JAVS Fall 2012

input of teachers or the requirements of the school. Much of the advice dealt with taking initiative and responsibility, with suggestions to learn the reper toire requirements early, practice in advance, and to contact the teacher before the audition and possibly ask for a trial lesson. In seeking students for their studios, the panelists conveyed that they are “look ing to understand who you are and your potential, but not necessarily seeking perfection.”

English composer, and Martin made a strong case for the revival of the work. Jutta Puchhammer Sédillot followed the Walker with two contempora neous works for viola and piano by French com posers: Charles Lefebvre’s Caprice (1900) and Hélène Fleury’s Fantasie (1906). I have never been disap pointed with Puchhammer-Sédillot’s programming or her performances, and her rendition of Fleury’s Fantasie simply smoldered. The winner of the sec ond biennial Maurice Gardner competition, Michael Djupstrom’s Walimai , was next, performed by Ayane Kozasa with the composer at the piano. This dra matic piece, effectively written for the piano— though less idiomatic for the viola; it was originally conceived for saxophone—demonstrated a fascinat ing melodic and harmonic language that combined into a cohesive whole. Matt Dane displayed a rich tone for the first movement of Martinů’s Viola Sonata, which left the audience longing to hear the final movement. My next stop was the young Artist Competition awards presentation at 6:30 p.m. This competition, open to violists age sixteen to twenty-two, ran con currently with the Saturday congress events; twelve semifinalists performed on Saturday morning, with the four finalists performing in the afternoon. The winners of the competition were: First Prize ($3000 and a handmade bow by Benoît Rolland): Diyang Mei Second Prize ($2000): Matthew Lipman Third Prize ($1000): yifeng Qiu Liptak Prize , for best performance of the required piece composed by David Liptak: Diyang Mei Registrants for the Community Viola Day attended the competition finals, and they also awarded prizes (each consisting of a $50 gift certificate to Southwest Strings):

Phillip Ying, at right, chats with bow maker Joshua Henry in the exhibits hall

Another packed panel presentation was offered at 1:00 p.m. by Kathryn Dey, Hillary Herndon, George Taylor, and Juliet White-Smith. Entitled “Violist as Kinesthetic Musician: A Process-Oriented Exploration of Fundamentals,” each speaker present ed on a specific topic related to core principles for holistic artistry, with the audience participating in exercises. Herndon began with the subject of bal ance, particularly dealing with the bow arm. Dey followed with the subject of breathing, White-Smith was next up with rhythm, and Taylor concluded with singing and phrasing (including a lively rendi tion of Day-O ). The day’s second (and much longer) Potpourri Recital at 5:00 p.m. offered another attractive sam pling of viola music. Spencer Martin started with Ernest Walker’s Viola Sonata. Dating from 1897, Walker’s work is a rare pre-Tertis viola sonata by an

Best Bach : yifeng Qiu Best Tone : Anqi Lv Most Charismatic : Matthew Lipman Most Musical : Diyang Mei

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