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Ask Giovanni Music mavens with burning questions can direct their queries to "Giovanni," a new on-line service at www.eclassical.com. The specialized search engine is staffed by a team of experts in classical music who will reply within 48 hours to every e-mail question received. There is no charge for the service. "This is only one of several continuing efforts we have in mind to get the word out about classical music," explains George Olvik, president and founder of eClassical.com, the leading supplier of downloadable classical music on the Internet. "We want to reach both serious classical music lovers as well as people who are listening for the first time and are interested in knowing more about classical music." Bach Interpretations Workshop America’s Shrine to Music museum is offering a new early music workshop entitled "Interpreting Bach on Flute, Cello, and Keyboard" June 4–9 in Vermillion, South Dakota. The workshop will explore the performance of solo and chamber music by J.S. Bach with special attention to his cello suites, flute sonatas, and selected keyboard works. The one-week workshop will include master classes, lecture-demonstrations about historical instruments and their techniques, chamber music coaching and performance, and individual lessons on both historical and modern instruments. Participants will have an opportunity to study the more than 10,000 instruments in the museum’s collection, including stringed instruments of all types, from the 16th century to the present. Open House at West Dean College West Dean College in Chichester, England, is offering an open day for the public to glimpse their apprenticeship program in making early stringed musical instruments. On February 7 prospective students in the three-year program will have an opportunity to visit the workshops and talk with current students, faculty, and admissions staff. For more information, call (44) 01243 818232 or 811301, write westdean@pavilion.co.uk, or visit www.westdean.org.uk. Beating Performance Anxiety Performance anxiety can cripple even the most gifted of musicians, and Juilliard School professor and sport psychologist Dr. Don Greene has built a career from helping artists and athletes analyze and overcome their debilitating fears. His latest project is an on-line self-evaluation tool for musicians called the Artist’s Survey. For a modest fee, a visitor to www.dongreene.com can take a Web-based test and receive an Artist’s Profile that includes an evaluation of strengths and weaknesses along with a personalized program of exercises geared towards building optimum performance in high-pressure situations. Greenes’ first book, Audition Success, is a best seller among music students. His latest books, Performance Success and Fight Your Fear and Win, will be released this year.
Musical Chairs Students and alumni of the Cleveland Institute of Music have acquired some appointments recently. Anne Francis is taking the cello chair with the Fry Street Quartet. Violinist Lisa Guttenberg has been appointed to the faculty of the Preucil School in Iowa. And cellist Arie Lipsky has been appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. He will continue as conductor of the Ashland Symphony. Trophies American violinist Frank Huang garnered first prize in the Hannover International Violin Competition last November. Second place went to Ukranian violinist Andrei Bielow, and Arabella Steinbaher from Germany took third. The jury awarded the 22-year-old Huang top honors for his performance of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D-Minor, Op. 47. His award includes a cash prize, a CD contract with NAXOS, and a series of debut recitals and concerts with significant orchestras and ensembles. First prize in the chamber music division went to the Trio Ravel at the 51st G.B. Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli, Italy, last October. Violinist Silvanna Dolce, cellist Gianni Proietti, and pianist Claudio Trovanjoli secured the top honors with a performance that included selections from Schumann and Brahams. The cello and piano duo of Mattia Zappa and Massimiliano Mainolfi won second place. The International Bluegrass Music Association bestowed Instrumental Performer of the Year honors on fiddler Ronnie Stewart and bassist Missy Raines at the annual World of Bluegrass convention in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 19, 2000. In Memory Elizabeth Ivanoff Holborn died this past October at the age of 78, after a lifetime of touching people through her music and her life. She was a student of Galamian, an accomplished musician in her own right, and a teacher for many years at Interlochen and several universities in the Los Angeles area. She was active in the numerous churches she attended as a music director; she also served, with her husband, Hans, as a missionary in