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Violin Blogs

Violinist.com members may keep personal journals on the website. Violinist.com's editor selects the best entries for the column below. Links to all other recent blog posts may be found in the column on the right.

Top Blogs

Violin Community News 2010, Op. 23

By Laurie Niles
June 16, 2010 12:58

Montreal violinist Alexandre Da Costa, 31, won the $25,000 Virginia Parker Prize for young Canadian classical music performers. Da Costa studied at Conservatoire de Musique du Québec, then studied in Madrid with Zakhar Bron. Between 2003 and 2006, he played the 1689 “Baumgartner” Stradivarius from 2003 to 2006, after winning the Canadian musical instrument bank competition. He currently plays the 1727 Di Barbaro Stradivarius with a Sartory bow, on lona from Canimex, where he is musical development director. He made world premiere recordins of violin concertos by Portuguese composers Luis de Freitas Branco and Armando José Fernandes and will record next with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Pedro Halffter. Da Costa performs and teaches.

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Violinists helping violinists: How to get on stage, when you've broken your foot? Violinist Chee-Yun broke her foot the day before her season-opener performance last Friday at the Innsbrook Institute Music Festival and Academy, near St. Louis. But this stopped nothing, St. Louis Symphony concertmaster and Innsbrook music director David Halen carried Chee-Yun and her 1708 “Ex-Strauss” Strad on stage, where she performed with the help of a stool, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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Violinist Regina Carter was named Violinist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in its 14th annual JJA Jazz Awards. This year the group gave awards in 41 categories. Other violinists nominated included Mark Feldman, Jenny Scheinman, Billy Bang and Mark O’Connor...

0 replies

'Tis the Summer Season

By Mendy Smith
June 15, 2010 20:36

Contrary to popular belief, the summer season can be a busy one for amateurs and professionals alike. As the regular concert series ends, the beginning of summer marks the season to engage in music festivals, camps, chamber recitals, and concerts in the park. It is the time to dust off the 1812 Overture, chamber music, and solos. This summer will be a busy one personally. There is the reproduction of the "Pet Sounds" album at Discovery Green. June marks the time when instrumentalist fill in for the choir at church over the summer. August heralds in the annual Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp. And September ends the Summer Season with a Beatles concert at the park. The summer may be busy, but it is a nice break from the normal orchestral season Read more...
0 replies

Regional Orchestras no good?

By Michael Divino
June 15, 2010 07:51

Read. React. I am highly upset.

17 replies

Is it Too Late for Adults to Learn to Play the Violin?

By Beth Blackerby
June 14, 2010 13:49

As I have created an entire website designed to teach adult beginning to intermediate violinists, you can guess that my response to the title question of this blog is a resounding “NEVER”. It is certainly in my business interests to be a strong advocate for adults learning to play the violin. But that's the chicken. Here is the egg. Approximately 17 years ago, before there was ever a Violin Lab, I started an adult chamber music class at Austin Community College. I already had a booming private studio of young talented kids, and one beginning adult student, a thirty-something year old, who had played some brass instrument in junior high band, but passionately wanted to learn the violin. Leslie was her name and she was my first adult student. She came to lessons knowing how to read music, but that was about it. She experienced a lot of anxiety in lessons, her nerves manifesting obvious tremors in each bow stroke. After our first couple of lessons, I thought for sure she wouldn't last. I saw the long, arduous battle in front of her, and many times, I must admit, I thought of suggesting that she choose another instrument, something easier, like piano or guitar. What I absolutely couldn't see then was the depth of her resolve, nor could I have anticipated what she would accomplish over the next several years, reaching a level of proficiency rivaling that of a much younger student. Although she was still subject to nervous anxiety, (it frustrated her to no end) she never let it stop her. ... Read more...
15 replies

How to Turn the Page -- Literally!

By Laurie Niles
June 14, 2010 09:02

If you need amusement, just watch a violinist turn a page during orchestra. What to do? We have a bow in one hand, a fiddle in the other, and sometimes those page turns need to happen fast.

Recently, V.com member Smiley Hsu asked how to turn pages faster, and that is my inspiration for this blog, along with my own struggles.

I'm left-handed, and for many years, the thought never even occurred to me that I could simply turn the page with my right hand. I kept putting my fiddle down, stretching my left hand way across to the right…until one day I was sitting with my good friend Margaret Carpenter, and excellent violinist and teacher. She saw my struggles and put a stop to the madness, "Look, just do THIS…"

And "this" is what I've recorded below, for your viewing pleasure. I wanted a nice-looking video this time around, so I turned to a pro: my nearly 10-year-old son, Brian. He set me up with his home-made green screen, so we could have the nifty colorful background. He also helped with the dramatic "bad page turn," which he had the idea to put into slow motion. Plus, he added the credits, did the filming and editing, etc. Thanks Brian!

