Violin News & Gossip, Op. 3, No. 48

June 17, 2007 at 7:28 PM

6/15/07 – The American Symphony Orchestra League reports that “orchestras and individual musicians touring internationally may continue to travel with their bows, after winning an exemption during negotiations at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The international community met over the past two weeks to determine whether to include the Brazilian pernambuco tree on the endangered species list. Most fine bows used by string musicians are made from pernambuco wood. Negotiators settled on adding the tree to the endangered species list, but applying the listing only to ‘logs, sawn wood, veneer sheets…’, specifying that finished bows that are transported internationally would not be subject to cumbersome CITES permit and certification requirements.”

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Also according to the ASOL, donations of instruments, scores, and musical supplies are being requested for the first Iraqi Summer Arts Academy. The program, taking place next month in the Kurdish region, will bring together more than 250 musicians, including the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, professional and youth orchestras from Erbil and Suleymania, and music students. The program is being organized by the nonprofit American Voices and organizations including the New York-based Musicians for Harmony. Items needed include student-size violins and cellos, scores and parts for string orchestra, youth orchestra and Suzuki method, and supplies. For more information, contact Allegra Klein, allegra@musicians4harmony.org. For more about the summer academy, visit: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=14151.

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6/14/07 – The results of the inaugural Stradivarius International Violin Competition are in:
1st Prize: Yoonshin Song, Korea. Prizes include $10,000, a Charles W. Liu Hand Made Violin and a solo appearance with the Utah Symphony (Summer 2008). Song performed on a 1712 Antonio Stradivarius Violin at the Final Concert.
2nd Prize: Andrej Power, Sweden. He wins $5,000.00 and performed on a 1738 Giuseppe Guarneri "Del Gesu" Violin at the Final Concert.
3rd Prize: Sharon Park, USA, $2,500.
4th Prize: Susan Jang, USA. $1,000.
5th Prize: SoJin Kim, Korea. $500.

Mindy Chen of California won the Grand Prize in the Youth Category. She wins $2,000 and a solo appearance in the Gina Bachauer Piano Festival. Liu’s website includes biographies of all winners. Runner-up Power so impressed judges that the Utah Symphony offered him a 2008 engagement as well, reports PlaybillArts.com.

Musician News

Violinist Sarah Kapustin was recently named First-Prize Winner (Violin) of the International Instrumental Competition Markneukirchen 2007.

6/23/07 – Violinist Vilmos Szabadi will perform a recital at Indiana University with Chih-Yi Chen, piano. The program will include works by Bartok, Mozart and Brahms.

6/18/07 - Manhattan School of Music and the Shanghai Conservatory have joined forces in a distance-learning exchange using Internet2 technology. Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic and chair of MSM’s orchestral performance program will lead a violin master class concentrating on orchestral excerpts.

6/14/07 – Violinists took the two top slots at the Irving M. Klein International String Competition in the Bay area. 22-year-old Juilliard student Jing Wang took first place, while 21-year old David McCarroll took second. Wang wins $10,000, plus performances with the Peninsula and Santa Cruz symphonies, a recital in Mexico and at the Ralston Concert series at Notre Dame de Namur University, as well as other venues. The competition’s website includes a list of semifinalists, each of whom won $1,000.

6/14/07 - Nearly five years after Frederic Bednarz’s violin was stolen from a Harvard Square music school, police have found the $24,000 instrument, reports the Boston Herald. “But it’s unclear if police ever plan to charge the crooks involved in the high-profile heist. For Bednarz, a Montreal-born violinist, the return of the pricey 19th-century violin is a case of too little, too late. ‘Well, you know, it’s been such a long time that I’ve dealt with it and bought another violin’, said Bednarz. The insurance company sold Bednarz’s stolen violin at Tarisio auction house last month, according to Chris Reuning, owner of Reuning & Son Violins in Boston. The violin sold at auction for $24,150, said Reuning, one of the founding partners of Tarisio.”

6/14/07 – Violinist Thomas Zehetmair recently undertook a Herculean task: performing all 24 Pagannini caprices in recital, plus sonatas by Ysaye and Berio at the Aldeburgh Festival in England.

Orchestra News

6/15/07 – The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has appointed Leonard Slatkin as its principal guest conductor, succeeding Yan Pascal Tortelier: “Slatkin’s three-year contract engages him for three weeks a season, in which he will conduct a mix of ‘subscription weeks, special projects, domestic tours and other activities.’ He will assume the role next September, the same month Manfred Honeck begins his tenure as music director.”

6/14/07 – The Washington Business Journal reports: “XM Satellite Radio will broadcast eight performances during the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's 2007-2008 season on one of its three classical music channels, the company and the orchestra announced Thursday ….The series, hosted by XM Classics Program Director Martin Goldsmith, will feature interviews with Music Director Marin Alsop, soloists, musicians and composers.”

6/12/07 – According to the Illinois Pantagraph, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra recently unveiled an ambitious plant for commemorating the 50th anniversary of Cliburn’s world-famous first-place win at the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. “For the first time ever, all six current winners from a Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the premier contest held every four years, will perform with a single orchestra over the course of one season. The first of the celebrated pianists, Chu-Fang Huang, performed at the press conferences Tuesday in Bloomington and Springfield. The remaining five will perform as guest soloists at each of the orchestra’s five Masterworks, which begin in September and continue through April 2008.”

5/25/07 – The Missoulian noted the warm welcome given to the new conductor in town: “As the Missoula Symphony Orchestra's brass quintet played on the lawn of the orchestra's offices on East Main Street on Thursday morning, a crowd of more than 100 people gathered to greet the orchestra's new director, Darko Butorac. The sun shone, the brass band gleamed - but nothing shined as brightly as Butorac's smile when he was introduced to the assembled throng.”

From Scott 68
Posted on June 18, 2007 at 2:31 AM

Zehetmair deserves more attention i think

From Solomon Liang
Posted on June 18, 2007 at 6:45 PM

definitely. His recording of the ysaye sonatas are amazing!

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