Eastern Europe. Holborn was a phenomenal teacher and person. She could show you a better way of doing something rather than telling you what you were doing wrong. In the process, she instilled ever-greater feelings of self-confidence. Not only could she teach you how to play the violin with great technique, feeling, and expressiveness—she taught you how to live life. The world has lost a great musician, teacher, and friend. We will all miss her, but I’m sure she’s teaching the angels a thing or two about how to really play. There are literally thousands of violinists throughout the world who are her legacy and will continue to expand that legacy through their playing and teaching. —Tim Kunze Cellist and teacher Michael Rudiakov died of a heart attack on November 17, 2000, in Yonkers, New York. He was 66. Rudiakov was born in Paris, but he grew up and received his initial training in Tel Aviv, Israel, where his father, Eliahu Rudiakov, was a concert pianist and teacher. After a stint with a German opera company, the younger Rudiakov moved to New York, where he studied with Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio. He later served as principal cellist with the Indianapolis and Jerusalem symphonies, and he also performed as a soloist with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. Rudiakov was involved in several pioneering string ensembles including the Aeolian Chamber Players and the Composers’ String Quartet, an innovative group that featured new works by Elliott Carter, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Henry Cowell. He frequently gave recitals his father, his son, and his cousin, pianist Shoshana Rudiakov, with whom he worked as the Rudiakov Duo. Rudiakov’s substantial teaching legacy includes faculty positions at Sarah Lawrence College, the New England Conservatory, the Manhattan School of Music, Lehman College, and the Manchester Music Festival. At the time of his death Rudiakov was a member of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The American Jazz String Summit The American Jazz String Summit, born in New York City in 1984, returned to the Big Apple in marvelous force this past September 23rd. In a cozy theater at the New School University, a small but potent constellation of string players launched the event with an informal panel, "Skills for the Contemporary Violinist." Over blues changes from a tight jazz combo, Joe Deninzon, Heather Hardy, Julie Lyonn Lieberman, and Jenny Scheinman demonstrated a few of the myriad paths a string player can take into contemporary and popular music. The five-hour event continued with a discussion of amplification techniques, a concert of original material by Lieberman (the creator of the Summit), an hour of "new faces" on the violin (including a world premiere, "Brazil for the First Time," by Tia Hanna), and a final participatory jam session. In between performances, attendees and panelists sampled electric violins from Eric Aceto of Ithaca Stringed Instruments and Rich Barbera. In the hallways, CDs switched hands, compliments flew, and a small community took fleeting shape. Lieberman, a New York City-based performer, author, and educator, has made enormous contributions over the last 24 years to strengthening that community. "I created the first American Jazz String Summit in 1984 at Symphony Space because I recognized that the public and the media did not realize the extent of string players’ contributions to improvisation," Lieberman says. "I spent a year organizing the five-hour concert as both an educational and a social event. We all got to hear each other, to exchange ideas and phone numbers, and to step back and appreciate the enormous span of music being created by string players." That year, Darol Anger and Dave Balakrishnan read charts with Matt Glaser and Lieberman that later became early Turtle Island charts; also present were L. Subramanium, rocker Scarlet Rivera (fresh off a Bob Dylan tour), and David Darling on cello. Since then, Lieberman has either participated in or contributed ideas to similar events in Montreal, California, and Indiana—and she voices a hope that other communities will take up the torch. "Darol Anger, David Darling, and I recently participated in a Summit in Indianapolis, produced by Cathy Morris. It was a huge success. We truly hope that string players in other cities will use this as a model and create their own, so that we can broaden the perspectives and opportunities for players and educators nationwide." To find out more about the American Jazz String Summit, contact Lieberman at JulieHMus@aol.com or go to her Web site at www.JulieLyonn.com. —Rani Arbo
News, from the U.S. or abroad, is always welcome. Please mail to Heather K. Scott, Market Report, Strings, PO Box 767, San Anselmo, CA 94979; fax to (415) 485-0831; or e-mail to Heather@stringletter.com.
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