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February 2007Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 17February 28, 2007 10:53
While dePasquale declines to discuss those principles, the impetus for her departure probably can be gleaned from the orchestra's recent advertisement in International Musician, the monthly publication of the American Federation of Musicians, for an audition in April for the newly created post of first associate concertmaster. … ========== 2/13/07 – Polyphonic.org, an online resource for professional symphony orchestra players, features an editorial endorsement of a book by violinist Julie Ayer: “Have you ever wondered why certain AFM locals ended up with hyphenated numbers? I belong to Hartford CT Local 400 and New Haven CT Local 234-486. The second number for the New Haven local is that of the separate black local that was established in New Haven in the early part of the 20th century. Julie Ayer, violinist with the Minnesota Orchestra, has excerpted a chapter from her fascinating book, "More Than Meets the Ear: How Symphony Musicians Made Labor History" that explains in detail the story of these AFM segregated black locals and how they ultimately were merged with their white counterparts. This chapter also chronicles the difficulties African-American classical musicians had, not only in winning auditions but also in performing their duties as members of the orchestra. I highly recommend not only this chapter but Julie's book in its entirety. Reading it will make you proud of the impact musicians have had on the labor movement and in improving conditions in their own working lives.” Ann Drinan, editor
3/6/07 - Violinist Pamela Frank will offer a master class to students at Bard College Conservatory of Music. From a college press release: “Frank has established an outstanding international reputation across an unusually varied range of performing activity. Her consistently high level of musicianship was recognized in 1999 with the Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists.” 2/27/07 - Lee University assistant professor of music and violinist, Xiaoquing Yu presented a recital there, reports the Cleveland (TN) Daily Banner. After performing the Faure Sonata No. 1, Yu led the Lee University Chamber Strings as soloist in the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante. Xiaoqing Yu was appointed as assistant professor of violin at the Lee University School of Music in the fall of 2004. He continues to serve as concertmaster of the Greenville Symphony in Greensville, SC. 2/26/07 – The Columbian (WA) featured a moving account of the memorial service for violinist Angela Svendsen, the 31-year-old violinist who was killed by a drunk driver earlier this month. Some 600 people attended, including her 45 students and their families. Her violin and bow, propped up in their case, stood sentinel at the lip of the stage, flanked by two huge floral bouquets and near other personal mementos, including 10 pairs of the violinist’s shoes. "It's hard to find a lot of joy right now," said [husband Erik Svendsen]. "But one thing that does make me happy is knowing that each of her students will carry a little piece of her. Angela considered all of you her kids. You're her legacy. You're what she left in the world." 2/25/07 – The Columbus Dispatch did a Q&A with violinist Jennifer Koh in preparation for her recital there next weekend. The interview included a couple of questions about Koh’s dual degree in English and Music. I enjoyed her response to a question about whether poetry influences her playing: “Each note in music is as important as a word of poetry. There is also a similarity between the weight of the spacing between the words, the punctuation and the choice of words to music and phrasing. Each note might not mean anything on its own, but the relationship of the notes gives them meaning. . . . All artists and all musicians and all writers — everyone needs to find points of inspiration.” 2/25/07 – The Deseret News profiled violinist Leila Josefowicz in advance of her 2/27/07 concert at the University of Utah. The profile contains the tidbit that she generally programs the music of at least one living composer on each recital program she does. The Daily Utah Chronicle also profiled her. 2/25/07 - Prince Edward Island violinist Lysa Choi has won the String Music Atlantic Rose Bowl, according to the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. “Lysa, 15, came to Canada from South Korea a year ago and was delighted to discover that she had more time for violin and piano here than back home. ‘Korean education is so tight’, she said. ‘They have four big exams a year. There’s almost not enough time to study instruments. In Canada, I have more time to play even while learning a new language’. She received the $1,000 prize. Lysa studies with Dalhousie University violin professor Philippe Djokic, as do the runner-ups, Paul Medeiros, 10, and Heemin Choi (no relation), 13.
3/2/07 - The Lancaster (PA) Symphony is presenting Masterworks from East & West, a highlight of a local month-long celebration of India’s culture. The concert’s highlight will be the North American premiere of Subramaniam's Double Violin Concerto. Violinists Igor Yuzefovich and the composer, the renowned L. Subramaniam, will be the soloists, reports the Lancaster Sunday News. Yuzefovich, Lancaster Symphony concertmaster, says, "I like the fact that the piece is so unusual. You don't find a lot of compositions in the classical repertoire that include both a traditional classical music violin and an Indian violin," he said. "With their separate sounds, I think, you really get a feel for both cultures." Here’s an overall view of the festival from another article in the same paper: “Mela is a collaboration between Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Millersville University, Elizabethtown and Franklin & Marshall colleges, Lancaster Museum of Art and York Technical Institute. Its associated events include a Gandhi photography exhibit, an Indian and Himalayan art exhibit, a concert by a master Indian musician, a lecture by Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, an Indian film festival, Indian food and cooking demonstrations, an Indian/American business forum and readings of Indian literature. John Short, dean of humanities and social science at Millersville University, said the college became involved with the festival when it learned Lancaster Symphony Orchestra would be performing with L. Subramaniam, a world-renowned Indian violinist and composer known in his native land as ‘Emperor of the Violin.’ ” Short comments: “They asked if we were interested, and from there we saw a groundswell of interest [in an Indian festival] from organizations throughout our region.” 2/25/07 – The English National Opera is to cut 10 percent of its staff, axing about 45 jobs, reports the BBC. “The ENO said the losses, to include performers and technical staff, were needed to make it 'artistically and financially viable in the long term'. It is aiming to cut fixed costs - £20m of its £30m turnover - saying it feared reduced funding if government money to the Arts Council did not increase….It is thought the opera will reduce core orchestra and chorus members, employing more freelancers for large productions.”
