Violinist News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 79

October 4, 2007 at 2:15 AM

It’s always a pleasure to hear from Violinist.com members who have professional accomplishments to report.

This week, Drew Lecher, a prominent violin and viola teacher in my stomping grounds of the Chicago suburbs, wrote to let me know that he has just published two books: Violin Technique: the Manual and Viola Technique: the Manual.

He sent a copy to Laurie, who wrote, "It's a generous offering of quite a lot of violin knowledge. It's a concise and well-organized book of technical studies and terms."

Congratulations, Drew!

Musician News

10/21/07 - Violinist Andrew Sords will perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Carson City (Nevada) Symphony.

10/21/07 - Prague’s Talich Quartet will open the 25th anniversary season of the popular San Francisco-area series Music at Kohl Mansion. The quartet’s members are Jan Talich and Petr Macecek, violins; Vadimir Bukac, viola; and Petr Prause, cello.

10/19/07 – Violinist Hilary Hahn will perform a recital with pianist Valentina Lisitsa at Occidental College in Los Angeles. It will be her only Southern California recital this season. She will be available to sign copies of her CDs, including her latest Deutsche Grammophon recording, "Paganini's Concerto No.1 and Spohr's Concerto No.8” at the end of the performance.

10/3/07 - This week, Itzhak Perlman was to have performed as conductor and violinist in a sold-out San Francisco Symphony program of Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Brahms. Last weekend, Perlman said he is too ill to perform, so Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas will conduct a program that includes the originally scheduled Brahms Symphony No. 2, as well as Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with Jeremy Denk as soloist.

9/30/07 – Violinist Michelle Dulak Thompson wrote an insightful review for San Francisco Classical Voice of violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s “performing audition” as possibly the next artistic director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Thompson provided context by summarizing the style of outgoing artistic director, violinist Krista Bennion Feeney: “One of Feeney’s strengths was her plain physical energy — not so much the volume of her sound as the intensity of character borne by it. …At her best she baldly goaded the orchestra into surpassing itself.” Then, she put Salerno-Sonnenberg’s performance into context: “Salerno-Sonnenberg throws herself into music with abandon. Her boundless gusto is more than a little alarming once you realize that the intensity isn’t a reaction to this or that piece, but her default setting. She revels in emphases, broad inflections, and vivid dashes of character, to the extent that the line she’s manipulating tends to disappear. And from a violinistic standpoint, all that shaping can send her out of technical control much too easily.”

9/30/07 – The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a brief profile of violinist Joshua Bell. The piece clarifies how the music for The Red Violin evolved, from soundtrack to commissioned Chaconne, to the new four-movement concerto.

9/24/07 – Violinist Philippe Quint performed a short program at the Naxos 20th anniversary celebration. The next following day on September 25th Philippe's new CD of Miklos Rozsa's Complete Works for violin and piano which also iincludes a brilliant Sonata for violin solo was released on Naxos in stores worldwide and Philippe along with Naxos's founder and president Klaus Heymann and conductor JoAnn Falletta was signing his CD at J&R record store in New York City.

Orchestra News

10/23/07 - The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association opens an International Youth Orchestra Festival. Until Nov. 11, the Walt Disney Concert Hall will host the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra (conducted by L.A. Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, an alumnus of the Sibelius Academy), the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela (Gustavo Dudamel, L.A. Philharmonic Music Director Designate), and the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra (Charles Dutoit, new chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra). Individual concerts will be interspersed with open rehearsals, seminars, and joint activities, and the festival is capped by a full day of free performances from Los Angeles-area youth orchestras.

10/2/07 – For a look at how the Liverpool Philharmonic’s fortunes are rising, read the Telegraph’s perspective. "Audience figures are up. The finances are more secure. Recordings and tours are planned. And the orchestra is set to assume a leading role when Liverpool becomes European Capital of Culture next year."

10/1/07 - The San Diego Symphony makes it possible for patrons to buy a recording of the orchestra's performance as it concludes, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The orchestra "expects to have as many as 30 programs online by the end of the year. Streaming is also being planned, and the San Diego Symphony continues to generate podcasts, video and online program notes."

10/1/07 – The Marin Alsop era at the Baltimore Symphony has officially begun, notes the New York Times, and things are looking good: “As director-designate Ms. Alsop reinvigorated the orchestra, institutionally and artistically. A born communicator and effective proselytizer for music, she has led a major community-outreach effort and taken the orchestra back into the recording business for the first time in a decade. Thanks to a $1 million grant, the Baltimore Symphony this season is offering all tickets to subscribers at $25 a concert. (I am continually amazed at the impact that a sum like $1 million, just pocket change in popular culture, can have in classical music.)"

9/30/07 - The Des Moines Register profiled several members of the Des Moines Symphony and the jobs that keep them busy during the day. "Of the nearly 90 members, about 15 have day jobs in fields completely unrelated to music. One is a registered nurse, one teaches German and another manages a McDonald's drive-through window during the 11 p.m.-6 a.m. shift. ... Cellist Elizabeth Buxton listens to music while analyzing DNA for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. She listens to the symphony repertoire either with headphones or a CD player in the Ankeny crime lab." Learn a bit more about violinists Ben Parker, Julie Fox Hensen and Laura Haupt.

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Violinist News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 79

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