STOMPING GROUNDS

o quote Randy Newman, “I love nut who loved to blast Beethoven in the garage L.A.!” I feel very fortunate to again while working on his cars, was able to score one call Los Angeles my home base. The lucky ticket to this momentous occasion. After T year-round warm climate, beautiful much discussion, it was decided that I would be ocean and mountain views, thriving music the lucky ticket holder—despite the fact that I scene, world-class restaurants, and friendly was only seven years old! They dropped me off people make it a wonderful place to live. at the beginning and picked me up the second I was born in San Diego, moved to the middle it was over. I felt tremendous pressure to stay of the Mojave Desert for a few years (my mother awake throughout the duration of the concert, drove three hours each way for violin lessons in but I made it through and still remember the Los Angeles), and then grew up in L.A. until I opening chords of Beethoven’s Fifth Sym- was a teenager. It was the perfect place for an phony like it was yesterday. aspiring violinist to learn and grow. It was experiences like these that served as When I was seven years old, I began stud- guideposts to my future. I will never forget ies with Alice Schoenfeld and had chamber- going to the Hollywood Bowl with my mother music coachings with her sister Eleonore. I and sister, sitting in the nosebleed section had bi-weekly lessons, chamber-music stud- with our Japanese bento dinners. While we ies, and classes at the Community School of ate, we heard the Tchaikovsky violin concerto Performing Arts (now the Colburn School) and I decided then and there, I wanted to be a on the weekends. When driving around we concert violinist. (In my 20s, after I per- listened to—and today still listen to—KUSC, formed at the Hollywood Bowl, we celebrated with the comforting and friendly voice of at Wolfgang Puck’s iconic Spago restaurant. I Jim Svejda in the car. nearly fell out of my chair when he hand- Alice organized all kinds of performing delivered a salmon pizza to the table! You just opportunities—from visiting dignitaries to never know who you’re going to meet in L.A.) local competitions, concerts with the Young Richard Colburn, an industrialist, major Musicians Foundation, and eventually, sev- arts philanthropist, and amateur violist was eral television shows. I debuted with the Los incredibly generous and loaned me violins Angeles Philharmonic when I was 11 and was and bows from his vast collection. He would the leader of a piano quartet, the hold soirees at his beautiful estate, where I Angels Ensemble of California, would perform a movement of a concerto or a Violinist Anne which performed twice on The showpiece. The Colburn School of Music was Akiko Meyers Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, largely funded by Mr. Colburn, and serves That’s Incredible, and at the Emmy the L.A. community with instruction in reminisces on Awards, where a special highlight music and dance for young students and a a childhood was meeting Big Bird backstage. tuition-free conservatory that attracts the One year, the Berlin Philhar- best talent from around the world. spent in the rich monic and Herbert von Karajan The opportunities to make music in Los Los Angeles visited town to perform at Angeles are enormous with spectacular ven- Ambassador Auditorium in Pasa- ues such as the Ambassador Auditorium, music scene dena. My dad, a classical-music Broad Stage, Disney Hall, Hollywood Bowl,

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Royce Hall, and Segerstrom Hall, among many others. Whether a student at the MY SHOP prestigious Colburn School of Performing Growing up, I would regularly Arts; an early professional; a young string visit luthier Robert Cauer, who player gaining experience in the Ameri- worked on Richard Colburn’s can Youth Symphony Orchestra; or a per- violins, and drool on a Strad or former in a Hollywood studio orchestra, Guarneri that would periodically the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the come through his workshop. Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Today, Georg Ettinger from the Hans Weisshaar shop looks after the “ex-Vieuxtemps” Guarneri del I will never forget Gesù that I exclusively perform going to the Hollywood on now, and is a one-stop shop as he also rehairs my Tourte “ex- Bowl with my mother Rosand” bow. hweisshaar.com and sister, sitting in Emmy Awards Show the nosebleed section with our Japanese bento dinners. While we ate dinner, we heard the Tchaikovsky violin concerto and I decided then and there, I wanted to be a concert violinist.

Dudamel, the New West Symphony, the Pacific Symphony with Carl St. Clair, or Onstage with the Los Angeles Philharmonic the Pasadena Symphony with David Lockington, one is always deeply aware of the rich musical history of Los Angeles. What other city in the world can claim to be home to so many great musicians of the 20th century? Charlie Chaplin, Ella Fitzgerald, George Gershwin, Jascha Heifetz, Bernard Herrmann, Erich Korn- gold, Charles Mingus, Gregor Piatigor- sky, Sergei Rachmaninoff (who loved visiting the farmer’s market!), Arthur Rubinstein, Igor Stravinsky, and John Williams to name a very few. Los Angeles is incredibly diverse in its character, people, and culture. The his- tory of immigrants seeking refuge in this sunny and beautiful paradise has created an incredible city with rich musical expe- Post-concert with Andres Segovia riences where dreams really do come true.

44 May 2018 / Strings