2/25/07 – The Chicago Tribune ran a report on adjustable ticket pricing: “Sold-out houses -- houses that are really sold out -- seem heading toward the same extinction as hand-torn ticket stubs. For those willing to pay, in the future there will always be seats, just as there are always full-fare seats on a peak flight ... For the last three years or so, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has quietly raised single-ticket prices for concerts, once the organization's computerized models indicate that early sales suggest the event will likely sell out.” The article notes that “arts managers are becoming more sophisticated. They're now more likely to have MBAs -- and thus to have studied the benefits of demand-based pricing.” Also, “the advent of affordable technology that makes it possible, say, for the [CSO] to monitor its sales and know when to adjust the prices.” Kevin Giglinto, vice president for sales and marketing at the CSO, comments: “We want to guarantee that the subscribers always get the very best price ... They're the ones with the biggest commitment to the institution.”
Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 16February 26, 2007 05:35
======== 2/24/07 – According to the website Life Style Extras, a Stradivarius violin “made famous in the 1920s by Dorothy Murray Lambert, one of Britain's first women violin virtuosos, is expected to fetch nearly a £1 million when it is sold at auction in New York in April.” The 1729 instrument, called the Solomon Ex-Lambert, “was owned between the wars by Ms. Murray Lambert who was trying to break into a world dominated by male violinists. Kerry K Keane, from Christie's, said he expected the instrument, which will be on display at Christie's in London from February 23-28, to reach $1.5 million. Musician News Violinist David Douglass has been named artist-in-residence and director of the Chicago-based Newberry Consort, effective in July. 2/27/07 – Glenn Watson, a violinist and music therapy student, has received the Earl Warner Scholarship for 2006-07. Sponsored this year by Digicel, the Earl Warner Scholarship is awarded each year by the Earl Warner Trust to a student of the performing arts in Barbados, reports the Barbados Advocate. 2/24/07 – According to The Scotsman, “It was the end of an era in the nation's music history yesterday when the veteran leader of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra announced he was stepping down. Violinist Edwin Paling has been with the RSNO for 34 years. He became the orchestra's principal first violin, and leader, in 1976, aged just 26. The influential position ranks second only to conductor. His wife, Rosalin Lazaroff, is the orchestra's principal second violin.” 2/21/07 – According to the New York Times, "Siegfried Landau, the founding conductor of what is now called the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, died on Monday night, along with his wife, Irene Gabriel, in a fire at their home in Brushton, in northern New York State. Mr. Landau was 85. His wife, a former ballet dancer, was 70. The deaths were confirmed by a spokesman for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, which was known as the Brooklyn Philharmonia during Mr. Landau's tenure, from 1955 to 1971. From 1961 to 1968, Mr. Landau was also conductor of the White Plains Symphony. From both podiums Mr. Landau regularly insisted on conducting new or rarely performed works." The obituary adds that in 1940 "Mr. Landau came to New York, where he studied with the conductor Pierre Monteux. By 1943, he had joined the faculty of the New York College of Music, now Mannes College [of Music at] The New School." 2/14/07 - Gordon Wright, founder of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Arctic Chamber orchestra, passed away at age 72 in his Alaskan cabin on February 14. Wright served as music director of the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra from 1969 until 1989 and as executive director of the Reznicek Society, which he formed in 1982 in the interest of championing lesser-known or forgotten composers, according to the American Orchestra Symphony League. 2/14/07 – The Scotsman waxed rather breathless concerning violinist Caroline Sharp: “A teenage violinist is poised to join the ranks of Scotland's top classical music talent. Caroline Sharp, 17, from Banff has been offered places at all four of the UK's elite music colleges, with scholarships on offer at two of them. Caroline has been offered her pick of the Royal College of Music or the Royal Academy of Music in London, plus scholarships at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester."
2/23/07 - The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Philadelphia Orchestra "has appointed Charles Dutoit chief conductor and artistic adviser. Dutoit, 70, a longtime and frequent guest conductor here who oversees the orchestra's summer series in Saratoga, N.Y., will assume his new titles for the 2008-09 season after Christoph Eschenbach steps down. He has a contract through 2011-12, leading up to eight weeks of subscription concerts each season plus more in Saratoga and on tour….In his new post, Dutoit will take on some administrative responsibilities, the orchestra said in a statement ... Dutoit will not have authority on disciplinary action, and will not have authority over who might guest conduct the orchestra and what they program, said [orchestra President James] Undercofler. Although the players did not vote on the choice of Dutoit, orchestra management said the artistic advisory and members' committees approved the decision." This appointment is believed to provide continuity while buying time for the music director search. 2/22/07 – The Miami Herald finds itself disappointed with the New World Symphony’s 2008 programming choices: "The New World Symphony's discerning programming and mix of standard repertoire with the edgy and offbeat has been one of the main glories of its history the past two decades. Yet the Miami Beach orchestra appears to be suffering from artistic growing pains, for its 20th anniversary season is offering the most conservative, even reactionary programming in its history. Populist standards, familiar guests and conventional repertoire dominate the New World schedule to a degree that alters one's perception of the organization." 2/21/07 – According to the Norway Post, Norway is in the grip of a nationwide flu epidemic. This week, the Trondheim Symphony had to cancel a concert because of it when 30 out of 78 musicians succumbed to the flu.
Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 15February 21, 2007 11:45
There was never any doubt in my mind that I would have to report on this story. Ignoring it would have been unfair to the Violinist.com community, which expects to be informed of significant happenings within the violin world, controversial or upsetting though they may be. As a result of these comments and exchanges, I have found myself contemplating the role of ethics in a musical education. I can’t think of any profession that requires such extensive training as classical music, yet fails to formally address professional ethics. Ironically, the medical, legal and newspaper professions—all widely derided for their lack of ethics in recent years—include professional ethics requirements in their curricula. And, in the wake of the Enron debacle, business schools now require students to complete coursework in ethics as well. The allegations surrounding Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster William Preucil, and the widely differing public comments by readers, seem to suggest that universities and conservatories should consider adding ethics training to their curricula. Let me hasten to add that I say this not because I believe any particular musicians lack ethics, but rather that guided discussions of musical ethical issues that ultimately affect all performers would be helpful at the college/conservatory level. For example, can one be an objective member of an audition committee when relatives or students are auditioning for one’s orchestra? If one doesn’t recuse oneself in this situation, should the orchestra require the member to abstain from voting? Should teachers be allowed to judge their students’ performances in competitions? Is it ethical for an orchestra to refuse to allow audition applicants to play anonymously when that has become standard practice in the United States? Is it ethical for mature professionals in situations of power and authority to express interest in sexual relations with students? Does the fact that the student is legally an adult alter the ethical landscape? Does the fact that classical music is rife with instances of teacher/student relationships make them ethically acceptable? If one is confronted with this situation, what recourse does one have? What obligation do schools have to protect their students from sexual advances by staff and faculty? Should classical musicians, by virtue of their extraordinary talents, be exempt from socially accepted behavior? Important, weighty questions all. And, whatever one’s personal views regarding the Preucil matter, perhaps we should be grateful to have been given the opportunity to consider them together. I pondered these questions while reading the 2/18 New York Times, which featured a profile of the New World Symphony: "In the increasingly professionalized world of modern orchestras, where merely playing beautifully no longer guarantees musical greatness, ticket sales or successful capital campaigns, New World has set itself a distinctive mission: to mold graduates of elite conservatories and university music programs into the ultimate orchestra players while also trying to field a world-class performing ensemble ... The model player is not just a technical whiz but also a musician who can converse with the public, meld into an ensemble, generate interesting programming ideas, schmooze with donors and teach." Here’s what caught my attention: "Players from the world's storied orchestras ... coach them in the nuances of orchestra playing, audition taking, coping with revolving-door conductors. Other experts teach practical matters: managing personal finances, talking to donors, even handling a journalist." The article quotes NWS Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas: "New World is also a 'launching pad for people's lives,' a sabbatical-like moment for young players to explore different ways to make a career in music, he said. 'My personal mission is to have them hold onto "What does this mean?" I'm trying to give the larger message of what music is all about.' " Perhaps Maestro Tilson Thomas would find that ethical training would dovetail with his mission. Thank you again for all the comments!
2/20/07 – San Francisco Classical Voice reports that, as the search goes on for a new concertmaster at the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the group will host Stephanie Chase. “She comes after a sensational bow by Axel Strauss. Next up this season are appearances by Geoff Nuttall and Cho-Liang Lin, and next season, NCCO's 16th, begins with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. For a small organization, it's extraordinary to have such an illustrious lineup of artists interested in succeeding Krista Bennion Feeney, who retired as concertmaster of the conductorless orchestra. 2/18/07 – The North County Times (CA) contained an account of a fatal shooting in which 68-year-old violinist Octavian Crishan is the suspect. “According to several other musicians who had befriended the suspect, Crishan was a talented violinist whose high-profile gigs on the Las Vegas Strip, including performing as the concert master at the Aladdin Casino, had attracted the attention of Sammy Davis Jr., who hired Crishan as a concert master at some of his shows. Two musician acquaintances of Crishan, who both asked that their names not be used, said he had fallen into poor health in the last several years, adding that he stopped playing the violin about 10 years ago because of an injury from a car crash. Crishan was born in Romania and had moved to the United States some 40 years ago to continue his career as a violinist, they said.” 2/18/07 – The Missourian profiled Siri Geneen, concertmaster of the Columbia (MO) Civic Orchestra. Violinist Sally Swanson is also quoted. 2/18/07 – The Cincinnati Enquirer profiled two Cincinnati Symphony violinists, Cheryl Benedict and Anna Reider, who performed the Bach Double with the orchestra last weekend. 2/16/07 – Illusionist Lynn Dillies, who trained as a violinist, performed “Magic at the Symphony” with the San Antonio Symphony Pops last weekend, reports the San Antonio Express-News. 2/15/07 – The Toledo Blade ran an unusual profile featuring violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg in her other role: that of record-label chief.
Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 14February 18, 2007 11:49[This piece has been edited since it was first posted. -- Editor.] 2/14/07 – From its very first words, the Cleveland Scene’s article is an attention-grabber: "Underneath its glossy exterior, the Cleveland Orchestra has a dark side. His name is William Preucil" (Blame the copy editor, not the reporter, for the hyperbole in the deck... but then keep reading the piece.) The article has roiled the classical music community in Cleveland, with its accusations of nepotism and sexual harassment against the orchestra's 12-year concertmaster. More than 200 comments have been appended to the article, many attacking it. Quite a thought-provoking read... Musician News 2/24/07 – Violinist Peter Winograd, a member of the American String Quartet, will perform the Bruch Violin Concerto (G minor) with the Pueblo (CO) Symphony, reports the Pueblo Chieftain. Winograd’s wife is violinist Caterina Szepes, a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. The Hindu, India’s national newspaper, recently published a profile of the great jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. 2/20/07 – Violinist Judith Ingolfsson will fill in for violinist Marco Rizzi at a special concert of the Ronen Chamber Ensemble in Indianapolis. Ingolfsson, currently a faculty member at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the 1998 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis Gold Medalist. Rizzi is unable to enter the United States due to visa problems. In a press release, the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis explained the circumstances: “An unfortunate by-product of post-9/11 life is the difficulty that international artists experience when trying to perform in the United States. The IVCI began the visa application process for Marco Rizzi last November. This process is not supposed to take more than three months, and commonly takes less time. Last week, with no word about the visa, IVCI administration appealed to Senator Lugar's office for help. Our Senator was successful in getting Rizzi's visa application approved by the U. S. government this week, and had it wired to the American Embassy office in Germany where Rizzi lives and works. The breakdown occurred at the American Embassy in Germany when they refused to grant the interview or necessary paperwork allowing Rizzi to travel.” 2/14/07 - In La Scena Musicale, Norman Lebrecht profiles violinist Ruth Palmer, who independently recorded Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1. “Ruth Palmer is part of a new phenomenon. Every year, London’s four conservatories turn out 90-100 outstandingly accomplished string players who face an uphill struggle to find a vacant orchestral seat. No change on that front. The more devastating challenge is the one that faces the elite half-dozen among them who have been groomed to be the soloists of the future. These college stars find after the graduation concert that they are too old, at 25, to get a record audition, an agent or a big date. In our cultural fixation with extreme youth and sex appeal, only teenaged competition winners get taken on; the rest have to rummage for crumbs.” Read the article to find out how Palmer made her dream come true.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced the appointment of two assistant conductors, Julian Kuerti and Shi-Yeon Sung. Kuerti, currently assistant conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, began his training in violin. The MIT Symphony Orchestra has appointed Adam Kerry Boyles its music director, effective this fall. Boyles is currently music director of the Southern Arizona Symphony. The Philadelphia Orchestra is bringing together Arab and Jewish musicians for two "Intercultural Journeys" concerts in March. Curated and hosted by Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Ohad "Udi" Bar-David, a native of Israel, these family concerts will feature an Arab-Jewish ensemble of five musicians in collaboration with the orchestra. The program showcases traditional Arab and Jewish music and also highlights the influence of Middle Eastern music on Western classical composers. 2/16/07 – This weekend, the Lancaster (PA) Symphony is presenting a complete performance of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, reports the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal. The soloists--Mauricio Gonzelez (Spring), Michael Jamanis (Summer), Igor Yuzefovich (Autumn), and Odin Rathnam (Winter)—will rotate sitting in the concertmaster’s chair as well. The newspaper offered an entertaining Q&A in which each violinist answered the same questions. 2/15/07 – According to MusicalAmerica.com, Berlin's Komische Oper has appointed American Carl St. Clair. “For 17 seasons now St. Clair has headed California's Pacific Symphony, including a noteworthy European tour.”
Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 13February 14, 2007 10:57
2/12/07 – The Eugene (OR) Register-Guard reports: "Two members of the Eugene Symphony, driving home from a rehearsal Sunday night, were killed and another was injured when a suspected drunken motorist slammed into their car on Interstate 5 near Albany. Kjersten J. Oquist, 36, of Wood Village and Angela J. Svendsen, age 31, from Vancouver, Wash., died at the scene, police said. A third musician, Kelly M. Gronli, 28, of Portland, was treated and released from an Albany hospital ... The musicians were returning to their homes following a rehearsal, Eugene Symphony Board President Mary Ann Hanson said Monday ... Oquist was the symphony's principal violist. Svendsen was principal violin for the second section. Gronli is the principal oboe player." The article quotes Hanson: "I'm sure all the musicians will be deeply affected by this ... They are young, talented, beautiful, enthusiastic musicians, all three of them." You can also read The Columbian’s take on this sad event. ========= 2/11/07 – Time again for the annual Grammy Awards wrapup. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony came up winners for their recording of the Mahler Seventh Symphony, which won for Best Classical Album and Best Orchestral Performance. String players generally did not fare well this year, though the Emerson String Quartet did win for its album Intimate Voices, surely a bittersweet triumph for violinist Philip Setzer, who recently lost both his parents. Violinist Corey Cerovsek did not prevail with his recording of the Corigliano Violin Sonata, while violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved came up empty with his recording of the Henze Violin Concerti. Violists Roberto Diaz and Yuri Bashmet also came away empty-handed.
