JAVS Spring 2010

This year we are all looking forward to the 38th International Viola Congress , June 16–20 to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. The hosts, Catharine Carroll and Masao Kawasaki , are putting together a fantastic line-up of international violists and viola events. More information is at http://www.ivc2010.com. Improvements on our IVS website at http://www.viola.ca/ivs/ivs are continuing, and it is our aim to keep all violists informed about IVS events, our sections’ news, and other general viola items world wide. A special thank you must go to Ann Frederking of the Canadian Viola Society for all her work as our webmaster. Thank you Ann (and congrat ulations on your CVS’s Lifetime Achievement Award)! My best for the rest of this year, and I hope to see you at this year’s International Viola Congress in Cincinnati!

Achievement Award to ten violists); Sweden hosted the Nordic Viola Symposium; and China, its 2009 Viola Festival, to mention just a few. IVS awards for 2009 included: Ronald Schmidt receiving the 2009 IVS Silver Alto Clef for his decades of service as an officer of both the IVS and the German Viola Society (the award was presented at the 2008 Bratschistentag held in Düsseldorf ). Louise Lansdown presented John White the 2010 IVS Silver Alto Clef at his home in Harlow, England, with several close friends and John’s wife Carol in attendance. John White is probably a familiar name to many, as he has hosted four International Viola Congresses, worked with the Tertis International Viola Competition organ ization, written two viola books, arranged and edited numerous pieces for the viola, and more. Lastly, an IVS Special Award plaque was presented to Xi-Di Shen on her seventieth birthday in Shanghai at the tel evised Viva la Viola concert. Professor Shen is the fore most viola professor in China, and her students have included almost every professional violist or viola teacher that has studied in China over the last fifty years. Her contribution to the viola in China is with out equal. Last year saw two more countries forming viola soci eties and joining the IVS. They were Brazil , our thir teenth section (and our first one in South America) and Poland , our fourteenth section. As of December 2009, the Taiwanese Viola Society was established and is almost ready to apply for IVS membership, and work is “in progress” on forming a Hong Kong & Macau Viola Society . If you have any viola contacts in countries without viola societies, we would love to hear from you (e.g. all of Latin America (except Brazil), Japan, Korea, Russia, Italy, Ireland, Czech Republic, Benelux, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Middle East). Please e-mail me at vervid@xtra.co.nz

Kind regards,

Michael Vidulich IVS President

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