Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 83

October 18, 2007 at 2:02 AM

Violinist Emil Chudnovsky wrote to let me know he was featured on Performance Today in an excerpt from a performance at the Newport Festival in Rhode Island. “It's the last movement of the Cecile Chaminade trio, a work that - due to the Festival's packed performing schedule - allowed me to rehearse with the cellist and pianist, neither of whom I knew, a grand total of two times.”

Congratulations, Emil!

Musician News

10/18/07 – Violinist Joanna Kurkowicz will perform in the U.S. premiere of Svara-Yantra (concerto for violin, tabla and orchestra) by Shirish Korde. Benjamin Zander will lead the Boston Philharmonic. Kurkowicz is the BPO’s concertmaster.

10/17/07 – Dutch violinist André Rieu is midway through a North American tour. Between now and 10/22, he will play in St. Paul, Des Moines, Omaha, Salt Lake City and Denver. In December, he will return for appearances on the West Coast and in the Southwest, along with a couple of dates in Toronto.

10/15/07 – Minnesota Public Radio profiled violinist Lisa Batiashvili in conjunction with her new recording of the Sibelius and Lindberg violin concertos. The Lindberg, a new work, is dedicated to her.

10/15/07 – The Toronto Star reports that Korean violinist Ji-Yoon Park made her Canadian debut in Haydn's Violin Concerto in A Major. She was accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. “The Haydn Concerto was well, if stolidly, played. The cadenzas, which give the violin soloist a chance to show off, lacked élan at Park's hands.”

10/13/07 – Violinist Branden Conway soloed with the McLean (Va.) Symphony—on piano, reports the McLean Connection newspaper. “It turns out that Conway, 20, who won first prize in the 2006 Schlern International Violin Competition, decided that the following summer he would return to enter the competition in another category: the piano competition. Conway went on to win first prize in the 2007 Schlern International Piano Competition.”

10/7/07 – Violinist Philippe Quint, who recently performed at the 20th anniversary celebration of Naxos Records, was quoted in a New York Times article about the record label: “[Quint is] a violinist who made a recording of William Schuman’s Violin Concerto for Naxos in 2000, while still a student at the Juilliard School, and who released his fourth album for the label in September. ‘I was just very happy to have a debut recording. The conditions didn’t matter to me at all. And to be honest, they still don’t matter. In a world where a lot of artists are paying labels to get recordings out, I am fortunate to have a label to record’.” The comment refers to the relatively low fees Naxos pays its performers.

10/6/07 – The Seattle Times recently profiled 13-year-old violinist Marié Rossano before she made her Seattle Symphony debut. Rossano, who played the Saint-Saëns "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" on the orchestra's "Discover Music" series, studies with Seattle Symphony violinist Simon James.

10/5/07 – When violinist Dylana Jenson soloed with the Grand Rapids Symphony, not all went smoothly, reports the Grand Rapids Press: “Barely a minute into the final movement, the performance ground to a halt when violin soloist Dylana Jenson broke a string and swapped instruments with Grand Rapids Symphony concertmaster James Crawford to finish the piece…. The exchange of violins -- uncommon but not entirely unfamiliar -- did not go smoothly, and Lockington halted the performance. Once it got going, Jenson carried on valiantly in the devil-may-care sort of finale. With an unfamiliar fiddle -- imagine trying to operate a high performance race car you've never driven before -- Jenson lost some of her projection. Friday's audience nonetheless gave an enthusiastic standing ovation to a talented artist who played well.”

Orchestra News

10/13/07 – The International Herald Tribune reports that the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has renewed the contract of music director Neeme Järvi through 2009.

10/8/07 – The Detroit News reports that Leonard Slatkin's appointment as music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, "all but a certainty since midsummer, ends an unusually long search that began when Neeme Jarvi announced his intention to step down as music director in 2005 after a popular 15-year run."

10/6/07 – The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra approved a new 5-year contract, ending speculation that they could be on the verge of a strike. Orchestra officials have been quoted calling the deal "fair and generous." The old contract, which included an initial wage freeze and minimal raises, expired October 1.

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 83

Laurie's Books

Subscribe