The International Violin Competition of Indianapolis will present its 6th annual workshop, Orchestral Auditions for Violinists, June 9-11, 2007 in Indianapolis. Famous concertmaster Rodney Friend, formerly of the New York Philharmonic, will appear. Applications are online at http://www.violin.org. In addition to hiring Tom Cosbey as its new concertmaster, the Thunder Bay Symphony also hired Emilie Pare, assistant concertmaster, and Cho Hee Lee, section violin. The Dayton Philharmonic has hired three section violinists: Kara Lardinois, Calvin Lewis and Yen-Ting Wu. Violinist Tigran Shiganyan has joined the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. 2/23/07 – Violinist Vincent P. Skowronski wrote again to let me know that another track from his album Avec et Sans, Volume II, will be aired on KUAT-FM, Tucson at approximately 1:50pm Mountain Time. The selected work is the rarely heard Duo for Two Solo Violins by Darius Milhaud. Katherine Hughes is the other violinist. You can listen through the radio station’s website: http://www.kuatfm.org. 2/23/07 – The newly formed Seventh Avenue String Quartet will perform the accompanying score for a new play at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, reports San Francisco Classical Voice. The play is Adele Edling Shank's To the Lighthouse, based on Virginia Woolf's novel of the same name. Quartet members are violinists Justin Mackewich and Sarah Jo Zaharako, violist Charith Premawardhana and cellist Alex Kelly. Previews start on Feb. 23; the production opens Feb. 28 and closes March 25. 2/12/07 – Violinist Robert Davidovici earned a positive review from the New York Times for his United States premiere of Paul Kletzki's Violin Concerto (Op. 19, 1928). The work "wavers between tonality and dissonance, with lyrical violin lines, spiky harmonies and lighthearted allusions to cabaret music." Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra supported Davidovici. Also on the program was the New York premiere of the percussionist and conductor Harold Farberman's "lively" Double Concerto for Violin and Percussion (2006), dedicated to Guillermo Figueroa, a violinist and conductor. The review noted the "witty dialogue between the vibraphone and violin." 2/11/07 – Violinist and Violinist.com member Igor Yuzefovich was quoted in a Baltimore Sun article about Side by Side, a Baltimore Symphony Orchestra program that pairs BSO musicians with students from Baltimore and Anne Arundel county schools for a classical music performance. Yuzefovich, the orchestra’s assistant concertmaster, said, "This is a chance these kids rarely get to play with a professional orchestra ... If they choose music, this is a glimpse into the future at the path they might be on." James Boord, supervisor of music for county schools, comments: "For our musicians, it's like playing in Little League and getting a chance to play with the Yankees." The county raised $25,000 to bring about the event. 2/11/07 – According to Mehr News Agency, Iranian violinist Mohammad Baharlu died in Tehran at age 78.“Besides his artistic taste, Baharlu had a high technique. He trained many students who are performing at famous orchestras across the globe,” friend and fellow musician Alireza Ebrahimi added. Baharlu wrote a six-volume guidebook on playing violin according to Iranian style and founded a musical training institute when he was 18.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has one opening for a section violinist and will be conducting auditions in April.
Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 12February 11, 2007 11:062/8/07 - Cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich is currently being treated at Moscow’s premier cancer hospital, reports PlaybillArts.com. “The 79-year-old maestro has undergone 'a complex operation,' according to KP, and his doctors are 'seriously worried' about his condition. Currently only his closest relations and associates are allowed to visit him; a special exception was made for President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday." Here is the Boston Herald’s version of events.
2/10/07 – Violinist Samuel Thompson performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Cortland (NY) Chamber Orchestra to raise funds for the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra. 2/9/07 – According to the Daily Yomiuri, violinist Mariko Senju has released a new CD, Dolce, on Toshiba EMI. "The Duranty model of Stradivarius violin that I obtained four years ago enabled me to create a much softer sound, so I came to hope to play a whole album of tender, or dolce ['sweet' in Italian], numbers. Such numbers bring out the strengths of the playing more than anything’, Senju said, adding that she decided on the lineup of the album as if the violin itself was telling her what to include.” 2/8/07 - The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the death of Peter A. Guroff, violist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. "For nearly a decade and a half, after being diagnosed with lymphoma, the violist's fortitude helped to keep him an active member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and a strong presence for his young family. 'In the last 15 years, he probably missed fewer days than most people missed with the flu,' said PSO section mate Paul Silver." The article continues, "Mr. Guroff was being treated for cancer after he had a relapse in the fall. Tuesday evening, the Mt. Lebanon resident died of pneumonia at West Penn Hospital. He was 47." 2/8/07 – The 2/7/07 – Get to know rock violinist Bobby Yang in this Vail (CO) Daily News profile. " ‘I try to create the perfect balance between lyrical singing and 300-mile-an-hour shredding’, Yang says. ‘But without the classical training, I wouldn't be able to play the way I do. The violin is 600 years old for a reason. You can make an entire range of sounds - you just have to know how to pull it out. If you want to make an ugly sound, it's cool. But you can't make an ugly sound before you make a beautiful sound’." 1/30/07 – Luthier Bob Harvey, a self-proclaimed hippie, has found joy and satisfaction in making violins, the Bangor (ME) Daily News reports. Harvey, 78, is on his 52nd violin.