24 replies

Tales from the Pit II

By Mendy Smith
June 13, 2010 16:41

Four days, five shows. Last night ended the 2010 production of Night Court "Legal Holidays", a musical comedy poking fun at the legal profession and current events. Each of those four nights, I went home exhausted but happy. A lesson in what professional musicians do day in and day out.

The string section was most concerned with one particular number - the "Aggie Song", a hoe-down to end all hoe-downs. Individually we spent many hours practicing this piece until our calluses formed calluses and shed enough wood to build a bonfire. I finally got to hear how this sounded today and was impressed with how it turned out.

The most memorable moment though was the scene just before intermission. The "Peanuts Gang" walks toward the front of the stage at the edge of the pit. One of the gang says that the orchestra has been in the pit for a long time and needs a break, and that the trumpet player looks like he needs a "bio break". At that point, the oboist raises a white flag in surrender, and the bari-sax flashes the actors on stage a flash card. All of this is unscripted and inspired by the moment.

What was on the card changed from night to night and ran the gambit from quips in text to photo-shopped pics that I can't describe in a PG setting. Suffice it to say, we were trying to throw the actors off, and succeeded at least for the first show. The war was on! On the second night of the show, the Peanuts Gang was ready for us and threw back an unscripted come-back. These impromptu jests between pit and stage brought laughs from the audience.

While the playing in the pit is cramped, hot, and stressful at times, it is an experience that we all mark as a highlight of the year.

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Violinist.com interview with Mikhail Simonyan: Bringing Music to Afghanistan

By Laurie Niles
June 11, 2010 23:47

Violinist Mikhail Simonyan will give his New York Philharmonic debut – a rather big deal for anyone – in just a few weeks. But weighing equally on his mind is a project close to his heart, an initiative he started called "Beethoven, Not Bullets," to support efforts to bring music education – and for that matter, music itself – to the children of Afghanistan.

Simonyan will play the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the New York Philharmonic in a series of concerts called From Russia With Love, June 29 and 30 at Avery Fisher Hall.

On Monday, though, he will share the stage with New York Phil musicians in a concert at City Winery sponsored by Music Unites, with the aim of raising money to support 50 students in their first year of study at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), at a cost of $360 per student.

"It's not like we're trying to persuade them to be more involved in music, we're really starting the musical education from scratch," Simonyan said of the effort to bring music education to Afghanistan. "People there don't know anything about it. It's not like they don't want to know – music was prohibited. You could have been killed if they found you with a recording of a Mozart violin concerto."

Afghanistan National Institute of Music is Afghanistan's only music school, run since 2007 by Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, a native Afghan who studied music at Monash University, Australia, and Moscow State Conservatory. The money raised by Simonyan's initiative will cover tuition for general and music education at the school and also provide a stipend for families, who in many cases were dependent on their children working in the streets to support them...

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V.com weekend vote: Have you ever had something Go Terribly Wrong at an audition?

By The Weekend Vote
June 11, 2010 11:12

I offer this poll in honor of one of my students, who took an audition last week and had one of those days.

At first, it looked like she had come at the wrong time, on the wrong day. Later she learned that she had been correct, but still, she took the audition thinking she'd somehow showed up at the wrong time. Then, the hair popped out of the tip of her bow, toward the end of her playing.

When her mom related this to me, I assured her, "It's not really an audition until something Goes Terribly Wrong."

Well, this doesn't always happen, but having taken more auditions than I can count, I can say that it happens pretty frequently. Sometimes it has to do with the environment, sometimes the fiddle misbehaves, and sometimes it's just some personal blunder that grows out of audition nerves.

For example, the audition where our "warm-up" room was 45 degrees F -- the heater didn't work! But no matter, this was the warm-up room and the jobs still went to the people who played the best (I got that one, yay.)

Then, there was the one where I accidentally drove to the wrong venue. Not good!

Another time, I remember a fellow auditionee, running from room to room, "Do you happen to have a spare A string?" Hers had broken, and she had no spare.

At another audition, they had a chime that played an A=442, right near the entrance to the stage. Just minutes before going before the audition panel, the proctor struck the chime, "You'll need to be tuned to this A," and I could see the unease as the auditionee in front of me quickly adjusted every string at the last minute.

I'm betting a few of you have some pretty good stories! Please vote in the poll, and then share:

poll by twiigs.com

14 replies

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Editor's Blogs

Laurie Niles
Violinist.com's editor is a professional symphony violinist and former newspaper journalist who interviews top violin performers and pedagogues, as well as reports on her experience in violin music and education.