Monday Morning Violin Gossip, Op. 2, No. 4

By Darcy Lewis

I received a nice note this week from violinist Samuel Thompson, who gained international attention for his performances of Bach for Hurricane Katrina survivors in the Louisiana Superdome and the New Orleans Basketball Arena immediately following the hurricane.

Thompson is giving a benefit concert on Thursday, January 26, 2006 at the University of South Carolina School of Music, his alma mater. Proceeds from the performance will benefit both public school music programs in New Orleans and professional musicians who were displaced by the hurricane. Merrill-Lynch is sponsoring the concert and each attendee is encouraged to donate at least $10. Thompson will perform Vivaldi/Respigh’s Sonata in D Major, Vaughan-Williams’ The Lark Ascending and Beethoven’s Spring Sonata.

Newspapers around the world published photos of Thompson playing the violin in both the Louisiana Superdome and the New Orleans Basketball Arena during the flooding of New Orleans. A Charleston, South Carolina native, he was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic during the 2002-2003 season, returning to New Orleans last summer to prepare for the Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition. Even though he was unable to participate in the competition due to Katrina, it sounds as if things are going well for this kind-hearted violinist.

Congratulations, Samuel!

Musician News

Bloomington Public Radio WFIU has selected violin virtuoso and incoming Indiana University faculty member Alexander Kerr as artist of the month. He will complete this season as concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebow Orchestra, then join the faculty full-time next fall.

According to the IU alumni newsletter, Colin Corner has accepted a double bass position with the Minnesota Orchestra. The Minneapolis auditions lasted three days with some 130 candidates being heard in the first round. On January 9, the 35 players in the second round were heard, and two players were chosen to join the orchestra next fall season.

1/23/06 - Conductor George Mathew has organized and will lead a benefit performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Carnegie Hall to raise funds and awareness for survivors of the October earthquake in South Asia that left three million people homeless. Mathew, who is a Singaporean-born Indian, has recruited musicians from the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Boston, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Albany and New Jersey symphonies, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and others. New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow will serve in the same role for the event. Proceeds will benefit Doctors Without Borders, which delivers emergency aid to people in more than 70 countries, including the two most affected by the earthquake - Pakistan and India. Contributions may also be made to: Beethoven's Ninth for South Asia, Holland & Knight Charitable Foundation, Inc., One Tampa City Center, 201 North Franklin Street, Suite 1100, Tampa, FL 33602.

1/16/06 – Recent articles in the Ottawa (Canada) Citizen include opinions about Pinchas Zukerman's abrupt "sabbatical" from Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra: "At his best, Zukerman's a wonderful violinist. We've occasionally heard him at his best, too, but, just as often, he just seems to phone in his performance, apparently bored by the music or the audience." From 1/14: "While it's not unusual for orchestra musicians to have varying opinions about their leader, some longtime NACO musicians say they've become polarized in a way they have never been before... The kind of reasonable debate musicians used to have about conductors has become difficult."

1/15/06 – Luthier Robert Iseley's copy of a 1726 Stradivarius violin was the subject of an article in the New York Times. George Drapeau, a part-time violist and "one of the owners of the 1726 original," had commissioned Iseley to create a copy of the Strad. Drapeau and Iseley brought both violins to violinist Elmar Oliveira to judge between the two while the reporter tagged along. "Mr. Drapeau had commissioned the copy, identical in dimensions and appearance, in case he and his partners decided to sell the original. 'All my life I've been watching these great fiddles disappear from the hands of their owners, and go to museums or other collectors,' he said. 'The smart owners get a copy made.'" Oliveira played the new violin for more than an hour, offering comments as he went: “The sound of the fiddle isn't raw ... It has body and warmth."

1/14/06 - Violinist Sara Caswell performed with vocalist Rachel Caswell and bassist Jeremy Allen at the International Association for Jazz Education Annual Conference (IAJE) in New York City.

1/14/06 – Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has been appointed a United Nations peace envoy. “UN Secretary General Kofi Annan met with Ma and confirmed the cellist would become a peace envoy, joining a list of other notables such as environmentalist Jane Goodall, actor Michael Douglas, basketball player Magic Johnson, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, opera singer Luciano Pavarotti and Nobel laureate Elie Weisel," reported the CBC.

