Please help test Fiddlermans brand new “Violin Fingering Game”
A brand new unique game that will help you learn to finger the violin in first position in 8 common signatures. Also find an active fingerboard guide under “Scales”
If you think that you know your fiddle test this game and see what kind of score you can get.
http://fiddlerman.com/fiddle-learning-tools/violin-fingering-game/
What happens when Cuban music collides with Haydns London Trio and a bunch of painted instruments?
A lot of hip-swinging fun. Thanks to everyone who came out to be a part of the First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square. This was a great opportunity for me to recycle a ten painted violins and a cello that I made in college and create a new performance piece out of them. Hearing Baroque music sparkle out of one of my paintings always reminds me of why I make art. I how visual art has a tactile permanence to it, and I love how music evaporates the second it is born. Its so much fun to put them together!
New $10,000 grant for young players. Tarisio offers matching funds to musicians buying at its auctionsOnline auction specialist Tarisio has launched a scheme to help young string players buy instruments and bows. Its new grant programme will award up to $10,000 of matching funds towards the price of an instrument or bow purchased at a Tarisio auction. Musicians under 30 who are studying or have completed a music performance degree can apply for the grant, and one winner will be chosen for each of four Tarisio auctions across the year. The application deadline for the London auction in March is 24 February, and the deadline for the May auction in New York is 22 April.
via The Strad – New $10,000 grant for young players – 20 January 2011.
110-year-old orchestra set for Chapter 7 bankruptcyA US judge has given the go-ahead for the Honolulu Symphonys bankruptcy case to be moved from Chapter 11 reorganisation to Chapter 7 liquidation, reports the Honolulu Star Advertiser. The decision effectively silences the 110-year-old orchestra, the countrys oldest symphonic ensemble west of the Rocky Mountains. The orchestra has been operating under Chapter 11 protection for the last year after cancelling all its concerts, citing a big drop in donations.
via The Strad – Honolulu Symphony to be liquidated – 14 December 2010.
world renown violinist Eric Rosenblith dies at the age of 90
Formerly the head of strings at Bostons New England Conservatory, he had most recently taught at the Longy School. Born in Vienna, Rosenblith studied with Jacques Thibaud in Paris and Carl Flesch in London. After fleeing Paris for New York in 1939, he continued his studes with Bronislaw Huberman, and made his New York debut in 1941. He served as concertmaster of the San Antonio and Indianapolis symphony orchestras, and played in the Jordan and Brandon quartets and the Fidelio Trio.Rosenblith joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory in 1968, and headed the strings programme there for 25 years, retiring in 2007. In 1997 he founded the International Musical Arts Institute and Festival in Fryeburg, Maine. In his later years Rosenblith updated and translated book one of Fleschs landmark pedagogy text The Art of Violin Playing, and in October of this year the Carl Fisher company published a distillation of Rosenbliths own teaching approach in a volume called Ah, You Play the Violin…: Thoughts Along the Path to Musical Artistry.
via The Strad – Violinist Eric Rosenblith dies – 22 December 2010.
Christmas downtime with violinist Dennis Lau
Christmas downtime with violinist Dennis Lau
Dennis Lau is not just a familiar name in the music industry. He also heads Mosaic Music Entertainment and Mosaic Movie Productions.This assignment, to interview young violinist Dennis Lau, sent chills down the spine of a colleague who is an aspiring singer. Surely, she isn’t the only Malaysian who’s in awe of Dennis Lau. 25-year-old Lau is a force to be reckoned with in the local music industry. His album, DiversiFy, released last year, showcases his talent of merging classics, jazz and pop tunes that appeal to the masses. Add this talent with good genes, business insight and ambition, and a star is born.His burgeoning musical career aside, Lau currently heads Mosaic Music Entertainment, a company that provides various services related to event, and more recently Mosaic Movie Productions, which produced a short film in which Lau acted alongside Daphne Iking and Steve Yap. The film is a part of his recently launched limited edition album aptly titled DiversiFy Limited Edition.There is no doubt that this young lad is every inch an entrepreneur – the profit Mosaic Music Entertainment makes has over the years been the financial source that funds his musical aspirations, namely his album. Unsurprisingly, Lau was listed as one of CIMB Prestige’s ‘Top 40 Under 40’ personalities in 2009.Lau, who read music at University College Sedaya International UCSI under the Newcastle Australian Music Degree Programme, is no stranger to the music education business either. His mother was a piano teacher, and having learnt piano since age 3, he started teaching music at age 18. Despite his success, Lau shows no sign of slowing down. In the spirit of the holiday season, however, he takes some downtime to sit down with StarProperty.my at his cosy home-cum-studio in Subang. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE via Malaysia Property portal, Classifieds, Listings, News, Home & Décor.
