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Yo-Yo Ma on Intonation, Practice, and the Role of Music in Our Lives
In this interview, just before his 60th birthday, cellist Yo-Yo Ma talks about intonation, practice, and the role of music in our lives.
The Verdehr Trio Announces Retirement
Commitment to contemporary chamber music includes works by 8 Pulitzer Prize– and two Grawemeyer-winning composers By Stephanie Powell The Verdehr Trio—violinist Walter Verdehr, clarinetist Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr and pianist Silvia Roederer—has announced its retirement at the end of the 2014–15 season…
Rachel Barton Pine Records First Vivaldi Album on Viola d’Amore
By Stephanie Powell Rachel Barton Pine took a leap of faith. After some-odd years of fiddling around on a modernized viola d’amore—a 14-string instrument related to the violin and hailing from the Baroque era—she decided to bid on a 1774…
Johannes Moser Tackles Lalo and Dvorak Cello Concertos in New Album
By Stephanie Powell “I realized that the time had come that I wanted to do the main cello repertoire,” Johannes Moser says over the phone from LA, where he was preparing to perform in Tan Dun’s Martial Arts Trilogy program at…
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Igor Stravinsky Work Found Amid Stacks of Hidden Manuscripts After 100 Years
By Stephanie Powell Russian-born 20th-century composer Igor Stravinsky made his way back into headlines on September 4 with the announcement that one of his early orchestral works Pogrebal’naya Pesnya (Funeral Song), which was thought to have been lost for more…
Review: 3 Viola Recitals Showcase the Instrument’s Versatility
Album reviews for Dana Zemtsov’s ‘Romantic Metamorphoses,’ Teng Li’s ‘1939,’ and Tabea Zimmermann’s ‘Romance oubilée’ By Laurence Vittes In three splendid recitals, violists Dana Zemtsov, Teng Li, and Tabea Zimmermann lay claim to a selection of mostly unfamiliar viola repertoire,…
Jeremy Cohen’s 1868 Vuillaume May Be One of the Most-Heard Instruments Ever
The violin is on the soundtrack of every MGM film from 1939–69, including ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and more By Jeremy Cohen Player Violinist Jeremy Cohen is the founder of Quartet San Francisco, an eclectic Grammy-nominated ensemble that regularly jumps boundaries,…
Sara Watkins Fires Up Her Fiddle For the Watkins Family Hour Series
Text by Adam Perlmutter Photos by Roman Cho As a member of Nickel Creek, the preeminent alternative bluegrass ensemble, Sara Watkins is no stranger to large venues. But once a month, Sara and her older brother, guitarist Sean Watkins, who…
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Sonic Youth: How Symphonies Are Reaching Out to Millennial Audiences
As symphonies struggle to attract—and retain—millennial audiences, orchestral nightlife programs shy away from playing it safe By Stephanie Powell It’s a Thursday night in April in San Francisco, and SoundBox’s second-to-last show of the season is titled “Their Own Devices.”…
Miró Quartet To Release Feature Film
The innovative quartet takes on the silver screen in ‘Transcendence’ By Stephanie Powell “We’re sort of in the middle of a transcendent year,” Joshua Gindele, cellist of the Miró Quartet, says of the artistic projects the group has taken on…
The Auryn Quartet Celebrate a Lifetime of Making Music Together
The Auryn Quartet Celebrate a Lifetime of Making Music Together By Karen Peterson The audience this spring for the Auryn Quartet’s sold-out performance of Beethoven at the Leo Rich Theater in Tucson, Arizona, was determined to keep the ensemble onstage—an…
Leila Josefowicz Lends Grit to John Adams’ Violin Concerto
The new Scheherazade violin concerto dedicated to strong women By Leah Hollingsworth Photographs by Chris Lee Gender inequality and the oppression of women are hot topics. Media outlets both local and national teem with stories of injustice and tyranny, highlighting the…
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ASTA Hires Monika Schulz as CEO
By Stephanie Powell The American String Teachers Association (ASTA) has hired Monika Schulz as the organization’s CEO and executive director. “We are fortunate that Monika has agreed to bring her many talents to ASTA,” Stephen Benham, ASTA president, said in a…
Understanding the Emotions & Market Forces That Affect the Value of Violins
An inside look at the many factors that can affect the value of old and new violins By Philip Kass News stories about jaw-dropping prices of old Cremonese violins are nothing new. But despite their regular appearances in the press,…
Portland Cello Project Follows Its Passion to Unexpected Places
By Whitney Phaneuf Long before Portland had a hit cable-TV show (Portlandia) propagating its unofficial slogan, “Keep Portland Weird,” a cello ensemble was doing its part to live up to that dictum. What started in 2006 as a group of…
Turtle Island Quartet Announces New Cellist
By Stephanie Powell Mark Summer, founding member and cellist of the Turtle Island Quartet (TIQ), is leaving the group in January 2016 to pursue a solo career—his successor will be the Carolina Chocolate Drop’s cellist Malcolm Parson. “This is really my…
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5 ASTA Judges Answer Questions About Competitions
Judges of the ASTA Solo Competition share the view from their seats By Karen Peterson As the six laureate finalists in the ASTA 2015 National Solo Competition prepare for their March 20 performance, the judges do the same. It’s not…
Benning Violins Is Helping to Make a Difference in the Lives of Nuns, Orphans, and Inmates
By Karen Peterson For Hans and Nancy Benning, of Benning Violins in Studio City, Los Angeles, making fine instruments for the world’s finest players is a four-generation family tradition—and so is giving back to the global community, in their case…
New York State Prison Program Musicambia Unlocks the Power of Music
Musicambia has inmates at Sing Sing prison using music as rehabilitation By Leah Hollingsworth It’s April in New York, and the day feels full of promise and hope, the way the early spring does after many cold, hard months of…