CONQUER YOUR SPECIAL FOCUS: AUGUSTIN HADELICH’S UPPER-POSITION ANXIETIES GREAT TEACHERS ON TEACHING DEPENDABLE 1723 STRAD

GERARD REDEFINING THE ROLE SCHWARZ’ OF A CLASSICAL ALL-STARS PLAYER TAKE IT TO TELEVISION

IMPERFECTION VS. IMITATION: THE MAKINGS OF A MASTERPIECE

NILS ØKLAND EXPLORES THE

August 2017 No. 268 HARDANGER FIDDLE’S StringsMagazine.com FLEXIBLE VOICE

001_Cover copy.indd 1 6/22/17 4:49 PM FEATURES SPECIAL FOCUS Great Teachers on Teaching 16 Star Power 36 T e All-Star Orchestra Play It Again, shines in a new season Viola. And Again. By Cristina Schreil On orchestra excerpts and the unconditional love of music By Atar Arad 40 The Impossible 22 Dream The Eye of the Beholder Tackling the everyday struggle Imperfection may just be the thing of teaching that separates true art from imitation intonation By James N. McKean By Robert Gillespie

44 Finding the Right Balance Producing transcendent 26 musical moments— Fire and Ice and the need to Cellist Seth Parker Woods on his keep track of my inf uences and inspiration, and students’ thumbs the trajectory of his artistic adventure By Karine Georgian By T omas May 46 Constant Evolution On the development of my teaching approach to the opening of the Sibelius Concerto By Almita Vamos 32 Nordic Tracks Nils Økland explores the many voices of his Hardanger f ddle By Bob Doerschuk AUGUST 2017

VOLUME XXXII, NUMBER 1, ISSUE 268 COVER: SETH PARKER WOODS

WOODS—MICHAEL YU; ØKLAND—FREDERIC BOUDIN; GEORGIAN—KATE MOUNT PHOTO: MICHAEL YU

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Karine Georgian StringsMagazine.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT Editor Megan Westberg Managing Editor Stephanie Powell Production Manager Hugh O’Connor Contributing Editors Cristina Schreil, James N. McKean, Darol Anger, Sarah Freiberg, Inge Kjemtrup, Louise Lee, Laurence Vittes, Anna Pulley, Thomas May, Patrick Sullivan, Emily Wright

Creative Services Creative Director Joey Lusterman Production Designer Olivia Wise

SALES & MARKETING Chief Revenue Officer Lyzy Lusterman Sales Director Cindi Olwell Associate Sales Director Greg Sutton Sales Managers Ref Sanchez, Amy-Lynn Fischer Marketing Services Manager Tanya Gonzalez Marketing Designer Tricia Baxter Product Marketing Manager Kelsey Holt Magazine Marketing Coordinator Lauren Boyd egendary violin teacher Dorothy his or her students. And more and more stu- Single Copy Sales Consultant Tom Ferruggia DeLay would have turned 100 on dents are embracing careers of increasing March 31, a date that also almost eclecticism. Take cover subject Seth Parker exactly marks 15 years since her Woods. His projects run the gamut between death. Yet her infuence, as evidenced avant-garde performance art and 17th- Lby a star-studded tribute event organized by century Italian Baroque cello music. her former student Philippe Quint, has been As players are rethinking how they will undiminished by time. As Itzhak Perlman, forge careers, even the orchestral model is Sarah Chang, Midori, and others voiced their getting a new look. , former memories and gratitude for her guidance, the longtime music director of the Seattle Sym- Stringletter.com importance of a violin teacher’s role in phony, decided that the best way to create a the lives of her students took center stage. bigger audience for orchestral music was to Publisher and Editorial Director David A. Lusterman This issue focuses on that role, and four create an orchestra that would perform . . . FINANCE & OPERATIONS great teachers—violist Atar Arad, violinist without an audience. His All-Star Orchestra, Chief Operations Officer Anita Evans Robert Gillespie, cellist Karine Georgian, and its seats filled with top players from top Accounting Associate Raymund Baldoza violinist Almita Vamos—talk about the chal- American orchestras, plays for the cameras Bookkeeper Geneva Thompson Office Assistant Vanessa Averbeck lenges and rewards of their craft, and how only, hoping to bring the orchestral-music they shoulder the responsibility of what experience into American homes via public General Inquiries [email protected] amounts to so much more than teaching tech- television in a new, more engaging way. Customer Service [email protected] nique and musical expression. As always, I invite you to share your Advertising Inquiries [email protected] Each of these educators occupies a place of thoughts about these stories, and the many Send e-mail to individuals in this format: honor in a noble teaching lineage—the mod- others that appear in this issue, including [email protected] ern heirs to the great historical Russian, James N. McKean’s memories of noted violin

