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Midsummer Greetings: Violin Repaired, Heading to Heifetz Institute

Laurie Niles

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Published: July 24, 2015 at 11:05 PM [UTC]

Greetings, and I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

Mine just got a lot better, with the return of my newly restored Gagliano violin, which looks and plays better than ever after a great deal of beautiful work by luthier Nazareth Gevorkian of Burbank, Calif. On Monday I will post more details, as I've got some pictures from the fascinating process that was required to repair a center-seam crack, which also required correcting the arching.

Also, next week I'll be in Staunton, Va., to check out this year's Heifetz Institute, directed by Daniel Heifetz. The Institute will be in its fifth week of a six-week program, with about 80 young musicians participating. The program involves the typical music classes such as lessons, chamber music and practice time, but also offers communication classes in subjects such as public speaking, voice, drama, movement, and freedom of expression. The faculty sounds wonderful; next week I'm looking forward to watching Elmar Oliveira, Mark Kaplan, Grigory Kalinovsky, Ilya Kaler, Larry Dutton, Martha Strongin Katz, Robert Vernon, Amit Peled, Matt Haimovitz, and Ralph Kirshbaum. I'll also peek in on some classes by a pops blues artist, on drama and freedom of expression. Watch for those blogs next week!

Happy summer!

Laurie and Daniel Heifetz
Here I am with Daniel Heifetz, at last spring Starling-DeLay Symposium at The Juilliard School.

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From Gary McAleer
Posted on July 25, 2015 at 12:56 AM
As a twelve year old boy growing up I saw Daniel Heifetz compete in the Merriweather Post Competition. Visually I liked the contestant with the longer hair with his eurhythmics, but Daniel clearly had the better performance. And he won! Years later, I was blessed to have Daniel Heifetz as my solo literature teacher at Peabody for two years. Under his tutelage my ease of dexterity greatly improved. And I'm sure all of his students are benefiting from that same refining instruction.

During this same time I was also studying orchestral literature with Isador Saslav: then Concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony. Between them and my musicologist professor, Dr. Asher George Zlotnik (an absolute genius in musical artistry), I was prepared for a career in symphonic performance.

My first job was with the Florida Symphony. Two years into my career, my wonderful teacher, Daniel Heifetz performed the Mozart Concerto in D—an amazingly graceful performance.

Glad to see him looking so young and vibrant as usual. You are blessed, Laurie. Keep up the good work.

From Paul Deck
Posted on July 25, 2015 at 11:26 PM
Just to warn you, "Staunton, Virginia" is pronounced as though there's no "u".
From Laurie Niles
Posted on July 26, 2015 at 12:43 AM
I already messed that up, Paul! But thanks for the warning anyway! :)

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