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Pinchas Zukerman. Moves The University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music has announced that Douglas Lowry is to succeed Robert J. Werner, who stepped down in June after a 15-year tenure, as dean and professor of music. Lowry has been associate dean of the Flora L. Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. The Raphael Trio has been joined by Romanian-born violinist Irina Muresanu. She replaces Charles Castleman, who plans to "explore other musical pursuits." Kyu-Young Kim, a former member of the Pacifica String Quartet, has been appointed associate concertmaster of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He will make his solo debut with the orchestra in September. And after 43 years as concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Raymond Gniewek retired at the end of the 1999–2000 season. Gniewek has performed as soloist with the Chicago, Detroit, and Miami Symphonies. The Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne has appointed Christian Zacharias as its new artistic director and principal conductor. Alasdair Neale, who has served as associate conductor of the San Francisco Symphony since 1992 and music director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra since 1989, will resign from both positions at the close of the 2000–01 season. Neale plans to devote his time fully to his international conducting career. The New York Philharmonic has announced that Zarin Mehta will be its new executive director, beginning a five-year contract in September 2000. He succeeds Deborah Borda, who left in 1999 after eight years, moving to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mehta, the son of violinist and conductor Mehli Mehta and the brother of Zubin Mehta, has spent the last ten years as president and CEO of Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. In Memory Viola virtuoso, teacher, and raconteur Wayne Crouse died on May 19, 2000, at the age of 75. Crouse studied with Milton Katims, Ivan Galamian, and Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard, then joined the Houston Symphony Orchestra, where he played as principal for 28 years. Crouse was also violist in the Lyric Art Quartet at the University of Houston, the Virtuoso Quartet, and the Shepherd Quartet at Rice University, where he taught for some time. After retiring from the Houston Symphony, he became professor of viola at the University of Oklahoma in Norman and principal viola of the Oklahoma City Symphony. The new Wayne Crouse Quartet, a student performance group that was formed in his honor, will be in residence at the University of Houston beginning this Fall. Crouse is survived by his partner of 32 years, Edward Petsch, as well as his brother, Robert Crouse. Crouse requested that no funeral be held, so a musical celebration took place in his honor—and his friends were encouraged to "keep practicing." Awards and Prizes The New York Viola Society has announced the recipients of the Rosemary Glyde Scholarships for Spring 2000: ranging in age from 10 through 14, they are Alexander Yanis, Lauren Gerchow, Lillian Pickett, and Lea Vasquez. Also, a seed-money grant from the program is being given to the music department at the Harlem School of the Arts to help establish a new viola-studies program. Rosemary Glyde (1949–1994) was the founder and first president of the New York Viola Society. For more information about the society and its scholarship program, point your browser to www.viola.com/nyvs. The Music Teachers National Association held a Student Performance Competition in March at its 2000 National Convention in Minneapolis. Lydia Hong, a student of Almita Vamos, won the String Award in Performance, Junior High School Division, and Nicholas Sylvest, a student of Margaret Pressley, won the High School Division; the Collegiate Artist String Award went to Atanaska Dulgerska, whose teacher is Kevork Mardirossian. The 11th Biennial National Solo Competition of the American String Teachers Association with National School Orchestra Association took place May 9–12, 2000, at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Cellist Kathleen Balfe received the Senior Grand Prize, the Finkel Bow Award, and the Senior Cello First Prize. Violinist Karen Kim won the Junior Grand Prize and the Junior Violin First Prize. Other junior-division (under age 19) first-prize winners included Andrew Stalker (bass), Amy Yetasook (cello), and Rebecca Taylor (viola). The other senior-division (age 19–25) first-prize winners were Jeffrey Kail (bass), Jennifer Stumm (viola), and co-winners Dale Baltrop and Carrie Kennedy (violin). Sixty-two ensembles from across the U.S. competed in the 2000 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The Fry Street Quartet (Rong-Yan Tang and Rebecca McFaul, violin; Russell Fallstad, viola; Rebecca Thornblade, cello) won the Senior String Gold Medal and a cash prize of $3,000, as well as the $5,000 Fischoff Millennium Grand Prize. The New England Conservatory Honors String Quartet took the Senior String Silver Medal ($2,000) and the Gotham Quartet won the Bronze ($1,000). In the junior string division, the first-place scholarship, worth $2,000, went to the Capriccio