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Hi and welcome! Thanks for visiting
my website.
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MY EARLY DAYS WITH MUSIC
I've been excited about music since I was born. My sister Renee was
already starting to play piano, so I was a natural to play music also.
She was my
first piano teacher. What fun we had! Early on I saw that teaching and
learning can be a great time. I started when I was 6 years old. Most
kids are ready
to start at age 5.
My other sister Denise got
started early, before me, on violin. I loved the violin and wanted
to play it too!
My mom had recordings
of all kinds of music with all kinds of instruments. And it was the
violin I fell
in love with; oh, how I wanted to learn to play it! So after a couple
of years of piano my mom let me add on violin. I loved playing violin. But
I didn’t love practicing. Sound familiar?
But my mom always encouraged me to do it. I guess I was lucky because
the practice I did was focused and effective, so I made excellent progress.
Perhaps having excellent and motivating teachers helped. MY FIRST TEACHERS
My first violin teacher Isabel Stovel was also Isaac Stern's first teacher.
Later I studied with Carol Weston, student of the great Leopold Auer.
By age 14, I was lucky to begin my years of study with SFSO violinist
Zaven Melikian soon to be concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera
Orchestra. On piano my teachers included the
very knowledgeable Oakland-based
teacher Caroline Irons, Dr. Robert Vetlesen concert pianist and student
of Josef Lhevinne, and Herman Vanderkamp, internationally known concert
pianist and pedagogue.
Up to age 16, my musical
education was primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. But from that
time forward, I'd have great musical experiences
in many locations: summers in Interlochen Michigan at the National Music
Camp and at the Aspen Music
Festival; study, master classes, and private instruction from many great
musicians. During my university
bachelor's and masters programs, I studied conducting, orchestra performance
and chamber music from Lazlo
Varga, principal cellist NY Philharmonic, chamber music from Andor Toth
Sr. of the Alma Trio and Ferenc Molnar acclaimed violist and instructor.
Additionally I had private violin study with Frank Houser, concertmaster
SFSO, Zaven Melikian, and Rolf Persinger principal viola SFSO. Ivan Galamian
at the Curtis Institute, Stuart Canin concertmaster SFSO, the Juilliard
String Quartet, and Lillian Fuchs of the Juilliard School of Music were
all major influences in my musical life. My stint at the Curtis Institute
in Philadelphia gave me a
big taste of music and culture in the East.
I was ready for it and loved the competition!
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JOINING THE SFSO
But then, as great luck would have it, a position in the San Francisco
Symphony Orchestra opened up. I auditioned and was invited to join.
Suddenly I was performing with an incredible professional group
of fabulous players,
not just in the orchestra but also playing quartets and other chamber
music, too. I learned so much from these great musical interactions and
experiences. Another huge learning aspect was meeting and playing with
the superstar soloists and conductors who visited and performed with
the SFSO every week. Maestro Josep Krips
was a friend and mentor for
me for many years as I was growing up, but it was Masetro Seiji Ozawa
who invited
me to become a member of the SFSO. He told me he was excited
to build a great orchestra with players of my skills and positive atitude.
As the years rolled by,
almost 20 of them with the SFSO, I played music, talked music, and
learned from the greats: Perlman, Zukerman,
Milstein, Francescatti, Watts, Du Pre, Barenboim, Ma, Serkin, Mazur,
Blomstedt, Tilson Thomas to mention just a few. They taught me a lot
about music, but also about attitude and positivity and self belief.
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MY GREATEST STRENGTH
I love to encourage others in their gifts. My musical skills are
highly
developed so that I feel no threat from any other musician or student.
When I attend professional music performances, I can hardly wait to tell
the performers how much I loved what they just shared with me.
As a quick aside, I remember once hearing the SFSO conducted by Kurt
Mazur in a piece by Beethoven. (I was on vacation that week!) The performance
was fairly sloppy but so musical and exciting! I went backstage, and
Mazur and some musicians were standing around talking about the problems.
I wriggled into the group and hugged Kurt, saying “But Maestro,
it was sooo exciting, I loved it!”
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And
he stopped, gave a big smile, and said, “Really?
Wow, yes, I guess that’s what we’re all about, yes, we make
exciting music! Even if there are a few mistakes! Ha, ha!” He was
smiling from ear to ear as if I had reminded
him of a fundamental concept
that often is forgotten.
When my students perform,
I praise them to the skies for their success. They are never perfect
(who is?), but they know that what I value most highly,
is what they have succeeded in accomplishing.
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