CLASSICAL BEAUTY: David Fulton dazzles delegates at the 30th annual International Viola Congress.

Fulton Fiddles Come Out to Play

The man Money magazine has dubbed "the world's greatest violin collector" shared some of his treasure trove of rare instruments at the recent 30th annual International Viola Congress in Seattle. David Fulton, the 58-year-old computer magnate-turned-collector, is widely recognized as the owner of perhaps the finest private collection of stringed instruments in the world. The appearance at the Congress was a rare opportunity for the public to marvel at these instruments. Most of the time, he keeps the cache–instruments by Stradivari, Guarneri (including the 1737 "King Joseph," thought to be the first of the maker's violins to arrive in America), Guadagnini, Amati, Bergonzi, Montagnana, and da Salo—locked in a fireproof vault at an undisclosed location.

The prize catch, however, is the 1709 Stradivari violin known as "La Pucelle" or "The Maiden." The instrument—said to be in perfect condition—now sports a hand-carved tailpiece that bears the likeness of Joan of Arc and pegs by 19th-century luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, who gave the Strad its nickname when he saw its immaculate condition and declared, "It's a virgin!"

"La Pucelle has no cracks, no retouching, no worn-down corners or edges," Fulton recently told the Seattle Times. "It has new fittings, but otherwise it's just like it left Antonio Stradivari's hands. The sound is very pure. That should be preserved."

In past years, Fulton's remarkable collection has drawn the likes of Midori, Isaac Stern, and Cho-Liang Lin, to name a few. Meanwhile, the collector, who considers himself to be just a "tolerable" player, continues to welcome three members of the Seattle Symphony each week to enjoy the instruments and perform chamber music at his home. The rest of us may soon get to share the rare instruments: Fulton is documenting the entire collection for an upcoming book that will include his own digital photographs and will be accompanied by a video and CD.

Remembering Ray Brown

"I was reminded recently of seeing a wonderful bassist named Pierre Bousaguet and recall that there was an Argentinian poet who once said that a genius is the one who knows how to select his influences," says composer, conductor, and pianist Lalo Schifrin, reflecting on his long friendship with the late jazz bassist Ray Brown. "Pierre Bousaguet is someone who selected Ray Brown, so that puts him in the right place.

"There is no question that Ray has disciples all over the world."

Brown, who died July 2 at age 75, left a considerable legacy. His first instrument was piano, but Brown later switched to bass, teaching himself the instrument by ear. His fluid sound helped define bebop; by age 18 he was performing with such bop luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Bud Powell in Gillespie's Big Band. "Ray Brown played the strongest, most fluid, and imaginative bass lines in modern jazz at the time," Gillespie once said.

In 1948, Brown married and became musical director for Ella Fitzgerald, the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with singers who appreciated his immaculate intonation. In 1951, Brown performed as a member of the Milt Jackson Quartet (which later evolved into the influential Modern Jazz Quartet) and was a founding member of the Oscar Peterson Trio.

Brown dominated critics' and readers' polls throughout the '60s as the genre's most prominent bassist. He also experimented with a double bass and cello hybrid (the inspiration for Ron Carter's piccolo bass).

Over the years, Brown participated in more than 2,000 recording sessions, as a bandleader, soloist, and sideman. His most recent album, Some of My Best Friends Are Guitarists (Telarc), was released a month before his death. It was the follow-up to his widely acclaimed double bass troika Superbass 2, which teamed Brown with John Clayton and Christian McBride. The recording label is planning to release a free tribute CD this fall.

During the past decade, Brown collaborated with Schifrin in an international series of Jazz Meets the Symphony concerts–the two had first worked together professionally in the late '40s during Norman Granz's groundbreaking Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts. "He played with Dizzy Gillespie, he played with Charlie Parker, he played with Thelonious Monk—all the revolutionaries," says Schifrin. "And all those years, from the time he was 18, he was enlarging his experience and becoming more mature. He kept becoming more polished—a master. The sad thing is that death has stopped not only an incredible human life, but also the evolution of an artist who was perfecting a form that was infinite."

NEA Awards

A pair of formidable fiddlers received the National Heritage Fellowship Award, the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Old-time fiddler and educator Ralph Blizard of Blountville, Tennessee, and Cajun fiddler Luderin Darbone (cofounder of the legendary Hackberry Ramblers) of Sulphur, Louisiana, were scheduled to be honored at a September ceremony in the nation's capital. "We are fortunate to live in a country in which such a variety of cultural traditions can flourish side by side," says Ellen B. Mason, acting chair of the NEA. "We owe a great debt to these talented individuals, not only for a lifetime of artistic achievement, but also for all they have done to pass on their skills so that future generations can appreciate and enjoy these traditions."