Front Desk (510) 215-0010 French, and Franco-Belgian schools of violin dealer Jacques Francais, Nils Økland’s Customer Service (800) 827-6837 playing. thoughts on the stylistic flexibility of his General Fax (510) 231-5824 String teaching, while heavily infuenced Hardanger fddle, and Augustin Hadelich’s Secure Fax (510) 231-8964 by the past, is still the province of musicians description of his 1723 “ex-Kiesewetter” Mail & Shipping with their eyes on the future. A teacher’s leg- Strad violin. 501 Canal Boulevard, Suite J, Richmond, CA 94804 acy is, after all, tied frmly to the successes of —Megan Westberg, editor

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TO SUBSCRIBE to Strings magazine, call (800) 809-6372 or visit us online at StringsMagazine.com. As TO ADVERTISE in Strings, Strings Notes, and on StringsMagazine.com and connect with more than a subscriber, you enjoy the convenience of home delivery and you never miss an issue. You can take care 200,000 string players, teachers, and members of the trade, please contact sales director Cindi Olwell of all your subscription needs at our online Subscriber Services page (StringsMagazine.com/subscriber- at (510) 215-0025 or [email protected]. services): pay your bill, renew, give a gift, change your address, and get answers to any questions you may have about your subscription. A single issue costs $7.99; an individual subscription is $40.00 per DISTRIBUTED to the music trade by American International Distribution Corporation (AIDC), year; institutional subscriptions are also available. International subscribers must order airmail delivery. PO Box 2211, Williston, VT 05495-2211, 800-765-8737, [email protected]. Add $15 per year for Canada/Pan Am, $30 elsewhere, payable in US funds on a US bank, or by Visa, Strings articles are indexed in The Music Index and The Music Article Guide. Except as noted, all con- MasterCard, or American Express. tents © 2017 String Letter Publishing, Inc., David A. Lusterman, Publisher. No part of the contents may

KATE MOUNT be reproduced, in print or electronically, without prior written permission.

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The All-Star Orchestra shines in a new season By Cristina Schreil

t’s August 2016 at SUNY Pur- chase, a college just north of I New York City. As she’s done countless times in her two decades with the Boston Sym- phony Orchestra, violinist Elita Kang dons concert attire. She’s all made up, notes in hand, as she moves with fellow players onto the concert stage. Yet some- thing feels distinctly odd about this performance: There is no audience. Along with 86 other musi- cians, Kang is performing for a feet of high-defnition cameras. “You develop kind of a Pavlovian routine after a while: You get into your concert gear and you walk out onstage and there are going to be people listening. It was a little bit odd to just pretend,” Kang says after the performance. Tere was, she stresses, a gratify- SCHWARZ—STEVE SHERMAN ing reason behind the experience.

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016-021_FT_All-StarOrchestsra.indd 17 6/22/17 1:11 PM T is recording session was for season three New Jersey, North Carolina, Jacksonville, feel less equivalent to an Olympic basketball of the All-Star Orchestra, a public-television Washington, D.C., and beyond rub shoulders. team than to a musical Justice League. Since project bringing classical-music education to Giving the event this kind of universal its f rst season in 2013, about 85 percent of the masses this September. moniker communicates the goal of nudging public-broadcasting stations have aired the When you hear “all star,” it’s usually base- classical music onto a more public stage. “I orchestra’s specially crafted concert-like epi- ball diamonds—not concert halls—that are thought that we should be called the All-Star sodes, which are interspersed with commen- likely come to mind. But this inclusive cele- Orchestra to make it as popular as possible,” tary and interviews with players and bration of the “best of the best” embraces a says maestro Gerard Schwarz, the founder. composers. mega ensemble that unites principals and “It wouldn’t be a New York show or Chicago Minutes before Schwarz shares his vision concertmasters from a host of American show or San Francisco show . . . We wanted it with me, I’m walking along a sun-streaked orchestras—30, in fact. T e roster is a virtual to be an American show.” With this harmoni- Park Avenue to meet him at his home. It’s cross-country journey; players from Utah, ous mission of public service, the All-Stars springtime in New York City and clusters of bright tulips seem to wave at me from their f owerbeds. And then Schwarz, turning our handshake into something of a dance move, Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music is proud to announce whisks me into his opulent apartment. As he the Starling-Shepherd Distinguished Artist Teacher Series in settles in a window-side chair, the marigold Classical Violin. This new initiative celebrates thirty-seven years blobs of taxicabs streak down the avenue of collaboration between the Dorothy Richard Starling behind him. A chorus of car horns punctu- Foundation and the Shepherd School of Music, two of ates the atmosphere. You’d think this was Houston’s most ÀiëiVÌi` arts organizations. The Series just the place to brainstorm big ideas, but will bring prominent violin pedagogues to Houston for Schwarz’ All-Star concept actually took root mini-residencies at Rice four times during the academic in Seattle, where he was music director of the year. These guest artists will compliment the work for 26 years. Schwarz was by then no stranger to multi- of the Shepherd School’s illustrious violin faculty: media platforms or the power of public tele- Kenneth Goldsmith, Paul Kantor, Cho-Liang Lin vision. Previously as music director of New and Kathleen Winkler. York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, he earned an Dean, The Shepherd School of Music Emmy nomination for a Live from Lincoln Cen- Robert Yekovich ter broadcast. In 2007 in Seattle, while f lm- ing concert shots sans audience for a local