1/13/06 – Joshua Bell received good reviews in the New York Times for his recent New York premiere of Corigliano’s The Red Violin with the New York Philharmonc. The reviewer praised soloist Joshua Bell's "centered, sweet tone and a sumptuous but fully controlled vibrato," writing that Bell "cruised through the daredevil writing as if its evident difficulties didn't faze him."

1/13/06 – San Francisco Classical Voice reviewed Lisa Batiashvili’s debut performance of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the San Francisco Symphony: “Batiashvili, a fine musician, played well throughout, with especially lovely tone and seamless legato. She phrases in the grand manner, in long long lines, and that suited the concerto well. It would be rewarding to hear her in a more gratifying and extroverted work — for example, Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto.”

Orchestra News

The Columbus (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra has announced the appointment of Junichi Hirokami as music director beginning June 1, 2006. Hirokami will conduct the orchestra for seven weeks in 2006-07 and for ten weeks in each of the following two seasons. The Columbus Symphony is his first music directorship in the U.S. for this Tokyo-born violist/pianist.

1/19/06 - The Charleston Post and Courier (South Carolina) reported on contract negotiations at the Charleston Symphony Orchestra: "In an e-mail sent Tuesday to news organizations, James Holland, CSO principal cellist and chairman of the musicians negotiating committee, said CSO management had threatened to cancel plans for the 2006-07 season unless the musicians sign a new contract by Feb. 1, although their contract doesn't terminate until June 30. John Girault, CSO marketing manager, said plans for the season are moving forward. 'We will kick off our traditional subscription renewal campaign as planned on Feb. 8.'" The paper notes, "Board President Ted Halkyard said the group's medical costs have risen 29 percent this year…In 2003, because of the orchestra's financial problems, musicians agreed to an 18 percent pay cut, which left them making an average of $17,500."

1/17/06 - The Philadelphia Orchestra has struck a deal to become a resident orchestra at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival starting in 2007, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. During the three-year residency, the orchestra will play six concerts each summer starting in early July. "Adding the new venue does not affect the orchestra's concerts at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York state each August" and the number of concerts at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts will remain at “no fewer than 12 ... What will disappear from the orchestra's schedule is its Absolutely Mozart Festival, a handful of concerts at Verizon Hall each June mostly led by conductor Peter Oundjian.” At Vail, the Philadelphia Orchestra joins the New York Philharmonic and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, each of which plays a residency at different times in the summer.

1/14/06 - Philadelphia Orchestra musicians recently received a poignant letter from former music director Wolfgang Sawallisch, who is suffering from ill health, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I cannot say if and when I will be strong enough to fly to America and to see you again. So I take the possibility now to thank you once again for the great collaboration in the past: The concerts in the Academy and in the new hall, the exciting travels to the most different parts of the world. The experiences remain always in my heart." The paper quotes violinist Barbara Govatos: "Many of us wrote to him before the holidays and after we knew he had canceled, so at least we've had the opportunity to tell him we miss him. It's really sad when someone has given so much to the orchestra over the years and wants to continue but can't. There's always hope." Sawallisch had cancelled a Philly appearance in October and has announced he is canceling appearances in Japan and Italy.

1/13/06 – According to the ASOL, the Kennett Symphony of Chester County in Pennsylvania has signed its first union contract with musicians. “Board President Shirley Pritchard hailed the three-year contract, the first formal agreement, for solidifying a long-standing relationship: “This contractual agreement defines our commitment to our musicians and our belief and pride in our orchestra." The orchestra began in 1949 as a volunteer group for Kennett Square residents and developed into Chester County's only professional orchestra.”

1/13/06 - The Washington Post ran an article profiling members of the National Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the group’s 75th anniversary. Among those interviewed was violinist William Haroutounian, who has been with the NSO for 43 years and who takes "portraits of musicians and conductors on stage during rehearsals, often snapping photos during strings-free symphonic passages," which are now on display in the Kennedy Center lobby.

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