Quartet; second place ($1,500) was awarded to the Harding Trio, and third ($1,000) went to the Karma Quartet. Also in May, wind-and-string ensemble Eighth Blackbird and the Miro String Quartet won the Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Eighth Blackbird has won several previous prizes and is an advocate of contemporary music. The Miro Quartet members are benefiting from the Lisa Arnhold Fellowship for String Quartet Studies at the Juilliard School, where they are serving as teaching assistants to the Juilliard String Quartet. Baroque Duel Anyone who thinks the classical music world is too highbrow for a little mudslinging hasn’t been listening to Pinchas Zukerman lately. In an interview in Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper, Zukerman, the music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, offered these insights into the period-performance movement, popularized by ensembles like the English Consort: "I hate it. It’s disgusting. The first time I heard that shit, I couldn’t believe it." Then he turned his thoughtful gaze to period players. "Maybe one or two or a half-dozen have wonderful musical minds," he conceded. "But I certainly don’t want to hear them perform." As for his own approach to music making, Zukerman summed up thusly: "I take more Advils. But I haven’t changed that much." Not surprisingly, those comments earned Zukerman the indignation of Jeanne Lamon, artistic director of Tafelmusik, Toronto’s well-known and highly-regarded Baroque ensemble. In a reply that appeared in the Globe’s Arts Argument column, Lamon—who admitted that she was "itching for a fight"—asked, "Where has Mr. Zukerman been for the past 30 years, if not hiding his head in the sand? "Bach is not Bruckner, Vivaldi is not Stravinsky, and Purcell is not Vaughan Williams. They wrote for the forces they had at hand and their music is best served by those same numbers of musicians playing those same instruments," Lamon insisted. But ultimately, she said, the music should speak for itself. To that end, she challenged Zukerman and the NAC Orchestra to a "Battle of the Bands." Lamon’s dare prompted CBC Radio to step into the ring as referee. The public broadcaster offered to host an on-air musical bout by playing back-to-back versions of the first movement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, performed by the NAC Orchestra and Tafelmusik. Listeners could log on to the CBC’s website to cast votes for the superior performance. The winner? Tafelmusik, with a decisive 67 percent of votes. And though it’s not hard to imagine which way Zukerman would have voted, the better question is whether he bothered to listen at all. —Juliana Farha Teaching Innovations The National Music Foundation is inviting teachers to take advantage of its American Music Education Initiative (AMEI). Designed to recognize and support teachers who use American music in their classrooms, the AMEI is open to teachers of any subject for grades K–12, in any community or academic setting. It consists of two elements: a competition that provides cash awards for outstanding lesson plans using American music, and an on-line database of past and present winning lesson plans that is available free to teachers everywhere. Plans for the current contest must be submitted by September 1, 2000, whereupon judges will select a finalist (who wins a $1,000 grant), semifinalist ($500), and honorable mention. All plans chosen will then be published in NMF’s on-line database. "The database will have over 80 plans this year, all available for free," says Foundation President and CEO Gloria Pennington. "Teachers can use them just as they are or modify them to suit their own requirements. There are plans for every grade, on an amazing variety of subjects." Applications for the competition are available by calling (800) USA-MUSIC or going to www.nmc.org, where the database is also located. The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts has announced Partners in Excellence, a national initiative made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation. The initiative is designed to identify best practices in public-school K–12 arts education partnerships, and to foster similar programs throughout the U.S. The Guild is currently seeking exemplary programs and their key players, who will be invited to make a presentation at a national summit conference in January 2001 to an audience of educators, artists, and grant makers. The programs can be offered during or after school and must be truly collaborative, coordinated efforts rather than the traditional service-provider model. Presenters will be chosen by panel review. For more information, contact Project Director Jacqueline S. Guttman at (201) 871-3337 or jguttman@carroll.com. New Learning Opportunities The Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, New York, has created a chamber-music department. Jean Barr, co-chair of the new department, notes that more young musicians are building multifaceted careers as ensemble performers. At this time no new degrees in chamber music are offered, but they may be developed. Find out more at www.rochester.edu/Eastman. The New World School of Violin Making, located in Vilas County in rustic north-central