The Pasadena POPS Orchestra is seeking student musicians in middle school and high school to apply for a chance to perform with the orchestra on three POPS summer concerts. The Side-by-Side-by-Symphony program, developed in 2000, targets both experienced young musicians and those who aspire to play with an orchestra but have never had the opportunity to do so. Up to twenty winners will receive private instruction from orchestra members, participate in a master class, and attend a seminar on developing as a musician, in addition to participating in the concerts. The Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra has been named Youth Orchestra of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras in recognition of its 2005-2006 30th anniversary season. The ESYO completed its first tour overseas to the International Youth Festival in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 2006 and established a chamber music institute for EYSO members and non-member students who want to play in a chamber group. 2/8/07 – According to the Toronto Star, “The Toronto Symphony took a chance when it hired the relatively inexperienced (though unquestionably gifted) conductor Peter Oundjian to be its music director in 2004. But Oundjian's skill on the podium and profile as a homegrown success story have boosted ticket sales, and this week, the TSO announced that he will be staying at least through 2012.”
2/2/07 – The Manhattan School of Music is raising some eyebrows with its newest project: a luxury penthouse apartment for the school’s new president, reports the New York Times. The penthouse was newly unveiled in conjunction with a large performance and rehearsal room and a new recital hall ... The paper opines, “Part of the penthouse's value is the image it projects. In the hunt for big-game donors, an exercise crucial to any nonprofit institution, Manhattan decided it needed a prime location to entertain potential contributors. 'This is an investment that will pay off many times over,' Mr. Sirota [the president] said, including an increase in scholarships. Publicizing the apartment also serves the broader project of sprucing up the school's image, which includes the addition of well-known names to the teaching roster, a new contemporary-music program, plans to start a program in musical theater, an overhaul of its logo and printed materials, even new banners on the building."
Violin News & Gossip, Op 3., No. 11February 7, 2007 09:54
2/4/07 – The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an article supporting the trend toward applauding between movements: "The so-called rules about applauding at classical music concerts appear to be relaxing. Even in the bastions of classical music -- New York's Carnegie Hall, London's BBC Proms at Albert Hall, the Metropolitan Opera and more -- you are likely to hear premature clapping. It appears the experience of an orchestra concert, opera or recital is becoming less restrictive -- and that deserves a round of applause." Conductor and violinist Pinchas Zukerman is cited in the article as one of the “policemen of propriety” who openly discourages clapping between movements, while Leonard Slatkin endorses a relaxing of the “rules” on this matter. What do you think? ============ 2/4/07 – The Cincinnati Enquirer ran a moving story about violinist Arthur Weinberg, who was severely beaten on Christmas Eve. Having experienced brain damage and other severe physical injuries, he is slowly recovering at a Kentucky nursing home: “Arthur Weinberg thrust the new violin back into his mother's arms. ‘Where's mine?’ he asked. It astounded Elisabeth Weinberg. She had bought her brain-injured son a beginner's violin at a local music shop because his far more valuable antique violin was too precious to leave at a nursing home. She had no idea the classically trained violinist could hear the difference between the two instruments since he was attacked.” I’ve been shaking my head over this story since reading it. Having coped with a critically ill parent who suffered a stroke, I know how miraculous the brain’s recuperative powers can be, how many shades and colors of meaning and thought dance along those critical neurons, taken for granted until they’re crushed. I never fail to be amazed at how much damage the human body can withstand, or to be shocked by people’s potential for both great cruelty and great beauty—and how much a musician’s instrument can mean to him. Godspeed to Mr. Weinberg.
2/11/07 – Violinist Charles Castleman will perform a recital in the Faculty Artist Series at the Eastman School of Music. 2/6/07 – PlaybillArts.com reports that violinist Daniel Hope of the venerable Beaux Arts Trio, has signed an exclusive recording contract with the Deutsche Grammophon label. “In 2002 Hope became the youngest musician ever to join the Beaux Arts Trio, with which he remains through the end of next season. …His recording of the Britten and Berg Violin Concertos won three major prizes in 2004. …Hope's first DG recording will be of Mendelssohn's G minor Concerto and Octet; its release will coincide with the publication of the violinist's first book, The Music of Time, which will examine the relationship between Hope and his ancestors and Felix Mendelssohn.” 2/3/07 – Edwin Dusinberre, first violinist of the Takacs Takács Quartet since 1993, played the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Boulder Philharmonic. The Denver Post profile noted that Dusinberre has not performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto since he was in school, and his time with the quartet in the intervening years has significantly altered his attitude to the work: "I think when I played it as a student I was rather embarrassingly obsessed with the idea of being a soloist and the solo part," he said. "Coming back to it now, I'm much more aware of the orchestral part, which is gorgeous and the interactions between the soloist and orchestra, which are also wonderful. Of course I'm biased, but it seems to me now a lot more like chamber music." 2/1/07 – When Christian Tetzlaff blew into town to solo with the San Francisco Symphony last week, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an interesting profile. 1/16/07 – The Parsippany Daily Record (NJ) reports that the Janaki String Trio’s Carnegie Hall debut seemed headed for disaster: “Five minutes before the start of what was arguably the most important concert of [violinist Serena McKinney's] young career, the chin rest on her violin broke. ‘About four-fifths of it broke off’, she said. ‘I had to hold the violin up through the whole concert. It was so uncomfortable. I don't know how I did it’. And the less said about cellist Arnold Choi's bloody nose the better.”
