By Inge Kjemtrup If the junior finals of the 2016 Menuhin Competition left the audience and jury in the happy position of feeling that any one of the five finalists might reasonably have laid claim to the top prize, it…
By Stephanie Powell The Si-Hon Ma estate has gifted the 1714 “Joachim-Ma” Strad violin to the New England Conservatory. Ma, an NEC alumnus, purchased the violin in 1967 and performed with it until his death in 2009. The 300-year-old instrument…
It was quite a week for violinists in London, with the Menuhin Competition going on for the past few weeks. The competition takes place in a different city every two years, and in this Menuhin centenary year, London, a city…
By Victor Romanul The story of my musical life in Boston begins with my first teacher, Alfred Krips, the former associate concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I marched into his home on a June day, at the age of…
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By Cristina Schreil Talk about international relations. Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 46, was composed by German-born Max Bruch, inspired by Scottish folk tunes, dedicated to a Spanish virtuoso, and performed by Taiwanese-Australian violinist Ray Chen in Washington,…
Dirty Cello stopped by the Strings studio to perform a few audience-favorite covers from their 2015 album, The Beach House Sessions. Lead singer and cellist Rebecca Roudman, a genre-bending player who doubles as a cellist in the Santa Rosa Symphony,…
By Laura Cortese I am a San Francisco girl: The football field of my high school overlooked the rust-red steel arches of the Golden Gate Bridge peeking through fog. But when it was time for college in September of 1999,…
Cornelius Dufallo, Mark Dresser, Carolina Heredia, Atar Arad, and Mark Summer on the relationship between composing and performing
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By Greg Olwell The new Acoustic Electric Strings Old No. 54 acoustic-electric violin came from AES’s Gary Bartig: It is a four-string violin that has some of the pleasing traits of the company’s five-string violins. To get there, the Old…
By Gwen Krosnick There I was: sitting in the driver’s seat of my minivan, 20 minutes after my trio’s sound check should have begun. Head resting on the steering wheel, tears pouring down my face, my fingers and toes completely…
By Cristina Schreil A new recording of three of Hindemith’s sonatas for viola and piano, by violist Geraldine Walther and pianist David Korevaar, presents an engaging survey of the German composer’s contributions to chamber music focused on viola. Hindemith—known by…
Sara Caswell & 9 Horses stopped by the Strings studio to perform music off their latest album, Perfectest Herald. Standing in for 9 Horses’ bassist Shawn Conley is Jonathan Green, who admitted he hadn’t had a jazz gig in years —…
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By Cristina Schreil Stuart Canin whips open the door to his Berkeley home and shakes my hand with the kind of solid clasp you’d expect from any lifelong violinist. While many in the Bay Area music scene know him…
By Stephanie Powell The Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition has announced 36 pre-selection candidates from 11 different countries, who have been selected to perform in its live rounds. The violinists, aged 18 to 32, will compete from August 14…
Cellist Louise Dubin unearths works by Auguste Franchomme By Cristina Schreil Wrapping up her studies at Indiana University, cellist Louise Dubin delved into research on all things Auguste Franchomme, exploring the most complete assemblage of works by the French cellist…
To celebrate her new Avie release Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J.S. Bach, violinist Rachel Barton Pine came by the Strings studio to discuss and record some of Bach’s music. Enjoy her performances of Partita No.…
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Performances highlight the warmth of Brahms' masterwork
By Cristina Schreil Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg, his tall frame lending full command at a pre-concert talk in New York’s David Geffen Hall one morning, suddenly seemed humbled. “It’s not fair for a composer to be programmed in the same…
There can be no mistaking what that means! When it comes to selecting your next instrument, you want the best – the perfect instrument that will allow you to advance your playing, at a price that meets your budget. Just…
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