The tone and feel of a string is highly personal, so it pays to keep an open mind in your search for great sound By Fan-Chia Tao The good news in the string world is that players have more choices than…
Crossing genres and decades, Howes weaves a patriotic tapestry By Cristina Schreil After a musical tour through Montenegro and Ukraine, jazz violinist Christian Howes returned—literally and figuratively—home. In American Spirit, Howes dismisses today’s fractured politics and conjures a nostalgic journey…
By Stephanie Powell “It has taken a little bit of time,” David Stern, son of violinist Isaac Stern, modestly says of launching the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition (SISIVC) that he will be co-chairing. In September, the Shanghai Symphony…
The cellist talks the theory of relativity and reveals a sense of nuance courtesy of Rostropovich By Martin Steinberg Sonia Wieder-Atherton has always been a traveler between worlds. She was born in San Francisco to a Romanian mother and an American…
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Courage to write songs came from life experience By Bob Doerschuk In the kitchen of Andrea Zonn’s home in East Nashville, a dart with a suction cup was stuck on the ceiling—right where she wanted it. It had been fired there…
By Cristina Schreil The Four Seasons have apparently seen some climate change. When violinist Nigel Kennedy recorded the concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1989, the commercial hit became for many a staple recording. Sparkling and vivacious, it also…
“We are fluent in both languages,” Kev Marcus, violinist of the genre-bending duo Black Violin, says of classical and hip-hop music. “We try to make sure that when we’re fusing the [two styles] together, that we’re giving equal doses of…
By Stephanie Powell Violinist Augustin Hadelich has been named as the inaugural winner of the Warner Music Prize, a classical-music award established by the Warner Music Group to be given to a musician between ages 18 to 35 of “exceptional…
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Eco Ensemble on contemporary repertoire and Berkeley’s progressive roots By Stephanie Powell On a balmy afternoon in early June, the University of California, Berkeley, is bustling with prospective students, maps in hand, scattered throughout the campus grounds. In the heart…
The NY Phil welcomes its new concertmaster, taking the reins from 30-year-veteran Glenn Dicterow By Leah Hollingsworth This fall, 37-year-old violinist Frank Huang left not just his position as concertmaster of the Houston Symphony when he relocated to New York City as…
Violin Maker James McKean visits the striking cello in New York at the Met By James McKean The masterworks of the three greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance are linked not just by their beauty and the impact they had on the…
by Stephanie Powell In a Strings exclusive, Matt Haimovitz has released a music video from his forthcoming album, The Cello Suites According to Anna Magdalena (Pentatone), of the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. Set in the lush and…
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Tips for selling a bow or instrument by a living maker By Yung Chin Q: I have a fine violin bow from a maker who is still alive, but I need to sell it. How do I decide how much…
Koh explores the gap between classical and contemporary with her latest ‘Bridge to Beethoven’ project By Jeff Kaliss About three quarters of the way through our phone conversation, celebrated violinist Jennifer Koh, speaking from her apartment in New York City, feels…
The cutting-edge cellist finds himself returning back to Bach By Pat Moran It’s 7:30 on a balmy spring weeknight at Crown Station Pub in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the intimate club is filling with people finding seats and ordering beer. All…
The fiddlers three discuss what they play and their fiddle backgrounds By Bob Doerschuk It’s Monday night in Nashville, around 8:30. After driving all over the neighborhood and finally tracking down a place to park, you’ve found an empty stool…
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Competitions aren’t all about winning—four teens explore their musicality By Stephanie Powell In the art of making music, age can easily cause one to blindly assume skill level. We beg to differ on behalf of all of the teenage classical…
Text by Martin Steinberg Images by Joseph Sinnott Fritz Kreisler. Mischa Elman. David Oistrakh. Jascha Heifetz. Henryk Szeryng. Yehudi Menuhin. Isaac Stern. They’re among the pantheon of the “immortal” violinists of the 20th century. With Stern’s death in 2001, the…
By Stephanie Powell The Juilliard School has announced it will open a campus in China, the Tianjin Juilliard School, in 2018. The campus, which will be Juilliard’s first campus outside of its historic New York grounds, will be the first…
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