Zander Awarded "Golden Door". Attacca Quartet Wins Bronze at Fischoff
Attacca Quartet at Fischoff Competition
Conductor Benjamin Zander, who is celebrating his 40th year on the NEC faculty and will take the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra to China in June, will be presented May 30 with the Golden Door Award from the International Institute of Boston. Conferred annually for the last 30 years, the award recognizes "American citizens of foreign birth who have made an outstanding contribution to American society through a life of reputation, accomplishment and character." Zander is one of only three musicians who have received the award; the others are Arthur Fiedler and Yo-Yo Ma. Other recipients have been Jean Mayer, Jill Ker Conway, I.M. Pei, and Thomas J. Flatley. Just before heading off to China, Zander will make a quick hop across the pond for three concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London—in Bedford, Cheltenham and Croydon—where he will join forces once again with Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero.
The Attacca Quartet, comprised of four NEC Youth Philharmonic string players, won third prize in the junior division of the 34th annual Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, May 11—13. The competition took place at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. Coached by NEC Prep faculty Jonathan Cohler, the quartet members are: Rita Wang, violin, a student of Lynn Chang and Miriam Fried who is Concertmaster of the YPO and will attend NEC in the fall; Julia Glenn, violin, a student of Magdalena Richter, who is YPO Principal Second Violin; Christopher Chang, viola, YPO assistant principal and a student of Lisa Suslowicz who will study in the college beginning this fall, and Patrick McGuire, cello, a student of Andrew Mark, and a member of the YPO cello section.
New England Conservatory had the largest contingent of players selected to take part in the competition of any school in the country. Twenty-four ensembles were chosen from a pool of 74 to take part in the quarter finals—the first round of live auditions. Of that group, four advanced to the semi-finals for which 12 ensembles were selected.
The Attacca Quartet won the Bronze Medal and a cash prize of $1000. Jurors this year were David Ying, Marian Hahn, Richard Sherman, and Eva Gruesser.
Another YPO member, Amy Chen, the Principal Clarinet, has been selected one of 12 semi-finalists in the International Clarinet Association’s (ICA) Young Artist Competition. To be held in Vancouver in early July, the competition is open to an unusually wide age-range with players up to 27 years old eligible to compete. Last year, Amy, who is 17, won First Prize in the ICA’s high school competition in Atlanta. The clarinetist, a student of Jonathan Cohler who will attend Harvard University in the fall, will be one of the soloists for the YPO tour of China this summer.
NEC President-elect Tony Woodcock is splashed all over the May-June issue of Symphony Magazine. The announcement of his appointment to the Conservatory and his photograph are prominently displayed in the news section (along with a story about the Borromeo Quartet and violinist Yura Lee ’05 A.D. winning Avery Fisher Career Grants). Then, he is quoted extensively in an article about the Knight Foundation’s Magic of Music Symphony Orchestra Initiative. That program was reviewed in a report by Dr. Thomas Wolf who summarized the impact of the foundation’s $13 million investment in 15 orchestras during the decade 1994—2004. Woodcock was involved with the project while president of the Oregon Symphony.
Cellist Wendy Law '96 Prep, '00 and violinist Lily Francis, '98 Prep '08 M.M got glowing New York reviews for their performance of the Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8 with Yu Jin, viola and Arnold Steinhardt, who played second violin. The performance, given under the auspices of Musicians from Marlboro, took place May 11 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Writing in the New York Sun, critic Fred Kirshnit observed: “The three younger string players - Lily Francis, first violin, Yu Jin, viola, and Wendy Law, cello - were all fiercely intense, while the grizzled veteran Arnold Steinhardt, long of the Metropolitan's Guarneri Quartet, put the lie to the stereotype of playing second fiddle by imbuing his characterization with a ghastly elegance.” Steve Smith in the New York Times wrote: “Playing first violin, the position that carries much of the narrative impetus in this moody, occasionally tormented piece of musical autobiography, was Lily Francis, whose graceful solo lines conveyed a poignant fragility. The violist Yu Jin and the cellist Wendy Law, both accomplished, powerful players, seemed to relish the work's more obsessive passages.”
Violinist Miriam Fried took part in several landmark performances in the last few weeks. In late April, she inaugurated a new violin modeled after a 1744 Guarneri del Gesu constructed by instrument maker Karl Dennis of Warren, RI and his colleagues Andrew Ryan and Tucker Densely. They contributed the instrument to Providence's Community MusicWorks on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. Fried played it in a benefit concert April 29. On May 5, Fried was the soloist with the Cape Cod Symphony in artistic director Royston Nash's final concerts with the orchestra. After serving 27 years, Nash closed out his tenure with works by Nicolai and Grofe with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto as the program's centerpiece. Anna Crebo in The Cape Cod Times called special attention to the middle movement that was "a gem of sensitive phrasing, skillful portamentos and burnished, bittersweet sound that erupted without pause into the sizzling, gypsy-flavored finale..."