Bruce Simpson passed away Nov. 22 2010
by: Mark Hicks / The Detroit News
Painting a watercolor portrait, designing a steering wheel, playing the violin in a community concert — Bruce Simpson could do it all.
“He was a man of many talents,” said his wife, Edwina. “Creativity was a real part of Bruce’s life.”
Mr. Simpson died Monday, Nov. 22, 2010, in hospice care after declining health. He was 89.
Born May 19, 1921, in Detroit, he attended Greenfield Village Schools, an experimental learning facility.
There, he began playing the violin, and once was loaned an Italian instrument owned by Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Co., relatives said.
Mr. Simpson later attended the Edison Institute and worked as a draftsman at Ford’s Willow Run plant.
After a stint at Michigan State University, he joined the Army Air Corps and served in such places as Canada and the Azores. While working as an air traffic control officer, he met Alice Wilhelm. They wed in 1946.
Earning a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Illinois, Mr. Simpson returned to Metro Detroit in 1947 and began working at Ford. He worked in cooling systems and oversaw the design of factory-installed safety features such as door locks, seat belts and steering wheels, relatives said. “He was also a person who would look at a problem and want to solve it,” his wife said. “He would figure out ways to solve it that were out of the box.”
Mr. Simpson retired in 1986 as an executive engineer of fuel economy and emissions.
Outside of work, a major passion was playing the violin. He spent a decade with a Plymouth music group and more than 40 years in the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, which he helped found in 1961.
Over the years, Mr. Simpson performed at many concerts and often spent summers taking music classes to hone his skills.
“He was really an accomplished violinist who played at every opportunity,” said Sandy Butler, president of the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra. “Music was very important to him.”
An avid skier and golfer, Mr. Simpson also loved traveling — including once tracing the 19th-century Lewis and Clark expedition through the West.
Some of his trips yielded more creativity: He painted watercolor portraits based on the photographs. “He just had a gift,” his wife said.
Other survivors include sons Dick, John, David, Tom; stepsons Michael Clay and Whit Clay; 12 grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and a sister, Charlotte Martin.
His first wife died in 1988.
Memorials may be made to the University of Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Attn: Courtney McDonald, 2101 Commonwealth Blvd., Suite D, Ann Arbor, MI 48105.
via Retired engineer, painter, violinist | detnews.com | The Detroit News.
Fiddlerman's new Intonation Game
British detectives have launched a public appeal for information after a South Korean musician was left distraught by the theft of her 314-year-old antique Stradivarius violin at a London railway station, reports said. Media reports said 32-year-old Min-Jin Kym, who has recently performed with the Philharmonic Orchestra, had been deeply upset by the theft of her precious violin and two extremely expensive bows, while she was eating a sandwich with a friend at Euston station.The instrument, made in 1696, was estimated to be worth around 1.2 million pounds USD 1.9 million the Guardian reported Tuesday.A reward of 15,000 pounds had been issued by Lark Insurance Broking Group, for anyone providing information leading to the violins recovery.”These items hold enormous sentimental and professional value for the victim, but although they are extremely valuable, it would be very difficult to sell them on as they are so rare and distinctive that they will be easily recognised as stolen property,” detective Andy Rose of British Transport Police BTP, said.
via British police launch appeal for stolen 300-year-old violin – World News, 100266.
Making music is in the blood of violinist Khris Ansin.
His grandmother, Winifred Broughton, taught violin for more than 60 years in Dunedin and his mother, Jocelyn Broughton, will be presented with a St Cecilia Examinations diploma in cello teaching tonight.
Mr Ansin will demonstrate another side to his music-making talents when he performs Paganini’s Violin Concerto No 4 in D Minor at the graduation ceremony on a violin he made himself.
The 19-year-old University of Otago performance and chemistry student was inspired to make the violin after an unfortunate incident last year.
“My original violin got run over by dad in the car,” he said yesterday.
Mr Ansin constructs the instruments from maple wood for the back and sides and spruce on the front.
“They take a couple of months to make, because I do everything from scratch. But, the secret to the tone of a violin is in the varnish,” he revealed.
His dream is to study at the home of violin-making in Cremona, Italy.
“I took my grandmother’s violin to a Christchurch maker to be valued. He said anyone who wanted to become a maker is crazy. There’s no money and it’s the hard life of a musician; full of anxiety and depression,” he grinned.
His favourite maker is 16th-century Italian craftsman Andrea Amati, who was the maker of the oldest violins still in existence.
“His violins sound so sweet. Like an angel playing.”
The concert and ceremony will be held from 7.30pm today in the Mornington Methodist Church.
