Violin Community News 2010, Op.12

March 31, 2010 at 8:07 PM

The Charleston Symphony Orchestra has suspended its operations as of Sunday, according to the the Charleston Post and Courier, canceling all remaining concerts in its 2009-2010 season. "Currently, the CSO does not have the operating cash flow to continue to pay its musicians or staff member’s salaries and the organization’s operating expenses," said CSO President Ted Legasey in a press release that is posted on the orchestra's website. "This was a very difficult decision for the Board and we are committed to work diligently to find a solution that enables the organization to continue to serve the Charleston community."

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Carlos Piantini, 1927-2010. Violinist and conductor Carlos Piantini, died Friday in Port Jervis, NY, at the age of 82. A native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Piantini was 10 when he first appeared as a soloist and 17 when he went to Mexico to study music. He was the first Latino to play in the New York Philharmonic, where he played for 15 years. He made his conducting debut with the Philharmonic in 1969, with a performance of Verdi's "Requiem." From 1978 to 1983 he served as conductor of the Caracas Philharmonic, and from 1984 to 1994 he served as conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic (Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional). He conducted many orchestras around the world, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra; National Symphony Orchestra (Washington); the Jerusalem Symphony and the International Orchestra of Italy. He served as the Artistic Director of National Theatre Santo Domingo, where in 2009, the main hall was renamed "Gran Sala Maestro Carlos Piantini." He also served as Dominican Republic's representative to the United Nations from 1972-1973. More recently, he was founder and director of Florida International University's Symphony Orchestra and Orchestral Studies Program.

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Who wouldn't love the kind of review that David Patrick Stearns gave the string quartet Brooklyn Rider for its performance at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center? "The program was a case of 21st-century musicians' simply being well-rounded citizens of a musical world in which Latin and Persian folk cultures, for example, aren't confined to national borders, and French impressionists are as much a part of our world as the era that spawned them." Stearns wrote. "My reaction on Saturday wasn't 'Isn't this interesting?' but 'Isn't this fun?'" The quartet includes violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen (who composed several of the works played Saturday) violist Nicholas Cords and cellist Eric Jacobsen.

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This could be an interesting book: Mother Started It, by Diana Steiner, a compilation of interviews and stories about three generations of American female classical musicians, Elizabeth Levy Steiner, her daughters Diana and Frances Steiner, and Diana’s daughter, Marcia Dickstein. It includes vignettes of the famous musicians that crossed their lives, such as Efrem Zimbalist, Gregor Piatigorsky, Jascha Heifetz, Nadia Boulanger, Leonard Bernstein, and Mehli Mehta.