This fall, a new flood of string players will rush into the halls of music departments and conservatories the world over. Many of these new students will be driven by visions of a performance career, their momentum fueled by the…
String players whose bows sport ivory tips are already well aware of the difficulties posed when traveling with a CITES-restricted material. When rosewood was added to the CITES list in 2017, the musical world groaned once again. Though it is…
There have been many innovations applied to these carbon-fiber musical instruments over the years to help shape the sound, including the weave of the material itself.
String duo Kev Marcus and Wil Baptiste, known as Black Violin, have been exploring hip-hop music through the lens of their classical training for 16 years. And their approach has certainly made a splash: They won Showtime at the Apollo…
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By Lisa Grodin When I was a young violinist, I assumed that “artistic license” was a permit for which one could apply—just like a driver’s license or an ID card. I wanted to create magic from sound. I wanted one…
Fiddler Martin Hayes joins the genre-pushing quartet Brooklyn Rider on a 12-track release The Butterfly. Many of the tracks are arranged by Brooklyn Rider violinist Colin Jacobson and violist Nicholas Cords. (In a Circle Records) Violist Viacheslav Dinerchtein’s two-disc album…
Sponsored by Yamaha Corporation of America: Like you, Yamaha employees around the world want to live in an environment with clean air and water. We created a wide range of initiatives that embrace our corporate responsibility and address vital issues…
By Stephanie Powell The third iteration of the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition, which offers a $100,000 grand prize, is scheduled to run from August 4-23, 2020. The 2020 installment of SISIVC will celebrate Isaac Stern’s centennial, and culminate…
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By Thomas May The notorious old quip that Antonio Vivaldi wrote the same concerto 500 times was never anything more than a cheap witticism. A similarly cynical attitude might be applied to the fact that the same work has been…
By Megan Westberg Broadcaster and violinist Clemency Burton-Hill, author of Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day by Day, has been striving to bring classical music to a wider audience for a number of years. As of September 10,…
Here's a breakdown of many electric violins on the market today, as well as advice from pro players and electric violin makers to help you pick the right instrument.
By Brian Wise Questions about fairness and transparency in music competitions have been in the air since the days when a young Van Cliburn was prowling concert stages, fresh off his Tchaikovsky Competition win. In 1961, New York Times music…
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Sponsored by D’Addario: Sophisticated strings like Kaplan have historically been available for full-sized instruments, but now, players of smaller instruments can also enjoy the benefits of high-end strings. D’Addario Orchestral has expanded its premium Kaplan string family to include fractional…
By Greg Cahill “In making records, everything informs everything else,” says Ryan Hewitt, when asked about what considerations go into a successful post-production phase. Hewitt is an A-list producer and mixing engineer who has worked on rock, pop, and country…
By Stephanie Powell BAM Cases has released Gigs by BAM, an app for smartphones that allows users to track the location of their musical instruments at all times, worldwide, using cell-tower triangulation. The app includes various other capabilities as well,…
By Cristina Schreil For violinist Augustin Hadelich, the time was right. Despite performing the Brahms violin concerto often over the years in concert, he “actually avoided recording” it. “My interpretation of the piece was still evolving,” he explains. However, a…
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By Cristina Schreil It started with a chance wandering into a music store in Budapest. While touring there with the Ravinia Festival—partaking in the Hungarian capital’s merry blend of gypsy music, hearty cuisine, and fine wine—violinist Desirée Ruhstrat and cellist…
Fellow musicians—especially string players—have resorted to some striking superlatives to characterize George Enescu (1881–1955). Pablo Casals, a frequent chamber partner, once remarked that since Mozart, there had been no greater musical phenomenon, while Enescu’s student Yehudi Menuhin believed the Op.…
By Cristina Schreil Violinist Philippe Graffin could not believe his eyes. He was in the Brussels Conservatoire, leafing through a collection of musical sketchbooks by Eugène Ysaÿe—a composer for whom Graffin has a particular love. He glimpsed at a violin…
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