Next Level Violinist promo

Guy Voyer, a French osteopath, is a genius in
showing stretches that keep one from getting
too tight and allows one to maximize use of
the body.
I’m constantly dividing my practice focus
between intonation, sound, and relaxation. I
also consistently practice with my metronome.
I think of the metronome not just as something
I need to stay with, but as my pianist, as
my orchestra. It’s something that keeps me in
check with the music, with the overall pulse.
I don’t think of it as a crack addict needing
his pipe, I let it reflect my tendencies so I can
see more about myself. It’s a much different
mentality - you’ll always find people who
practice with a metronome and upon leaving
it behave like Linus having lost his blue
blanket, or Moses being lost in the desert.
They’ve removed the one map they had, rather
than using the map to create an internal map.
That’s the point of using the metronome.
Take the external beat and use it to understand
your internal beat. It’s not natural to us, so
we need to use this technology to try and
create something from within that’s as close
to it as possible. One of the things I’m naturally
good at is phrasing. I’ve always had a natural
way of feeling music. Let’s say there’s a person
who isn’t natural at it. For this person, I like
to take all distractions away, removing vibrato
and all other external elements. Just phrase
with the bow. Analyze how the phrase works.
Listen to recordings to figure it out. If someone
doesn’t have access to theory classes, harmony
training, music history classes, etc. they
can look at the score while listening to the
recordings. I encourage students not to listen
to a single recording, but to listen to 15! Get
hundreds of ideas going through your head.
I remember studying the Debussy sonata, and
I was listening to a recording of Frank Peter
Zimmermann. I was getting so many ideas
from it! I listened to a dozen other recordings,
but I still found Zimmermann’s interpretation
resonated most strongly with me. There was
something organic about it. I learned it and
performed it, and then I listened to the tape
of the recital. I was relieved and inspired to
find that it was completely different from
Zimmermann - I wasn’t imitating him in
the slightest. He started me on the path to
thinking about certain things, and yet I totally
diverged from him. That’s what the benefit
of listening is - I completely disagree with
people who encourage students not to listen
to recordings. I think you should listen to
hundreds of them. Find out what you like,
find out what you don’t like! I’m always
amazed as a professor that a resource like
Youtube exists where you can go listen to all
8 SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST
the great violinists of the recording era, and
yet all people do is look at cat videos, and
don’t use it as the resource that it could be -
not even to cheat with fingerings! I offer my
fingerings and bowings to students, but I don’t
want them to become addicted to them, so I’ll
make them create their own. They’ll come in
and say they are so confused, and I’ll wonder
why they didn’t just go look at a video of
Leonidas Kavakos to see what he was doing!
People don’t really see that these basic
resources are so tangible that you could touch
them. I would have used everything at my
disposal at that age. We used to go to concerts,
buy the nosebleed seat tickets, and run down
to the stage when the soloist would come
on so we could analyze every fingering and
bowing. We don’t even need to do that anymore
- use the technology at your fingertips!
I used to listen to a lot of violinists, which I
think made me improve rather quickly. The
negative aspect of this was that I didn’t have
as much knowledge as I did will power!
Michael Rabin, my teacher Aaron Rosand,
Itzhak Perlman, David Oistrakh, Jascha Heifetz
- I wanted so much to be as good as all of
these people, which made me improve by
sheer will! There were certain things that
were natural for me, but other concepts were
completely foreign to me; I felt lost. Technically,
things like contact
point weren’t
presented to me
because teachers
assumed I already
knew. I became so
envious of all the
violinists around me
that were so much
more consistent
than I was; this was
a feeling I still had
into my 20s, even
after I had already
won positions in
prestigious
orchestras! I hadn’t
yet achieved a total
understanding of
violin playing; it
came later as I
began teaching
and developing a
consistent method
that I believed in.
I researched everything,
read every
single book you
can imagine. This
extended beyond the
music.indiana.edu
literature on how to teach and play violin
and into physics, natural science, and beyond.
I developed a method for doing what I was
doing in a consistent manner. I realized my
whole life had been a process leading to these
realizations. In the end, knowing what I wanted
to be when I was young made it easy to get
some recognition quickly, but it made my
overall journey more complex because I gave
people the impression that I knew what I was
doing when I really didn’t.
Not everybody loves what they do. Some
people think they do but being a musician
means loving to do even the things that
aren’t as artistically rewarding as the most
invigorating concerts. One has to be fascinated
by the violin, to enjoy the most mundane
tasks and even one’s worst days. I love being
a concertmaster, playing in an orchestra,
playing chamber music, every day.
When kids are young and they’re trying to
learn, they’re always searching for something
to hold onto. They need to realize that there
are resources out there, and that in the end,
achieving a quality and consistent technique
is really doable. I actually find now that the
most difficult thing one can do on the violin
is learning how to do what you did in the
practice room in front of 2,500 people every
MORE than 170 artist-teachers and
scholars comprise an outstanding
faculty at a world-class conservatory
with the academic resources of a
major research university, all within
one of the most beautiful university
campus settings.
STRING FACULTY
Atar Arad, Viola
Joshua Bell, Violin (adjunct)
Sibbi Bernhardsson, Violin,
Pacifica Quartet
Bruce Bransby, Double Bass
Emilio Colon, Violoncello
Jorja Fleezanis, Violin,
Orchestral Studies
Mauricio Fuks, Violin
The Pacifica Quartet performs
as quartet-in-residence.
Simin Ganatra, Violin,
Pacifica Quartet
Edward Gazouleas, Viola
Grigory Kalinovsky, Violin
Mark Kaplan, Violin
Alexander Kerr, Violin
Eric Kim, Violoncello
Kevork Mardirossian, Violin
Kurt Muroki, Double Bass
Stanley Ritchie, Violin
Masumi Per Rostad, Viola,
Pacifica Quartet
Peter Stumpf, Violoncello
Joseph Swensen, Violin
Brandon Vamos, Violoncello,
Pacifica Quartet
Stephen Wyrczynski, Viola (chair)
Mimi Zweig, Violin and Viola
2015 AUDITION DATES
Jan. 16 & 17 | Feb. 6 & 7 | Mar. 6 & 7
APPLICATION DEADLINE Dec. 1, 2014