FIDDLESTYLES

Joe Ginem is playing violin again after battling bone cancer

Florida violinist is thankful this Thanksgiving for every note he plays. The teen nearly lost his ability to play to cancer. But, as Erik Waxler reports, he never gave up on his music. When Joe Ginem plays the violin, nothing else seems to matter, “Its definitely my biggest passion.” Joe was coming into his own as a musician when four years ago, when he was 15, what started as a sore arm and shoulder, turned out to be a rare form of bone cancer.  Joe had osteosarcoma.”When my arm finally gave out, I couldnt lift anything. I couldnt even pick up a pencil,” Joe said. During a long tough year, there was no music for Joe, just hospitals, surgery and chemotherapy.  But he wasnt giving up. Not on his arm and not on his violin. Treatments at Tampas Moffit Cancer Center were successful, but there was a choice to make. “My surgeon gave me the option of being able to make daily tasks easier or being able to play the violin better. And I chose the musician route,” Joe recalls. So now, it may be a little more difficult to grab a cup of water, but he can play his violin again. Joes cancer is in remission. When he plays the violin there is  pain, but he says nothing like the pain that would have come without his music. Osteosarcoma typically develops in growing bones and is most often diagnosed in patients between the ages of 10 and 25.

via KUSI News Weather Sports San Diego – Teen plays violin again after battling bone cancer.

Al Justice learning to play violin in his forties

Al Justice is proof that learning to play violin in your forties is achievable.

Fiddlerman: What made you decide to play the fiddle?
Al: It was an accident. I went to the music store to buy banjo strings and bought a cheap beginner’s violin set on the fly.

F: How long ago was that?
A: This March it will be six years ago.

F: If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?
A: Just turned 50.

F: Did anyone tell you that you would not be able to learn violin this late in the game?
A: Yes. But I did not listen to them, because I have an extensive background in playing other instruments.

F: I believe in you Al.
A: Thanks-I’m not bragging, but I do too.

F: You seem like the learn it yourself kind of guy. What methods did you choose for learning to play violin?
A: I signed up immediately for lessons with Mary Beth Kirkpatrick, a first chair violinist with the WV symphony; and, went way virtual (online). I also had a world class coach on the side, Christine Carr McGuire, who graduated with honors from UCINN Conservatory.

F: How long did it take you before you felt like you actually could entertain on the fiddle?
A: LMAO – immediately.
Of course, I was wrong. :0
Once I was raising money busking for a Hurricane Katrina family at six months in with a badly damaged left hand.. I wore an old house coat, a straw hat, and had a neon sign that said for 50 cents I’ll play a song, for a dollar I won’t. I got lots of dollars.

F: You are obviously a busy man. How do you find time for violin in your busy schedule?
A: I make time. I’m in love.
I actually structure my life around practice.

F: What is the funnest thing that you have ever done with your fiddle, either by yourself or with a group?
A: Uh – probably the busking. When I play with various garage bands and people, I let loose rocking, completely fun and immersed.
I also like to call people that are special to me and play happy birthday to them. Stuff like that – I guess.

F: What is the most time that you have ever spent practicing? Either for a day or on a regular basis.
A: At least 6 hours in one day though the minimum I practice is an hour and a half.

F: That is extremely admirable. I’ve been playing since I was a child, but to learn a new instrument and give it that much effort is fantastic.
A: The violin smacked me square in the heart/face.

F: Do you plan on keeping this obsession up or will you find a new love?
A: I may learn to play the viola.
But no – I intend on staying focused, completely focused on the violin.
I am able to play the piano professionally already.

F: Ah, that explains a lot of things. You are a professional pianist.
A: In a way, yes. I competed playing in the “Air Force Tops in Blues” to world wide level.

F: What goals have you set for yourself as a violinist?
A: Just steady basic technical progress that will strengthen my left hand and continue my current progress of using the entire bow.
Also to play the Bach Double, Vivaldi, Fiocco, and others.

F: You seem to have it all figured out, I love it.
A: And rocking!!! Dang, I rocked last night.
I’m having this existential issue though. My teacher doesn’t want me digging in, and once I learned slow bow at the bridge, I’m a monster!!!!!

F: BTW, Digging in has a place in music as well. Just don’t do it when you shouldn’t be. Ponticello also has a nice place in rock and blues.
A: Ponticello is a new word for me.
F: That means to play on the bridge, not literally though. The ponticello sound is very metallic and suitable to lots of modern music, jazz and rock but was even used in Baroque music.

