Monday Morning Violin Gossip, Op. 10

By Darcy Lewis

I recently sat down with the summer issue of my Interlochen alumni magazine and thought I’d share some string-related tidbits. This summer, the following high-octane string instructors have been named Valade Fellows and Visiting Fellows at Interlochen Arts Camp: Tanya Lesinsky Carey (cello), Jorja Fleezanis (violin), David Holland (viola), Eric Kim (cello), William Preucil (violin), Anthony Ross (cello), and Julia Zaustinsky (violin). Also, violinist Sarah Jones-Hayes, a new Interlochen Arts Academy graduate, won the Southern Ohio Symphony Orchestra’s concerto competition and performed with them last March.

7/29/05 – According to the ASOL, Congress has agreed to a $4.4 million increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, bring next year’s proposed funding to $125.7 million. The increase will go to two programs: Challenge America and American Masterpieces.

7/29/05 – The Springfield (OH) News-Sun reports the death of John Smarelli, a Springfield Symphony Orchestra former concertmaster and city schools music teacher, at age 79. Smarelli, who was a member of the SSO for 42 years, had lost his left leg in a factory accident more than 50 years ago and lost the right one years later “because of poor circulation," but continued to perform with the SSO with two artificial legs.

7/31/05 – According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia Pops are talking merger. "The orchestra and the Pops are very different kinds of organizations. The orchestra has a much larger budget, listenership and season schedule. Each has its own distinct board and audience. There is some small overlap in musicians. Still, many U.S. orchestras maintain both a serious-repertoire ensemble and a pops series or pops orchestra - most notably, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which also operates the Boston Pops."

7/31/05 – In the Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA), Andrew Pincus reviewed the Tanglewood debut of violinist Lisa Batiashvili: "It's been a while since a debut at Tanglewood created quite the sensation that Lisa Batiashvili, an unheralded violinist from Asian Georgia in her mid-20s, set off Friday night. The audience all but tore the place down ... Hardly known in the United States, she has already made a notable career in Europe." Pincus praises Batiashvili's performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto: "With a tone that encompassed the throaty and the rhapsodic, Batiashvili had the music thrusting toward the Finnish mountaintops ... But where loneliness should have reigned, passion did." Pincus writes: "Something was missing. That extra something will come with experience.”

8/1/05 – There’s been no progress in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s strike. Canada’s Globe & Mail published the terms each side offered most recently: "The players' proposal would have increased wages by 45 per cent over five years, as well as maintain current work rules governing recordings, overtime and rehearsals on tour. Management had offered an 8-per-cent raise over five years, as well as lump-sum amounts to counter the effects of a two-year wage freeze. The players have been without a contract since August, 2003." The next day, the Montreal Gazette offered conflicting information about why the talks stopped: "An MSO spokesperson told The Gazette yesterday negotiations were suspended for the month of August because the mediator was on vacation. Musicians' association president Marc Beliveau concurred. Yet a press release from MSO management quotes the chief negotiator for management as saying, ‘Given the gulf separating the two sides, we fully understand why the mediator saw no need to schedule any new negotiating sessions’."

8/2/05 – According to the Washington Post, the Kennedy Center has announced that it is postponing indefinitely plans for a massive plaza that would have linked the national performing arts center with the monumental hub of the District. “The project hinged on $400 million from the federal government. That money was left out of the transportation bill passed by Congress last week. The entire eight-acre complex had a hefty price tag of $650 million and, if realized, would have been the largest performing arts construction project in the country."

8/2/05 - The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre has announced it will use recorded music for the 2005-06 season, reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The move sidelines the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra, which provides music for most Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre performances. Board president Jeanne Gleason said she hopes to have the 42-member orchestra back for the 2006-07 season.

8/2/05 - The Monterey County Herald (CA) interviewed Elizabeth Wallfisch, concertmaster of the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra. "There is a school of thought that says we should look at music as it appears to us in our time, not as it appeared to composers in their time ... That to me seems ridiculous,” she says. “It's like saying we'll just look at a black-and-white photograph of Da Vinci's painting of 'The Mona Lisa' and maybe put a modern hat on her ... Even though you can't get the exact colors with a modern violin there is no reason you can't learn the poetry and speak the dialect, though you'll have an accent."

8/2/05 – The Saint Louis Symphony has hired Daniel Lee as principal cello. Lee is currently principal cello of the San Diego Symphony.

8/3/05 - Violinist Dennis Kim, who was recently fired as concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic after music director Edo deWaart discovered that he had been auditioning for an American orchestra while supposedly on sick leave, was named the new conductor of Korea's Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra following a series of auditions. According to the Korea Times, Kim is Korean-born, though he grew up mainly in Canada.

8/5/05 - The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has put itself up for sale on eBay. The winning bidder will have the opportunity to conduct the orchestra, says The Guardian (UK). Music Director Sakari Oramo will offer a personal conducting lesson as part of the deal.

8/13/05 – When Gil Shaham plays Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 with the Boston Symphony, he’ll have a new partner on the podium. Conductor James Conlon has canceled his Tanglewood appearance due to a scheduling conflict, the New York Times reports. Andrew Davis, the music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, has agreed to fill in.