2/4/07 – The East Brunswick Home News Tribune reported on the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming performance featuring a live band performing the music of 1970s-era rock group Led Zeppelin alongside them. "Since The Beatles at least, classical music has found fans and imitators in rock musicians -- Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Frank Zappa, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney and many others freely associated themselves with aspects of classical music. On the other side, the grandeur and iconic nature of certain styles such as Pink Floyd's spooky existentialism, have found sympathy among many lovers of Beethoven and Stravinsky and have sparked other orchestral tributes. More recently, a tendency to explore the genres of rock, blues and hip-hop has taken hold among an elite group of classically trained composers and performers -- Tan Dun, Steve Mackey, Daniel Bernard Roumain and The Kronos Quartet are just a few of the more famous names among those who continue to find new connections between these seemingly disparate musical worlds." 2/1/07 - The Dallas Morning News reports that Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden has been named music director-designate of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. "Although he has only conducted the DSO in one set of concerts, in February 2006, Mr. van Zweden was an instant hit with both musicians and audiences here." The article quotes concertmaster Emanuel Borok: "From the very first note he drew from the orchestra, I was jolted ... For the rest of the week, there was a sound coming from the orchestra, from the strings especially, that I was wanting to hear for many years." According to the paper, van Zweden began conducting only 13 years ago, as a sideline to a career as a well-known violinist. “But before taking up conducting he was the youngest-ever concertmaster of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of Europe's most celebrated." 2/1/07 – According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Fort Lauderdale concert by the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra "began with a sprightly Rossini overture and ended with the news that the orchestra would soon go out of business. The sad announcement came after the first encore, the Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 6. Conductor András Ligeti raised his hands to silence the applause and said that due to a loss of funding, the 100-year-old orchestra would be folding ... Bill Capone, managing director of Arts Management Group Inc. of New York, which is managing the orchestra's United States tour, said in an interview that the ensemble is not really folding. But it will shrink considerably because it is losing the sponsorship of the Hungarian telecommunications company Matav, which had accounted for half the orchestra's budget. 'The orchestra is not going out of business, but it will be smaller,' said Capone, who had been surprised to hear of the conductor's statement at the Broward Center."
The Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, has announced that conductor James Conlon has extended his term as music director there for an additional four years, through the 2011 summer season. Conlon is scheduled to complete his multi-year Mahler symphony cycle with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia in 2011, the centennial of the composer's death. 2/2/07 – Tufts University opened its new concert hall, according to the New England Conservatory newsletter, which has close ties with the university, including a dual-degree program for serious musicians who are also interested in liberal arts. 2/4/07 – In preparation for the 10th annual Sphinx Competition in Detroit, the Detroit Free Press profiled the Sphinx programs which, as the brainchild of violinist and MacArthur Genius Aaron Dworkin, hope to rectify the lack of minority musicians in classical music. “Some of the finest young minority string players in the nation, accompanied by the all-black and Latino professional Sphinx Symphony, will compete for more than $100,000 in prizes and scholarships to top music schools and opportunities to perform with leading American orchestras."
Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 10February 4, 2007 12:02
But Chicagoans also have Booth to thank for good, free music every week of the year. He founded the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in 1979, which is a free, weekly recital every Wednesday noon in the heart of Chicago’s Loop. Additionally, the concerts are broadcast live on WFMT-FM 98.7. Both ideas came to Booth, who died at 90, when he lived in England during the 1970s. A businessman with a history of social activism, he disagreed with the United States’ war in Southeast Asia, so he relocated to England temporarily. While there, he learned how the great pianist Dame Myra Hess had performed daily concerts in London’s National Gallery during the Battle of Britain in 1940 to raise Britons’ morale. The idea for the Do-It-Yourself Messiah also came from an inspiring amateur performance he had heard in England. When Booth returned to the States in 1975, he set about adapting these two musical ideas to local tastes. And left his imprint on the musical life of Chicago for generations. ----------------- 2/3/07 – Joshua Bell has received vast amounts of publicity in connection with his new ‘Voice of the Violin’ release and his public performances are usually accompanied by glowing reviews. But Bell played in Madison this weekend and received a seemingly contradictory review from the Capital Times, starting with the headline “Violinist Bell needed time to thaw audience.” Music criticism is notoriously difficult to write well without lapsing into either pedantry or puffery, so I hesitate to draw attention to the review itself, rather than its content, but this critic’s comments strike me as strange based on passages like these: “It took the bulk of the first number, Schumann's Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A Minor, Op. 105, to work out the evening's kinks. Bell opened in fine, albeit reserved form, stumbling with a false start at the beginning of Allegretto, the work's second movement.” Well, what was the problem? Did he break a string? Have a memory lapse? Play out of tune? With a scratchy tone? And consider the review’s conclusion: “…Once again, fire and passion brought a bright response from the audience, which heretofore had been surprisingly reluctant to come to its feet. Bell rewarded the newly enthusiastic crowd with a touching rendition of Tchaikovsky's None But the Lonely Heart. It took several hours, but performer and fans at last had connected.” Read the review for yourself and decide whether this review is likely to accurately represent Bell’s performance. ------------------ 1/31/07 - According to the Courier Mail (Australia), an anonymous businessman has given the Australian Chamber Orchestra a $10 million violin – but the gift comes with strings attached. “The 263-year old instrument, made in Italy by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, has to be kept in a bank vault when it is not being played by the ACO's artistic director and star violinist, Richard Tognetti.” 