String Faculty public broadcaster, Schwarz found himself beaming. With cameramen not having to Violin Cello worry about interfering with the audience Kenneth Goldsmith Norman Fischer Paul Kantor Desmond Hoebig experience, unique bird’s-eye perspectives Cho-Liang Lin Brinton Averil Smith were possible. “And then it just dawned on Kathleen Winkler Double Bass me: ‘Oh boy, this is the way it should be Viola Paul Ellison done,’” he remembers thinking.

The Shepherd School of Music of School The Shepherd James Dunham Timothy Pitts T at show won an Emmy award. Ivo-Jan van der Werff When it came time for Schwarz to leave the Seattle Symphony, he sought “another mountain to climb.” With the participation of his wife Jody and other friends and conf - dants, the plan emerged. A key pillar was the potential of public television. Drawing on its role as a resource for young history students, Schwarz aimed to create a parallel resource about music history. He made a list of com- posers, including living ones, whom he Shepherd School Violin Faculty (L–R), Kenneth Goldsmith, Paul Kantor, Cho-Liang Lin, Kathleen Winkler regarded as history’s hundred most impor- tant. He admits it was a titanic feat to narrow it down. T en, for each composer, Schwarz The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, Houston, TX chose what he considered to be his or her music.rice.edu most “identif able” work—one that has nota- ble cultural significance or is intertwined

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016-021_FT_All-StarOrchestsra.indd 18 6/22/17 4:24 PM with the composer’s legacy. The dream, Te All-Stars’ collective experience made it Julian Schwarz, and Jones’ Concerto for Violin, Schwarz says, is to present a work by each, gel, according to Schwarz. performed by Anne Akiko Meyers. Much of forging a complete record. Perhaps making this kind of ensemble the first season featured players reflecting The Khan Academy, a free online educa- work is all in the selection process. Tere’s no with awe on the sheer quality of sound, the tional nonproft, is a partner. Its more than fve auditioning to become an All-Star. To form surprising force generated when entire million music students can view lessons pre- his first orchestra, Schwarz hand-picked orchestral sections are comprised of the coun- senting music basics, composer interviews, players he had connected with over the years, try’s top players. “I mean, you’re talking about instrument explanations, and full movements. and asked his section principals to bring in the highest level of musical performance,” Full episodes are broadcast on public networks the rest. Since then, section principals have Schwarz says. With a laugh, he adds that after and on YouTube. Schwarz asserts episodes are continued to fll any vacancies. years of , he knows the potential “not a concert substitute at all, but with the “Of course you want people to have oppor- pitfalls of every piece. Time and again, they idea that the intrinsic value would lead to peo- tunities to audition,” Schwarz says. “On the don’t occur. He observes, “Tey’re playing like ple being excited about music, people being other hand if I were making an orchestra and they were in the front, not in the back.” exposed to music, people being at least a little I went to the frst trumpet and said, ‘Make a Kang, who is the Boston Symphony bit educated, and hopefully that music section for me,’ he or she would do better Orchestra’s assistant concertmaster, knows becomes part of their lives—maybe [they] than an audition. [Section leaders] would what Schwarz means. “Pretty much everyone even become concertgoers.” pick people who play like they do, who make in the frst violin section was a title chair—if Tere was initial pushback. “Many people the sound that they make. It’s not like in not concertmaster, then an assistant or an didn’t believe that you could bring 80 or 90 politics where people feel like if you argue, associate concertmaster—so we’re all used to musicians together and make it sound good,” it’s useful. In music, it’s not. You want to get leading,” she says. “I didn’t get the feeling Schwarz recalls, also citing worries that a people who actually sound well together.” that anybody was being particularly over- short time frame (each season tapes in a few bearing. Tere was still a sense that we were days) wouldn’t work. But in reality, it did. For he first two seasons featured master- trying to play together as an ensemble. But season one, they shot eight episodes in four pieces like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 we’re defnitely more assertive as a bunch.” days. Schwarz delivered marked sheet music T in C minor, Op. 67; Brahms’ Academic David Kim, the concertmaster of the Phila- well in advance, plus recordings of himself Festival Overture, Op. 80; and Gershwin’s delphia Symphony Orchestra, serves as the conducting, to show such details at his pre- Rhapsody in Blue. Tere were also works by liv- All-Star’s concertmaster. He recalls it was easy ferred tempo. Tis was not the time to put a ing composers, such as ’ Concerto to say yes, noting there are similar groups wild new interpretative stamp on repertoire. for Violoncello, performed by Schwarz’ son, bringing together top musicians in Japan.

