741 'Playfair' del Gesù violin

December 12, 2025, 4:47 PM · Violinist Ray Ushikubo has come a long way from the $20 violin he started on at age six. In November he received the loan of one of the most rare instruments in the world - the 1741 "Playfair" Guarneri "del Gesù" violin, from the New York-based dealer Colin Maki Inc..

A native of the Los Angeles suburb of San Gabriel, Ushikubo, 24, is currently a post-graduate student at the Colburn School and under management by the school as a Colburn Artist. He is actually a multi-instrumentalist - he is also a pianist who was named a Steinway Artist as a teenager and won the 2017 Hilton Head International Piano Competition. He appeared on From the Top and the Jay Leno Show, and he has performed as a pianist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and at Carnegie Hall.

While many people know the name of the legendary violin maker Stradivari (1644-1737), his contemporary Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri (1698-1744) made violins of equal caliber. (His violins acquired the name "del Gesù" ("of Jesus") because the labels inside his instruments made after 1731 include a cross, with the Greek abbreviation for Jesus (IHS) beneath.)

"Del Gesù" violins tend to be valued higher than Stradivari violin because they are rarer - there are some 150 "del Gesù" violins left in the world, while there are about 500 Strads. While the specific value of the "Playfair" has not been disclosed, "it’s well into the eight figures," Colin Maki told the LA Times.

In other words, it's a pretty big deal, to get to play one.

Over the last month Ushikubo has given a debut recital with the violin at the Colburn School and has appeared in media all over the world to publicize the loan - from the LA Times to CNN. On Sunday he will perform his east coast debut on the "Playfair" violin at a private concert at Colin Maki Inc.'s New York location.

Listen while you read: Here is Ushikubo's debut concert Dec. 3 with the "Playfair" del Gesù violin at the Colburn School's Zipper Hall. He performed the Vitali Chaconne, Milstein's Paganiniana, the Chausson Poème and Ravel's Tzigane with pianist ??.

I spoke to Ushikubo the day before his Colburn recital, and he told me about what inspired someone from a non-musical family to take up both the piano and violin and pursue both instruments at such an intense level, and about his journey that brought him into this rarefied world of fine instruments.
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Bach's Cello Suites: Once Dismissed as Curiosities, Now Hailed as Iconic Works

Edward Klorman

December 9, 2025, 12:52 PM ·

"Compared with [J. S. Bach’s] six sonatas for violin without accompaniment, these violoncello solos are light and unpretending. Nevertheless, they are interesting, because they are Bach’s. The first and last (in C major) are little better than exercises for the acquirement of mechanical facility, more suitable to the studio than to the concert-room, for which they were clearly never intended . . ."

This tepid review was one critic’s take on an 1868 performance by Alfredo Piatti of three movements from Bach’s Cello Suites, at London’s Monday Popular Concerts. Bach had composed the Cello Suites around 1720, and they were first published a century later. Nonetheless it was not until around the 1860s that they slowly began to enter the concert hall, where they received a mixed critical response.

After all, the Bach revival of the early 1800's had celebrated the grandeur and expression of his sacred choral works and the contrapuntal mastery of his keyboard and organ music. So what was one to make of music for a single cellist, playing alone? Didn’t these pieces need something . . . more? What would it take for them to sound less like études and more like concert music?

Some musicians experimented with adding piano accompaniments to enrich Bach’s harmony and to appeal to the tastes of contemporary audiences. Robert Schumann, who deemed the Cello Suites "the most beautiful and important compositions ever written for the violoncello" nevertheless held that Bach’s unaccompanied music for violin and cello "would be considerably improved by a piano accompaniment and thus accessible to a larger public." His accompaniment to the Cello Suites is mostly lost today — only Suite No. 3 survives — but manuscript copies circulated during the 19th century as far as Adelaide (Australia). Friedrich Wilhelm Stade performed his own keyboard accompaniment for performances at the Altenburg Singakademie with an unnamed trombonist in 1869 and with a violist in 1870, to critical acclaim.

As late as 1927, the acclaimed cellist Julius Klengel recorded the Sarabande from Cello Suite No. 6 with Stade’s cello-piano arrangement.
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The Week in Reviews, Op. 529: Vadim Gluzman, Sergey Khachatryan, Kala Ramnath

Laurie Niles

December 8, 2025, 9:05 PM · In an effort to promote the coverage of live violin performance, Violinist.com each week presents links to reviews of notable concerts and recitals around the world. Click on the highlighted links to read the entire reviews.

Vadim Gluzman performed Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Utah Symphony and Markus Poschner.

Utah Arts Review: "The Ukrainian-born violinist gave an impassioned reading that delved into the complex emotional fabric of the work....Gluzman captured the emotions Shostakovich expresses here with heartfelt playing that was mirrored by Poschner’s sensitive accompaniment."

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The Music Guild Remembers Dr. Sloan at Trio Azura Concert

Laurie Niles

December 8, 2025, 2:49 PM · I can only imagine Dr. Sloan's reaction, after a beautiful concert by Trio Azura on December 1 at St. Alban's Episcopal Church by UCLA, sponsored by The Music Guild.

He'd be tugging at my sleeve after the concert, smiling ear-to-ear, with that characteristic twinkle in his eye, "Did you hear that? They were phenomenal! Can you believe these young musicians? They can do anything!"

Dr. William Sloan - surgeon, amateur violinist, luthier, owner of two storied violins (the 1714 "Jackson" Stradivari and the 1742 "Sloan" Guarneri del Gesù) and great lover of everything violin - passed away in October at the age of 84, after a long illness. The Music Guild dedicated Monday's concert to Dr. Sloan, saying some words about him before the performance and featuring a lovely tribute to him in their program booklet.

Dr. Sloan was a longtime board member of The Music Guild, serving as its treasurer for some 20 years, and he scarcely ever missed a concert, until he fell too ill to go.

I had never been to a Music Guild concert, but you could say that Dr. Sloan brought me to this one - I knew it was being held in his memory and I did not want to miss that. And now I understand why he enjoyed these concerts so much.

This one featured Trio Azura: violinist Duncan McDougall, cellist Yejin Hong and pianist Yanfeng (Tony) Bai. The group is currently the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Colburn School, which is where they were founded in 2022. They have some impressive achievements under their belt, including winning the Grand Prize and Gold Medal at the 2024 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and won the Young Concert Artists Competition in 2025.

Here is a group in ascendancy - and in prime shape. They play with an acute sense of one another and of the music's ever-changing requirements. No one is the clear "hot dog" player - and yet no one isn't, either. Each can clearly step into the virtuoso seat when needed, or step back into a supporting role. Keep reading...

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