Monday Morning Violin Gossip, Op. 27

By Darcy Lewis

The Sibelius Violin Competition is underway, running from Nov. 19-Dec. 3. Next week, I’ll report on the results. Thanks to reader Johnny Fang for the heads-up.

One of the saddest, most bizarre stories in classical music may have now reached a new low, according to Arts Journal: “Six years ago, three members of the Roanoke, Virginia-based Audubon String Quartet fired their first violinist, David Ehrlich, who promptly sued to prevent the quartet from continuing to perform without him. Since then, recriminations and lawsuits have flown unabated, bitterly dividing Roanoke's musical community and making several attorneys very rich. The courts have sided mainly with Ehrlich, and this month, two members of the quartet will be forced to surrender their home, their possessions, and - no kidding - the instruments with which they make their living, to pay the $611,000 court award to Ehrlich.” Read the Roanoke Times article here

In Memoriam

Sadly, my former stand partner in the West Suburban Symphony, Walter Rodby, died last week. Walter was one heck of a musician and an absolute delight. Best known as a choral composer and conductor, his accomplishments included publishing hundreds—yes, hundreds—of choral works and taking his high school choir to the Soviet Union in 1970, a trip believed to be the first of its kind behind the Iron Curtain. He was the former president of the Illinois Music Educators Association and a former Cook County Teacher of the Year. Walter, who was 88, will be sorely missed.

11/15/05 - Twin Cities violinist Yuri Merzhevsky was found dead in his Minneapolis home, reports the Saint Paul Pioneer Press: "Perhaps no musician in the Twin Cities performed a greater variety of styles and repertoire - from classical to klezmer to jazz, gypsy and rock - and the musicians who worked with Merzhevsky say there was no better violinist in the Twin Cities ... The Minnesota Sinfonia and its music director, Jay Fishman, adopted him into the orchestra as a sort of house soloist." Merzhevsky performed with contemporary ensemble Zeitgeist, "was a frequent performer with Klezmerica, [and] with jazz vocalist Bruce Henry," and "substituted for sick and vacationing members of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra." Merzhevsky was 45.

11/15/05 - Cellist John Martin, a 53-year veteran of the National Symphony Orchestra who retired in 1994 as principal cellist, has died of cancer at the age of 82, reports the Washington Post. Martin joined the NSO in 1941 at age 18. He "studied under Howard Mitchell -- the orchestra's first cellist and later its music director -- and served as principal cellist from 1948 until his retirement. Mr. Martin was known for his acerbic asides, many of which he got away with because of his seniority. To a conductor, he might ask, 'Are you following me, or am I following you?' To his peers, he advised, 'Never give up the opportunities to control the tempo.'

People

Pennsylvania's Allentown Symphony Orchestra has announced the results of auditions held September 10 and 11. New appointments include Yehong Xion, Chi-Young Hwang and Elisabed Gegeshidze, section first violin; Kathleen Overfield, principal viola; and Kate Zahradnik, section viola.

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra has also announced additions to its musician roster, including Mateusz Wolski as concertmaster. Wolski is a 2002 graduate of the Manhattan School of Music currently on the substitute roster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Najin Kim is the new associate concertmaster. Also appointed were Christian Tremblay, principal second violin; Yumi Cho, section first violin; Chang-Hee Lee, section second violin; Arvin Gopal, principal viola; Laura Routt, section viola; Kerena Moeller, principal cello; Natalie Naquin and Todd Thiel, section cello; Colin Chatfield, associate principal bass; and Reg Lamb, section bass.

Juliana Athayde, the new concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, is the subject of the cover story of November's Rochester Magazine. Athayde notes that she won an audition for a section position in the San Francisco Symphony in 2003 before being invited by William Preucil, concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, to become the first candidate for his Concertmaster Academy at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She writes: "Playing in the [SFS] would be amazing, but I could not pass up the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with Bill Preucil as the only student in his new program. I learned more about being a concertmaster in one year than I had in all 23 of my previous years."

11/28/05 - Joshua Bell will be at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Center in New York City for a rare in-store performance and CD signing at 7:00 pm.

11/20/05 – Conductor Sir Charles Mackerras just celebrated his 80th birthday.