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016-021_FT_All-StarOrchestsra.indd 19 6/20/17 4:18 PM “People love doing this,” he says. Nordic Romanticism. The finale spotlights Gerard Schwarz “It’s exciting, it’s vital, and it feels American composers. It features Alan Hovha- like we’re a part of something ness’ Symphony No. 2, Op. 132, “Mysterious important because of all the cur- Mountain”—a dreamy work that seems to con- riculum that’s attached to it.” He jure the composer’s home view of Seattle’s paints it as a treat for players. In Mount Rainier. looking ahead at season three, he It also features the 1944 work Jubilee Varia- notes many works are ones pro- tions by Sir Eugene Goossens—which held fessionals can “play in our sleep.” challenges and intrigue. Ten American com- He adds that Schwarz, a steady posers contributed minutes of music based on f nal arbiter of a group of many Goossens’ theme. Before now, the most easily distinct voices, has a keen “sixth accessible recording was a scratchy rendition sense” about when to step in and on YouTube. Schwarz recalls worries from the when to let go. All-Stars, remembering one violist said she It’s also a fun atmosphere. “I had stayed up the entire night before, practic- haven’t seen some people since ing the unfamiliar repertoire. “It wasn’t a crisp my Juilliard days 30 years ago and new manuscript,” Kim says, adding that it was all of a sudden we’re talking about yellowed and tricky to read. But “it doesn’t our kids going to college matter how dif cult it is—everybody is cool or getting their f rst job under pressure.” T e All-Stars’ performance is after college. It’s really a world-premiere television recording. meaningful,” he relates. Despite the fast-paced nature of f lming, I haven’t seen some people since my A few seasons in, initial Schwarz’ self-described perfectionist nature uncertainty about the remained. “You have a certain trust in me Juilliard days 30 years ago and all of logistics has faded. and a trust in yourself and a trust in each a sudden we’re talking about our kids “We’ve really settled into other and a trust in engineering and in the a new rhythm and every- cameramen,” he says. “T ey know I won’t let going to college or getting their fi rst job body feels much more anything out that’s not basically perfect.” comfortable with the Others have noticed. The overall series after college. It’s really meaningful. setup,” Kim says. Still, it’s earned four Emmy awards. However, grueling even for sea- Schwarz thinks the project still has room to —David Kim, concertmaster of soned professionals. “It’s grow—a live concert, or a broadcast with a the All-Star Orchestra really quite a challenge to visual element, perhaps. He recalls an inspir- maintain that incredible, ing yet challenging concert back in Seattle, high level of concentra- where glass artist Dale Chihuly contributed tion and focus for the dazzling structures for a production of Béla whole time, regardless of Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle.” repertoire,” Kim admits, adding Schwarz’ main goal is still education. He David Kim that he prioritizes healthy eating recalls visiting public-school students in and quick naps. Tenaf y, New Jersey, where he showed an epi- Season three has a geographi- sode on Beethoven to a large group of f fth grad- cal theme, which arose from ers. T eir reaction gave him hope: “Someone Schwarz’ continued quest to fea- said afterward that they’d never seen a large ture every composer. T us there’s group of a hundred f fth graders be so quiet.” He an episode on “Russian Trea- hopes the project converts neophytes of all ages sures,” featuring excerpts from into people who are aware, if not transformed. Prokof ev’s Romeo and Juliet and “How many people in our country feel like Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibi- classical music is important? Five percent? tion, arranged by Ravel. Moving Four percent? T ink about if we could inf u- west, there’s a spotlight on British ence another percent,” Schwarz muses. The composers, featuring Elgar’s twinkle in his eye that’s been glimmering Enigma Variations and Britten’s throughout our interview intensif es. “If you Young Person’s Guide to the Orches- believe in music and if you believe in music tra. Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 education, it should be in everyone’s lives. Or, SCHWARZ—STEVE SHERMAN KIM—RYAN DONNELL occupies another episode on at least the attempt should be in everyone’s.”

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