Nigel's News

Sinfonia Varsovia of Poland has named British virtuoso violinist Nigel Kennedy as artistic director. Kennedy, 46, is scheduled to take over the baton at a September 30 concert at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. He also serves as director of the Sinfonia Varsovia chamber orchestra. That latter ensemble is expected to change its name to the New Polish Chamber Orchestra.

Orderly Conduct

The American Symphony League has awarded its Gold Baton to Paul R. Judy, founder of the Symphony Orchestra Institute. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Albany (N.Y.) Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Camellia Symphony Orchestra, the Orange County High School of the Arts Chamber Orchestra, the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the Cabrillo Music Festival all were noted as tops in their categories for the programming of contemporary music. In addition, five orchestras—the American Composers Orchestra, the L.A. Philharmonic, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the Santa Rosa Symphony—shared the Met Life Awards for Excellence in Community Engagement for helping to stimulate community-wide discussions around diversity and tolerance.

Noteworthy

The Jupiter Trio of San Francisco has become the first American ensemble to win a gold medal at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. . . . The Kuss Quartet of Germany has won first prize in the prestigious Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition in Reggio Emilia, Italy. (First prize has been awarded just twice in the past 15 years.) Second prize went the U.S.-based Pacifica Quartet, and third prize to the Auer Quartet of Hungary. . . . Another NEC alum, cellist Min-Ji Kim was awarded first prize at the 17th annual Irving M. Klein International String Competition. . . . Linda Yordy of Boise, Idaho, has won the Merle J. Isaac Composition Award for her Meditation for Strings.

Musical Chairs

The Tucson Symphony Orchestra has named violinist Steven Moeckel as concertmaster. . . . The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has selected acclaimed architect Santiago Calatrava to head the design team for its new symphony center. . . . Mariss Jansons has announced that she will step down as Pittsburgh Symphony music director at the end of the 2003–2004 season, when she turns 60.

Passings

Alan Lomax, arguably the best friend a folk musician ever had, died July 19 at a nursing home in Sarasota, Florida. He was 87. Lomax—an author, Library of Congress researcher, sound recordist, filmmaker, photographer, disc jockey, and concert and record producer—devoted his life to preserving folk music, often traveling to prison farms, fisherman's shacks, and plantations to capture art forms he considered essential to American culture. Among those music greats he discovered were Huddie Ledbetter (better known as Leadbelly), Woody Guthrie, and Muddy Waters. The 1959 recording of prisoner James Carter, singing the work song "Po' Lazarus," was recorded by Lomax and included on the Grammy-winning O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.

The classical music world lost two giants of modern American composition this summer. Ralph Shapey, 81, and Earle Brown, 75, championed avant-garde music on the New York scene during the '40s, '50s, and '60s and helped lay the groundwork for the acceptance of Pierre Boulez and others. Shapey, who called himself a "radical traditionalist," composed what L.A. Weekly critic Alan Rich has called "bristling, fierce, ill-tempered pieces." Later in life, Shapey lived in Chicago, where he led a chamber ensemble devoted to new music. "He never lost the power to make waves," Rich noted. In 1952, John Cage invited Brown to New York. Influenced as a child by Charles Ives, Brown went on to form his own Time-Mainstream record label, which gave U.S. record buyers their first taste of Boulez, Kagel, and others.

Violinist and teacher Berl Senofsky died on June 21. He was 77. Senofsky, a teacher at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, served as assistant concertmaster at the Cleveland Orchestra from 1951–55. He was a familiar figure in Baltimore, and often was seen riding his motorcycle with his Strad strapped to his back.

That's the Old Ballgame

Seiji Ozawa, a diehard baseball fan, pitched one last proposal to the Boston Symphony Orchestra before bidding adieu after 29 years of conducting in Bean Town. Ozawa, as a gift to the city and BSO fans, wanted to lead the orchestra in a free farewell concert at Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. At a pregame party on Opening Day, April 1, the Boston Globe reported, Ozawa made his case to Red Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner and club president Larry Lucchino. The new owners of the team picked July 20 as the most likely date for the concert. But by mid-season, it was announced that the tab for orchestrating the ambitious symphonic maneuver would run close to a half million dollars, more than either the city or the BSO could pay, especially in light of declining corporate donations to the symphony. With most of the BSO's members occupied on the other side of the state at the Tanglewood Music Center, that decision sat well with at least one player. "I would have been thrilled to be out there in the middle of the field," cellist Carol Procter told the Globe. "But I live in paradise here in the Berkshires, and coming to Boston's a schlep."