JAVS Fall 2024

Festival Review

The Best of All Things Viola: American Viola Society Festival 2024 by Kira Blumberg

First published June 22, 2024, on Violinist.com

We talked about the 5Rhythms dance movement, which was founded in the 1970s by Gabrielle Roth and focuses on five a body rhythms,” including: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness. We danced the whole class, working through the various rhythms with a crazy array of musical genres. We worked in groups, following and leading, as we would in chamber music. But instead, I ran into a friend who was having her strings updated by the people from Thomastik in a string consultation. So of course, I joined in. She played her viola, I played her viola, they changed the strings back and forth. In the end, she decided on Rondos on the A and D for clarity, and Peter Infelds on the G and C for warmth and that rich deep viola sound. It reminded me that someday I need to have a loud viola, a soft viola, a Mozart viola, a Brahms viola, and at least half a dozen others. After that, I have to admit I needed to sit down for a bit.

So much viola and so little time...

The American Viola Society Festival Primrose International Viola Competition and took place at the Colburn School this summer – kicking off Monday, June 17, and ending with a bang the evening of June 22. There were dozens of other solo recitals, group viola recitals, and workshops. Plus, there was the entire competition as well.

I could go for only one day – on Thursday, June 20 – but it was a brilliant day.

Violists dance!

I started the day at Karen Rischter’s “Get Grounded!” workshop. Karen is a violist who also teaches dance, and the class promised to be “a session of embodiment and alignment, to strengthen our connection to gravity and play from our more deeply connected hearts.”

L-R: Violists Sakari Dixon Vanderveer, Kira Blumberg, and April Losey, testing strings.

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 40, No. 2, Fall 2024

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