F: I’m glad you want to expand to multiple genres. It makes the violin so much more interesting.
A: I’ve been doing that since I was six. Think Tchaikovsky. Also storytelling.
You won’t get this, but think Appalachia meets Bartok.
I was playing slap-bass on the piano at the age of 10.
I’m using bow speed for volume and resonance.
But when I watch Roby Lakatos….

F: How about giving us “Al Justice’s best tip” for the want to be violinist out there.
A: Work your ass off! You might want to edit that. Maybe write “work your butt off some more”.
F: That’s OK, I’ll leave ass on there. I believe in freedom of speech.

F: Is there something in particular that you would like to share with us all based on your experience?
A: Music is a language that born musicians speak without reservation. Go there, and the violin will meet you. It is a conversational instrument that does not lie, nor like liars.

F: Great words of wisdom, Al. Thanks a million.

by: Pierre Holstein

Orchestra soars with Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto

In the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra’s “All-Orchestral Oriental Delights” concert Saturday night at Memorial Auditorium, one piece soared above the others — the audience favorite, “The Butterfly Lovers” Violin Concerto, with its beautiful, heart-wrenching melodies delivered with such lyricism by the WFSO’s concertmaster, Kristin Van Cleve.It’s no wonder why the 26-minute work, by composers He Zhan-Hao and Chen Gang, has stood the test of time. The composition is based on an ancient “Romeo and Juliet”-like Chinese legend about two lovers who are only united after their deaths, when their spirits are transformed into butterflies. What’s interesting about the piece is that it was written for Western orchestras, but its solo violin speaks of Chinese musical traditions.Van Cleve was at her strongest when she played the slow, sad, lovers’ melody. Her portamento technique is without reproach.Slightly more challenging for Van Cleve seemed to be the quicker-paced sections of the work and those incessant spicattos. Still, Van Cleve, with the orchestra behind her, easily conveyed the emotional resonance of the work, and that emotion translated easily to the audience. She received a standing ovation at the end of the performance.The Candler Schaffer-led orchestra also debuted “In the Mind’s Eye — Images for Horns and Orchestra,” a composition the WFSO co-commissioned with the Indianapolis Symphony.Taking the spotlight for this piece were horn players William Scharnberg, Karen Houghton, Jason Lewis and Dennis Houghton. The three-movement work was inspired by the brush strokes in five different paintings. Each movement is distinctive and separate from one another.The first movement is an abstract piece that ends quite abruptly. It is dedicated to abstract expressionism and was inspired by contemporary artist Ingrid Calame. The second movement is much sadder, introspective and dramatically fluid, with strings whose sound keeps descending. It is based on Robert E. Weaver’s “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” and addresses the concept of faith. The third movement, the best movement of the work, deals with artists’ fascination with the light’s reflection, particularly on water. This is where the horn players really get to show their stuff — and they do in this magical movement, which begins grandly, exuberantly and optimistically.Horns were made for that kind of triumphant heralding sound, and it’s in this movement that the horns definitely get to do just that.The composition is not tied together from movement to movement, with no particular melody segueing the piece or bringing all the movements together.Scharnberg, Lewis, Karen Houghton and Dennis Houghton give it their all, though the orchestra overpowers them occasionally in the work. Still, they, too, received a standing ovation from the audience.The WFSO also turned in the 10-minute “In the Steppes of Central Asia” by Alexander Borodin, a piece depicting a caravan of Asians escorted by Russian troops. You can really hear the galumphing and trodding of the caravan with the sweeping sound of the orchestra piping in. The second half featured “The Pleasure Dome of Kubla-Khan” by Charles T. Griffes, a work brimming with mystery and drama. Again, the horn section wows in this piece as a wall of brass strongly and crisply delivers this work.It’s a shame this “All-Orchestral” concert wasn’t better attended. The “Butterfly Lovers” Violin Concerto wasn’t to be missed. And it was wonderful to hear some of the orchestra’s own musicians get the spotlight. Among the ranks of the WFSO are some talented musicians.Up next for the symphony is its Christmas concert Dec. 11 featuring The Living Christmas Card.

via Orchestra soars with Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto » Times Record News.

Check out Fiddlermans new free online violin and fiddle tuner. Not only is it practical and beautiful but also has 8 different preset sounds to choose from. Choose also from hundreds of tempos. Bookmark and use the metronome to practice as often as you want. Click here to view the metronome.