2/3/07 - For another take on Tognetti, read The Australian’s article, which in addition to news of the Guarneri loan, also includes the tidbit that Tognetti separated from his wife and “a gossip column mentioned that he had taken up with a striking blonde violinist in the ACO, Satu Vanska.” Musician News 2/14/07 - Violinist Ivan Chan will visit Western Michigan University to perform and lead master classes. He will also judge the music school's annual concerto competition. Chan has been the first violinist of the prominent Miami String Quartet since 1995. 2/3/07 – The Cleveland Plain Dealer carried the obituary of Elmer Setzer, longtime assistant principal second violin of the Cleveland Orchestra under Lorin Maazel. Setzer's wife, Marie Setzer, also a longtime violinist in the orchestra, had died in October. “Setzer was a familiar and affable figure in the orchestra's life. He was always ready with a snappy quip, and he exulted in the company of his colleagues. ‘He loved to tell stories. He just loved people’, said his son, Philip Setzer, a violinist in the Emerson String Quartet. ‘He was one of the most sociable people I've ever known’." 2/2/07 – The New York Times was one of many newspapers that reported on the death of Gian Carlo Menotti: "Gian Carlo Menotti, who wrote his first opera before he was 11 and went on to become perhaps the most popular and prolific opera composer of his time, winning two Pulitzer Prizes, died Thursday in Monaco, where he had a home. He was 95…Though critics often dismissed Mr. Menotti's music as maudlin and unadventurous, many of them still celebrated his impressive lyric gifts, his deft touch with orchestral sound and his talent for making opera comprehensible and enjoyable for people who had previously shunned it ... Menotti's Christmas classic, 'Amahl and the Night Visitors,' has been performed more than 600 times, often by amateur companies and on high school stages, since it was created for television in 1951 ... Mr. Menotti's works, including The Medium, The Consul, The Telephone and The Saint of Bleecker Street all showed that opera could sustain itself in a Broadway theater, something that Kurt Weill and George Gershwin managed to do only sporadically. He also founded the Festival of Two Worlds, the long-running summer music festival that began in 1958 in Spoleto, Italy, and that he directed for some 40 years. In 1977, he helped establish an American offshoot, Spoleto Festival U.S.A., in Charleston, S.C." 2/1/07 – The Aurora Beacon News (IL) used the opportunity to inform the public of what many music lovers have been dreading: the approaching dissolution of the Vermeer Quartet after nearly forty years as an ensemble. The group "was founded in 1969 at the Marlboro Festival and has since appeared at virtually all the prestigious music venues and music festivals. Its discography includes the complete quartets of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bartok and additional works by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Verdi, Shostakovich, Haydn, Schnittke, and Brahms." The current members of the Vermeer Quartet include Shmuel Ashkenasi, Mathias Tacke, Richard Young, and Mark Johnson. The article includes mention of some of the cities included in the group’s final tour. Be sure to hear them live if you get the chance! 1/7/07 - Bethany Kerr, personnel manager and violinist for the Brevard (N.C.) Symphony Orchestra ran the Disney Marathon. In the process, she raised more than $13,000 to be used toward a pay increase for BSO musicians in 2007-08, reports the American Symphony Orchestra League. “To show her personal commitment to the orchestra and its musicians, who had not received an increase in pay for the 2006-07 season, Kerr devised the ‘Run for the Raises’ fundraiser. She registered for the Disney Marathon - her first - and asked for donations to support the BSO musicians. On January 7, Kerr finished the race in five hours, 20 minutes and 46 seconds.
The Boston Landmarks Orchestra, under Conductor and Artistic Director Charles Ansbacher, has announced a new music festival for this summer, in cooperation with WCRB Radio and the Massachusetts Department of Recreation and Conservation. The Landmarks Esplanade Festival: Classics Under the Stars will feature the orchestra and other Boston-area performing arts organizations in Wednesday-evening concerts. All concerts will be held at the Hatch Shell on Boston's Esplanade. Founded in January 2001, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra performs free concerts celebrating historical, geographical, and architectural settings. 2/1/07 - Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra is launching a unique "orchestral academy" program for student musicians hoping to make a career in the orchestra world, reports the Ottawa Citizen. "The Institute will see four Canadian students and one American sitting side by side with NACO musicians, who will act as mentors to the students, offering feedback and advice. The students will also have individual coaching sessions, orchestral repertoire study sessions and chamber music coaching with NACO musicians." The students are violinist Won-Hee Lee (18, Ottawa), violinist Andréa Armijo Fortin (26, Quebec City), cellist Raphaël Dubé (22, Montreal), double bassist Brendan Kane (25, American) and violist Mary-Kathryn Stevens (24, Chatham, Ont.). 2/1/07 - The Rocky Mountain News reports: "Colorado Symphony officials today announced the ratification of a three-year contract with the musicians of the orchestra. The deal marks the first multi-year agreement since a five-year contract expired in 2003; single-year extensions had been approved since then. The new contract, which runs through the 2008-09 season, calls for pay increases of 6 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent respectively during the three-year period. Health benefits issues were also addressed, according to musicians' representative Bill Jackson." 1/31/07 – According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Symphony, without a recording contract for the past decade, has signed a deal with PentaTone to record all four Brahms symphonies later this year. “The deal was done under the new national agreement allowing orchestras to make live concert recordings without large upfront payments to the musicians.”
2/2/07 – The Boston Herald reports that New England Conservatory has named Minnesota Orchestra CEO Tony Woodcock as the school's new president. “Woodcock was credited with reducing deficits in Minneapolis, but leaves after less than four years on the job, with the orchestra musicians' contract scheduled to expire in the fall. Woodcock says that his top priority at Boston-based NEC will be increased fundraising.
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