Wisconsin, has just been approved by the Educational Approval Board of Wisconsin for its three-and-a-half-year program. Semesters start in August and January; over the course of the program, students will build seven instruments (six if one is a cello). For more information, write to 6970 Red Lake Rd., HC1-119A, Presque Isle, WI 54557, or point your browser to www.newworldschool.com. Composing Residencies Meet the Composer and the American Symphony Orchestra League are partnering this year to create Music Alive, a nationwide composer-residency program. Eight orchestras and composers have been selected to kick off the 2000–01 season with residencies of two to six weeks. The pairings are Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork and the Albany Symphony (in Georgia), P.Q. Phan and the American Composers Orchestra (in New York), Stephen Paulus and the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Osvaldo Golijov and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Daniel Schnyder and the Milwaukee Symphony, Bun-Ching Lam and the New Jersey Symphony, Roberto Sierra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Bright Sheng and the Seattle Symphony. Each residency will feature the performance of at least one major work of the composer, public presentations by the composer to generate interest in the orchestra’s new-music activities, and collaborations between the composer and orchestra personnel to design new-music strategies. Many of the residency plans include ideas for youth and community outreach. To find out more, go to www.symphony.org/news/pr35.htm. Fall College Fairs This fall, the National Association for College Admission Counseling is sponsoring Performing and Visual Arts Fairs in 27 cities around the United States. The fairs are free to students (and their families) researching undergraduate and graduate arts programs, including music. One-on-one with representatives from colleges, universities, and conservatories, attendees learn about educational opportunities, admission and financial aid, audition and entrance requirements, and more. The participating educational institutions utilize the fairs to recruit talented students. For more details and an itinerary visit the NACAC Web site at www.nacac.com/fairs.html or call the National College Fairs Department at (800) 822-6285. Bass Composition Competition The International Society of Bassists has announced its 2000 Composition Contest, open to all composers. Entries should be new, unpublished works in any style and should fall into one of three divisions: solo bass or bass with one other instrument; bass with electronic-media accompaniment; or ensemble of four or five basses. The deadline for submissions is September 30, 2000, and winners will be announced in January. For further information, call (972) 233-9107, ext. 204; fax (972) 490-4219; or e-mail to info@ISBworldoffice.com. Verbier Forms Youth Orchestra A select set of young players is enjoying a special opportunity this summer: performing in the first-ever Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra. The acclaimed annual festival in the Swiss Alps has a history of inviting prestigious youth symphonies from around the world (including the Curtis Institute’s orchestra and the Young Israel Philharmonic), but this is the first year festival organizers will hand-pick their own group. James Levine will be coaching, along with principals from New York’s Met Orchestra. The Festival Youth Orchestra is the brainchild of festival founder Martin Engstrom, a busy man who took over as vice president of Deutsche Grammophon’s Artists and Repertoire Division last December. Engstrom’s vision when he founded the festival seven years ago was to organize a premier chamber-music opportunity for musicians and audiences. Of the new resident youth orchestra he says, "Summer camp is, I think, the most inspiring period during the year of any kid. And there’s something unique about festivals; you’re more open for encounters and creative impressions. I want the kids to plunge into an atmosphere of creativity." Young players are ready—nearly 1,000 applied for the 100-plus positions. "We ended up auditioning 632 kids in ten different cities: Philadelphia, New York, London, Cologne, Paris, Tel Aviv, Stockholm, Hong Kong, Zurich," Engstrom says proudly. The group premiered on July 21, Verbier’s opening night, with soloists including violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Throughout the festival season, the players study under prominent conductors including Levine, Paavo Jaarvi, Yuri Temirkanov, and Zubin Mehta. The players will regroup during the winter for a three-week European tour with Jaarvi and violinist Vadim Repin as soloist. Although many players will remain in the Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra for several years, new auditions will be held yearly as positions open up. To find out more about the group, application procedures, and the festival itself, look it up at www.verbierfestival.com. News, from the U.S. or abroad, is always welcome. Please mail to Marsha Gonick, News & Notes, Strings, PO Box 767, San Anselmo, CA 94979; fax to (415) 485-0831; or e-mail to Marsha@stringletter.com.
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