Still playing the rebel

Nigel Kennedy is back and hes showing no signs of mellowing. Nigel Kennedy returns for a gig at Londons Tower Festival as his seminal Vivaldi album gets a 20th anniversary re-release. He still has the haircut, the attitude, and hes still angry – about conductors, the price of CDs, Palestine, country music, Margaret Thatcher, and much more. Jessica Duchen met him, and then partied…

At 52, Kennedy still works hard, plays hard and never stops dreaming up new projects over the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, and Nigel Kennedy is giving a special performance with his jazz quintet to mark the conclusion of the World Athletics Championships. “Berlin – nummer eins!” the mohican-crested renegade fiddler shouts to the crowd from a stage opposite the landmark. He takes a spoof bow, flapping his hands while pony-galloping forward and back, telling the crowd that this is “Shakespearean”. “Oh, Nigel,” his manager sighs, “what are you doing?”Later, after his trademark greeting, “monster!”, we settle in his dressing-room tent, Kennedy nursing an outsize tumbler of neat vodka, to discuss what he really is doing. At 52, outwardly the bad boy of the violin hasnt changed much since his ever-controversial recording of Vivaldis The Four Seasons 20 years ago, when it got into The Guinness Book of Records as the highest-selling classical album ever and caused near-apoplexy in the classical world.The record industry is marking the anniversary with a special re-release, but Kennedy has long since moved on. He works hard, plays hard – the night before hed been partying until 9am – and never stops dreaming up new projects. Some have been more successful than others; we dont hear much today about the re-branding experiment in which he tried abandoning his first name. But now the classical sphere is looming larger in his activities than it has for a while; its perhaps telling that he has chosen a manager, Terri Robson, who worked with Pavarotti.He wouldnt perform classical concertos in London for years, citing the orchestras lack of adequate rehearsal time, but last year he played the Elgar Violin Concerto at the Proms in a concert that sold out within a day. And even his detractors had to admit that in terms of violin playing hes one of the best in the business.

via Still playing the rebel: Nigel Kennedy is back and hes showing no signs of mellowing – Features, Classical – The Independent.

The fiddle (or violin) is a very difficult instrument to learn. It’s also difficult to maintain: strings, the bow, and so on. While the experience may be very rewarding, some of us may just want to have fun with music. The folks at Smule are great with music-type Apps, and their latest is the Magic Fiddle.

It’s an application that emulates the sound of a fiddle. It sounds pretty nice, and the video above shows that it can be played to make some beautiful music.

Smule is the maker of the Ocarina and the popular I Am T-Pain App

At $2.99, it doesn’t sound like a bad deal.

Magic Fiddle

World class violinist Mark O’Connor plays Morehead State University

By Katie Brandenburg – The Independent/CNHI

CNHI

Nov. 9, 2010 —     MOREHEAD – Violinist Mark O’Connor said he often gets the same goosebumps playing with students as he does playing with classical music greats such as Yo-Yo Ma.

“I get the same feeling from a good performance, and it doesn’t even have to be with someone who’s famous,” O’Connor said.

He’s been teaching and performing with students from elementary-aged children to adults at Morehead State University this week as the guest at the sixth Virginia R. Harpham Honor String Orchestra Clinic, said Gordon Towell, a professor of music in music education and jazz studies at Morehead.

“We’re just so excited to have an artist of this caliber,” he said.

O’Connor is a violinist and composer known for his ability to meld classical, jazz and folk violin playing into a style all his own.

This will be the third year that the clinic includes a guest artist, Towell said. Previous guests have been violinists Rachel Barton Pine and Sara Caswell, both of whom have worked with O’Connor in the past.

Towell said that when O’Connor’s name came up as possible guest his wife, Christina, suggested an unusual way of getting in touch with him — Facebook.

Christina Towell is O’Connor’s Facebook friend and that’s how Morehead initially contacted him. Gordon Towell said multiple grants funded O’Connor’s trip to Morehead.

Gordon Towell said O’Connor was an ideal guest to bring to the university for several reasons, including his emphasis on both traditional music and on education.

The Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead was a partner in bringing O’Connor to Morehead, and he has a strong background in traditional fiddling. He was a fiddling champion while a young teen.

Towell said preserving traditional styles of music is important, especially in areas such as Kentucky and West Virginia which are rich in different fiddle styles.

