March 2013

V.com weekend vote: What is the likeliest thing to draw you to a live concert performance?

When I attend a concert, it's because….how would you answer?

Do you attend in order to hear a particular ensemble or hear a particular guest artist? Do you attend because certain repertoire will be played? Do you attend simply to experience something new?

You may have a combination of reasons to go to a concert, but what would be the single likeliest draw for you? For me, it's usually the guest artist. Even when I went to see the entire Mahler symphony cycle in LA, it was because Dudamel was conducting the LA Phil -- the draw was Dudamel, because I knew I would hear Mahler a certain way. The Mahler was a secondary draw! Of course, I have on occasion chosen a concert, simply because of the repertoire.

How about you? Do you go to hear a specific artist? Do you go to hear repertoire? Or, do you simply never go to live concerts? Let us know:

15 replies

V.com weekend vote: From what century is your fiddle?

I find that an audience enjoys hearing about my fiddle, as much as I enjoy telling them about it. It's about 200 years old, so I like speculating that maybe the piece I'm about to play (if it's an old classic) is something that was played on the fiddle before I was even born!

People seemed equally curious about my 20th c. violin as well; as it was made in Montana, had some amber in the varnish, etc. I actually knew much more about it, because the maker was living.

From what century is your primary fiddle? (Remember, if it was made in 1950, it's a 20th-century violin, if it was made in 1789, it's an 18th century violin, etc.)

14 replies

V.com weekend vote: Do you REALLY know who made your fiddle?

Do you REALLY know who made your violin?

I started thinking about this because violin collector and maker Bill Townsend told me that the T.V. show Treasure Detectives is airing an episode about the authenticity of violins and other art objects this Tuesday. They use some scientific methods to try to determine if something is the real deal, or a high-end forgery.

One can argue that none of us really knows who made our instruments, unless one was sitting in the room with the luthier. But using reasonable logic -- as in, what your dealer told you when you bought the fiddle and what you've learned about it since -- do you believe you know the maker of your violin? And do you think it would it stand up to scientific scrutiny?

For example, I have a Gagliano brothers violin, and that's pretty well documented. But I don't know which brother made it! I knew who made my 20th-century violin; but I've no idea what the deal is with my German factory-made fake Strad.

How about you? Are you pretty sure who made your violin, or are there doubts? If you have more than one violin, answer the vote for your main instrument, and please tell us about your experiences in finding out the truth behind who made your violin.

19 replies

V.com Weekend Vote: Have you ever supported a musician's Kickstarter campaign?

Have you ever supported a musician's Kickstarter campaign? Is it something you would consider, or not?

The Internet has opened a host of new ways for artists to connect with supporters, and one of the biggest trends in the past few years has been the crowd-funding of creative projects.

This has had major implications for musicians young and old. Increasingly, when a musician wants to create a new album, he or she will start a Kickstarter campaign to fund it. Kickstarter, started in 2009, has allowed a good number of violinists to raise funding for albums and projects.

How does it work? In a nutshell, you come up with a project, make a budget, make an appealing video to sell people on your project, and if the project is 100 percent funded in a set amount of time, you get the money and do the project.

Here are some violin-related projects that have been funded through Kickstarter in the last few years:

Rachel Barton Pine's Mendelssohn and Schumann concerto album

Judy Kang's Solo album

"Prodigy," a short film about a girl's flights of imagination at her violin lesson, by Lisa Ford.

Javier Orman and Dúo del Sol's first album

Brooklyn Rider's album, "Seven Steps"

Yevgeny Kutik's album, Defiance

The Kréddle chinrest, an adjustable chinrest for violinists and violists.

Would you consider supporting a musician's Kickstarter campaign? Please vote, and share your thoughts on this trend.

(By the way, if you have a Kickstarter campaign going, you can mention it in the comments section of this blog. If you wish to write about a project on Violinist.com, here are Violinist.com's guidelines for doing so. One has to be careful, though, about "spamming" for financial support -- it's a very fine line!)

5 replies

V.com weekend vote: What motivates you to practice?

We know what makes us into good musicians: Practice! But where do you get your motivation to practice?

After teaching for 20+ years, I'm convinced that motivation to practice is the single most important factor in a student's success. And for a professional, staying motivated and inspired is key to staying a musician!

I think that a person can be motivated to practice by a number of different things, and that those things likely change throughout life. Your motivation as a young child be in the hands of your parents -- your are motivated by Mom's nagging, or some kind of reward from your parents. Or, you might be motivated by playing a particular piece or concerto: the next piece in the book, or the Tchaikovsky Concerto.

You could be the kind of person who has cultivated a daily practice and is motivated by the daily devotion of keeping up that practice. Or, maybe you are madly in love with someone who inspires you to practice, or even maybe you have a "professional crush" on another musician you admire and want to be like. Maybe your teacher or mentor inspires you. I'm very motivated by having a performance -- somehow, I'm a person who needs a deadline! I'd like to get myself into that devotional practicer mode, though, as it's a bit more consistent.

You are probably motivated by a combination of things, but I'm interested in what motivates you most, currently, to practice, when you practice!

17 replies