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Winner Wins Again
Violinist Judith Ingolsson's latest award
confirms her place among the stars
by Edith Eisler
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When Judith Ingolfsson received the 2001 Cleveland Institute of Music’s
Alumni Achievement Award, she added yet another prize to an already
long list, of which the most prestigious was the 1998 International
Violin Competition of Indianapolis Gold Medal. "I won a lot of kiddie
competitions between the ages of eight and 14," she says, "and got
to play with local orchestras. Then I stopped doing competitions for
a while, because Jascha Brodsky, with whom I was studying at the Curtis
Institute, wanted me to focus on practicing and building up my technical
foundation.
"Then in 1992, when I went to Cleveland to study with David Cerone,
I started doing competitions again on a regular basis. The national
ones are usually affiliated with one or two orchestras and the winner
is asked to play with them, and you also get a little money, which
is always welcome. I did really well in the nationals, so I thought
I should try something more difficult and went in for the D’Angelo
Young Artists Competition, which has a first prize of $10,000. I won
that and decided to try the Concert Artists Guild competition; there
I won the Nathan Wedeen Management Award, which of course was very
helpful because I got a lot of concerts as a result. I won the third
prize and the Audience Prize at the Paganini Competition, I also won
the Indianapolis, and then I stopped," she concludes with a laugh.
One might rather say she has arrived. Winning the Indianapolis competition,
perhaps the most important of its kind in America, carries far-reaching
benefits, including a Carnegie Hall recital, a recording contract,
numerous recital and concerto engagements, and the loan of the famous
"ex-Gingold" Stradivari violin—in addition to the usual prize money.
"It’s been wonderful," she says happily. "I’ve had so many opportunities
to perform, and I’ve enjoyed every moment."
Ingolfsson was born in Iceland, where she describes the musical scene
as very lively and the people as very creative and passionate about
art and music. Her father is a mathematician, her mother a pianist;
of her three sisters, one is a cellist, one a harpist. "I was drawn
to stringed instruments very early and asked to play the violin,"
she explains. "My mother says I was so in love with my first 1/8-size
instrument that I insisted on taking it to bed with me." She started
playing when she was three. Her first teacher, Jon Sen, of whom she
has very fond memories, was the concertmaster of the Icelandic Symphony.
"After one year, I moved on to the Children’s Music School, because
it had singing, theory, and chamber music. It gave me a wonderful
foundation.
"When I was five, I played for Carol Glenn in a master class; she
kept up a correspondence with us, and when we came to the States two
years later, she took me under her wing and helped my parents find
good teachers for me." Since the family moved often, Ingolfsson had
an unusual number of teachers, including the great Guila Bustabo;
she played for Josef Gingold and David Cerone, then went to Cerone’s
summer camp, where she met Jascha Brodsky, with whom she studied until
1992. Then she studied with Cerone and Donald Weilerstein in Cleveland
and also frequently played in Gingold’s master classes.
Ingolfsson describes her childhood as normal, except that she had
to practice a lot, and she admits that when she was very young she
did not have the patience to enjoy it. "But now I’ve learned to appreciate
it, because I feel that music is a journey, and I want to continue
to learn and grow. When I was younger, I practiced only because I
knew I couldn’t perform otherwise, and I always loved performing—and
still do." Her April 2000 Carnegie Hall concert left no doubt that
she is a born performer as well as one of the best, most arresting,
and most appealing violinists of her generation.
Tossing off the most hair-raising technical fireworks, she revels
in her own virtuosity; her tone is flawlessly pure and incredibly
varied and beautiful, and she is at home in every style from Bach
to Ned Rorem. "I don’t like to specialize," she says. "I definitely
think one should play contemporary music, but I don’t like to perform
a piece until I feel very strongly about it, or I’ll have nothing
to communicate to an audience. Of course I play the standard repertoire;
what I love most are the pieces in which I can find something new
every time, like Bach’s unaccompanied works or the Brahms Concerto."
Ingolfsson can use the "Gingold" Strad for four years, and then it
will pass to the winner of the next competition. It came with a François
Tourte bow, and she owns a Nicholas Maire and a Victor Fétique.
But she really has no violin of her own and has been playing on various
borrowed instruments for some time now. "I am trying to find an instrument
I can purchase," she says, "but it could never be of the caliber of
the Strad, so I’m hoping someone will be generous enough to loan me
something."
To learn more about Judith Ingolfsson, visit her Web site: www.judithingolfsson.com.