“Really it’s the history of the country, it’s the culture of the country,” Towell said.

O’Connor has also recently developed method for teaching and learning violin with and emphasis on American music.

He said he’s passionate about performing music and talks with pleasure about performing with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor, but has been putting increasing emphasis on teaching music as well with things such as his violin method and string camps.

“One of the last things you think about at that moment (of performance) is teaching, but teaching is integral to our legacy,” he said.

O’Connor worked and performed with students from elementary to college-level during his stay at Morehead, concluding with a performance with high school string students from across the tri-state on Saturday night. They performed two of his compositions “Liberty Bell” and “Strings and Threads,” Towell said. Schools he visited included Rowan County high school and middle school and McBrayer Elementary.

O’Connor said he enjoys working with a wide range of age groups.

“All the different groups are essential to making the community work,” he said.

But he said it’s particularly gratifying to work with high school-aged students because those students are on the verge of making important decisions about their future.

Music played an integral part of his vision for his future as a young man, O’Connor said. He grew up in a poor area and saw music as a way to escape and create a better life for himself.

“I knew that I wanted my music to try to get me out of the situation I was in,” he said.

O’Connor began his professional musical career by playing on other people’s recordings all the while developing a way to combine different styles of violin including folk, jazz and classical.

“It took a while to figure out how it all could be, sort of, put together,” he said.

Since then he’s become a Grammy award-winning musician who has created multiple albums and classical compositions.

Composition is one of the things O’Connor said he’s very passionate about. He said he takes inspiration from American people, cultures and landscapes but puts his own spin on those concepts.

“I like to sort of delve into big picture stuff,” he said.

O’Connor said there are definitely moments when he feels in awe of the situation he’s in and the people he’s around. He recalled one point when famous choreographer Twyla Tharp was chosen to speak about him at a ceremony honoring his work.

“Most of the time you deal with your own struggles and then you’re at a place where, boom, you don’t think anything could go wrong ever,” he said.

via World class violinist Mark O’Connor plays Morehead » Local News » The Morehead News.

Musician Forgets Million-Dollar Violin on Train

A $1.4 million antique violin isnt something you want to accidentally forget on a train.  But thats just what happened to a panicked German musician on Friday night.After returning home to Munich from a chamber music tour in Asia, he got off at his stop without his most prized possession. Desperate, he informed the manager of his Munich music quartet, who immediately alerted the German Federal Police. An “immediate search,” brought triumph after a railway official found it on the train and put it in custody. A little later, the 45 year old musician was reunited with the precious 1748 Italian fiddle, which led him experience a panic attack and seek medical attention.  “He needed treatment from a doctor but it was nothing dramatic. He was just a bit nervous because he thought he had lost it,” said a police spokesman.See the Top 10 Most Expensive Auction ItemsThis isnt the first time a violin has been forgotten. Two and a half years ago the violinist Philippe Quint left his $3.4 million Stradivari in a taxi, a musician of the Oslo Symphony Orchestra also forgot his instrument during a visit to Salzburg on a snack stand, and a student left his expensive violin at a bus stop in Dortmund. All three were given back their instruments – but not all finders are honest. The violinist from Norway almost had to pay ransom money for the return, the finder of the Dortmund violin tried to flog it in a pawnshop. Only the New York taxi driver was honest.But it is music to NewsFeeds ears to hear the artist is back in Asia playing in his quartet on his prized instrument.

via Lost Luggage: Musician Forgets Million-Dollar Violin on Train – TIME NewsFeed.

Jiri Novak: Violinist who eschewed a solo virtuoso career to lead the Smetana Quartet for more than 30 years

