Why stop there?
So Hilary Hahn is now officially a v.commie. Cool! :) Welcome Hilary, and may you long enjoy our protracted flame wars about shoulder rest usage, the endless debate over gut vs. synthetic, nit-picky technique discussions and grand Romantic rhapsodies on "What is Music??" :)
But heck, why stop there? ;-) As long as we're picking up famous people, I'd like to extend an official violinist.com invitation to:
Itzhak Perlman, for all the zillions of stories he could probably tell us, and for his sense of humor,
Maxim Vengerov, for being awesome,
Barnabás Kelemen, also for being awesome,
Any or all of the members of the Takacs Quartet, to provide the insight into the finer points of high-level chamber music that we actually don't hear around here as much as we might (the insight I mean, not the music),
Joshua Bell, to make Sydney happy :)
Gilles Apap, if he ever gets over his dislike of computers, just for the inevitable bruhaha his appearance here would cause,
Sergiu Luca, to tell Enescu stories and add his many-more-than-two cents to any Bach discussions,
Pinchas Zukerman, to argue vehemently with Sergiu Luca about proper Bach interpretation, to the general entertainment and edification of the rest of us,
And if Ilya Gringolts ever feels like coming back, he'll get no objection from me. :)
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How about Aaron Rosand so we can have the foremost no-shoulder-rest proponent join the debate?
Barnabás IS a v.commie!
Wait. WHAT?! Hilary is on violinist.com? When did this happen? When did you find out?!
... nevermind. It's only all over the website!
Syd--yeah, and we're Facebook friends too. :-D I keep wondering whether I should poke him...
I'd love to see the Miro Quartet on here. ;)
Oh yay! Hilary Hahn is my favorite violinist. Perhaps because she and my teacher had the same teachers? =)
Pinchas Zukerman could also contribute greatly to the debates on shoulder rests.
Oh yes you're right Pauline.
If Hillary Hahn has joined v.com that is very exciting. If Hillary Hahn's publicist has joined v.com that is a big yawn.
All we need is Rosand and Zukerman on one side and maybe Shaham arguing for the use of rests. Laurie could charge admission and I could sell popcorn! What fun.
The last time I spoke to Aaron, last year after not chatting with him for at least a year, he answered the phone and I said, "hi, Aaron, this is Ray, how are you?" The next words to me were not hi, back, or how are you type thing, he said, "are you still using a damn shoulder rest?" After I stopped laughing we discussed that for a bit then got down to pleasantries.
In my opinion he has to be one of the best players ever and he's still not too shabby at all.
Yes Ray, my gosh at 80 he still plays with more passion than most 20 year olds and he can still hit those passages. Absolutely amazing!
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October 18, 2007 at 03:37 PM · You forgot Arnold Steinhardt...