11/15/05 - Andres Cárdenes, concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, performed the world premiere of Carnegie Mellon University composer Leonardo Balada's Caprichos No. 3 for Violin and Chamber Orchestra.

11/17/05 – Daniel Hege renewed his contract as music director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra through the 2008-2009 season. The extension is seen as a positive, and may smooth contract negotiations later this season.

11/18/05 - Dutch violinist Janine Jansen made her San Francisco Symphony debut playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. The San Francisco Chronicle praised her "tender and strong" playing but called the performance "tonally chilly."

Orchestras

11/19/05 – The San Diego Symphony has signed a deal with the parent company of San Diego's daily newspaper to sponsor a series of local and national radio broadcasts of the orchestra. The 14-part local series will be carried by KPBS radio beginning in summer 2006, and the 6-concert national series will be distributed by National Public Radio. The recordings will all be made in high-definition, and the SDS plans to quickly turn them into in-house CDs for wide release.

11/19/05 - The Alabama Symphony Orchestra, which emerged from bankruptcy in 1997, has hired the young British conductor Justin Brown as its next music director. Brown beat out several higher-profile candidates for the job.

11/19/05 - The much-beleaguered Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre will soon have a new executive director. Harris Ferris has said he will meet with the laid-off orchestra in what he says is an effort to "eliminate the acrimony," and to listen to the musicians' complaints about PBT's management system, reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

11/18/05 –The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Cleveland Orchestra "announced a $5.9 million operating deficit for the 2004-05 season. The figure is based on the fiscal year ending June 30, a month longer than usual, to coordinate the business cycle with the orchestra's concert calendar. Without the extra month, which only will apply to last season, the deficit is $4.4 million, a slight rise over the previous season's $4.25 million shortfall." Its 2004-05 Annual Fund raised $8.2 million to support the orchestra.

11/16/05 - Colorado Ballet has cancelled six performances of this year's Nutcracker. "These performances had been showing poor ticket sales, and their cancellation will save the company the labor and rental fees owed the city. The company is currently paying down debts incurred from engagements this season and last at city-owned venues," writes the Rocky Mountain News.

Finally, while not exactly string-related, this tidbit is just too good to pass up: Last week, Austin’s American-Statesman reported that Austin Symphony Orchestra Music Director Peter Bay was AWOL at the concert's opening. "The mystery of the missing conductor deepened when the principal horn player, Tom Hale, bounded onto the stage, bowed and then rose to the podium. With no more than five minutes' notice, Hale, his blond ponytail whisking from side to side, guided the orchestra through Grieg's breezy Norwegian Dances." Hale then led Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor with pianist Benedetto Lupo. "Hale's feat was all the more astounding because the Austin Symphony Orchestra has not paid an assistant conductor in 15 years. He just winged it." Bay "arrived for the second half. At the close, Bay "escorted Hale from the back row of the risers to the forestage, where the pair accepted enthusiastic cheers." Apparently, Bay was knocked out by an adverse reaction to an anti-inflammatory medication he took for his stressed knees.

Link to previous columns

Not likely, Ehrlich said. “I have no choice. I owe a fortune to my attorneys.”

Seems pretty clear to me--three gang up on one, one fights back the only way he can, three go on thinking that somehow the law does not apply to them and that somehow it is just and right to take one of the member's share in the wealth away from him.

Some telling comments, if you read the old reports, quotes and of course the court documents.

Seems to me that the three defendants want to pretend that somehow "art" should be "immune" to contracts and legal stuff--one of them derided Ehrlich merely for the fact that he bothered to know anything about laws, lawyers and lawsuits.

I get the sense that the Shaw character had personal issues with Ehrlich and that further, Shaw mistakenly believed that the quartet was "his" rather than a corporate entity. He even registered the name of the quartet under his own name--without a board meeting--a few months before the whole thing blew up. And he transferred corporate assests out of corporate control.

Mind you, I knew nothing of this case--I merely read what I could find. I am sure there are nuances, but what is outstanding is that the case has been through courts in two states, as well as Federal bankruptcy court, and it stands for Ehrlich. Seems compelling to me.

I don't know why anyone should feel sorry for someone having to sell his house and instruments, if that person is a crook, which is apparently how the courts see it.

Why should music be immune to this sort of thing? If there is money, contracts and livelyhood involved, how is music any different from any other occupation?

-Wes