died Prague 10 September 2010

Jiri Novak, the leader of the celebrated Smetana Quartet, was considered to bethe foremost string-quartet leader of his time, and was one whose modesty concealed an enormous talent and profound musicianship.He was born in Horni Jeleni, some 125km east of Prague, and began violin studies at the age of six. Encouraged by his musical family, his early promise and natural ability brought him to the attention of eminent teachers in Prague including Karel Hoffmann, leader of the legendary Czech Quartet, and violinist Emil Leichner, founder member of the Czech Nonet.Attending the Prague Conservatoire from 1939, he graduated from its master class in 1948 and entered the new Academy of Music for study with Jaroslav Pekelsky until 1952. But by this time he had come to wider attention in Czech musical life to the extent that, even by 1945, the eminent Vaclav Talich had chosen him to be concertmaster of his Czech Chamber Orchestra, which position he held until 1948.Many expected Novak to embrace a career as a virtuoso soloist, but in 1947 he took the all-important decision to abandon a solo career to become the primarius. or leader, of the Smetana Quartet, which position he held with great success to the end of the quartets life, in 1989. Very occasionally he would be persuaded to take on a solo engagement and examples of this may be heard in a recording of Mozarts Violin Concerto No 4 in D KV 218 that he made in 1955 with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Vaclav Talich and the Paganini Violin Concerto in D with the Prague Symphony Orchestra under Václav Smetacek.The Smetana Quartet had been founded at the Prague Conservatory in 1945 with Jaroslav Rybensky as leader, but after little more than a year he took the viola chair when Vaclav Neumann decided to concentrate on conducting. At this point Jiri Novak joined as leader and so began a remarkable association.International recognition came in 1950 with a first tour to Poland, and in 1955 the Quartet toured Britain starting with a concert in the Royal Festival Hall. From then until the last tour here in 1987, the Quartet played in more than 75 British towns and cities, broadcasting regularly for the BBC and appearing also at every major music festival. All four players soon endeared themselves to audiences, and although Novak had the least-good command of English, he was never without people wishing to talk to him and with whom he managed to communicate, aided by his gentle manner and quiet sense of humour.

His contribution to the interpretative aspect of performance was as strong an input as that of his apparently more dominant colleagues. This I witnessed at first-hand when the Quartet were our guests. After breakfast they would retire to the music room and rehearse solidly until early afternoon. Ever self-critical, the playing was occasionally interrupted as debate, often heated, broke out over some point in a quartet they had been playing together for the past 40 years, thus ensuring that each performance was fresh, full of interest and musically rewarding. This was so even after thorough preparation at home where, each July and August they would repair to their summer homes in Lucany in northern Bohemia where the next season’s programmes would be diligently studied between times of relaxation with families. Here, too, Novak led by example with his consummate musicianship, his mild and non-controversial nature in marked contrast to the more voluble input of his three colleagues.

Novak’s technique was absolutely secure and his sound beautiful,conjured from his favourite instrument made by Premysl Otakar Spidlen, and for 10 years from a Stradivarius of 1729 (the “Libon”) loaned from the state collection. Aspects which coloured and marked his playing included his subtle control of vibrato, bow pressure and angle, coupled with an upright posture and relaxed approach even in the most difficult passages. Like the Quartet’s viola, Milan Skampa, he had perfect pitch, accuracy of intonation being central to both his playing and teaching.

In 1967 all four members of the Quartet were appointed professors of their instruments at the Prague Academy of Music, but Novak was perhaps the least sucessful in this role. As someone for whom playing the instrument had come naturally and without great difficulties, he often had problems understanding the difficulties of others and he could be uncompromising. Nevertheless, his even temperament and kindly nature meant that he was fondly regarded by colleagues and students, his own talents admired and appreciated. Among his successful pupils are Jiri Panocha (Panocha Quartet), Leos Cepicky (Wihan Quartet), Jan Kvapil (Talich Quartet) and Radek Krizanovsky (Apollon Quartet).

Very occasionally he was persuaded into the soloist’s role, playing both Bartok violin concertos, as well as that of Stravinsky, with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Vaclav Neumann. After the final concerts of the Smetana Quartet in Prague and Brno in 1989, Novak retired from public life and was seldom seen at concerts, although he took a great interest in the career of his violinist daughter, Dagmar Virtova, whom he had successfully initially taught and with whom he would occasionally perform the Bach Concerto in D minor for two violins (BWV 1043). She is now a professional orchestral violinist.

In addition he joined old friends and colleagues, including the viola player Jaroslav Motlik and violoncellist Viktor Moucka, for occasional concerts. He also served on a number of international violin competition juries and in 1996 gave his last concert at Ceske Krumlov, part of which is preserved in a film about the members of the Smetana Quartet made by Jaromil Jires.

Jiri Novak, violinist, teacher and quartet leader: born Horni Jeleni, Czechoslovakia 5 September 1924; married 1964 Dagmar Dvoráková (one daughter); Passed away – Prague 10 September 2010

via Jiri Novak: Violinist who eschewed a solo virtuoso career to lead the Smetana Quartet for more than 30 years – Obituaries, News – The Independent.