JAVS Fall 2023

From the President

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Winners have been announced for this year’s Dalton Research Competition, and their articles will be appearing in future issues of the journal. The 2024 Maurice Gardner Competition for Composers has been announced and will accept submissions through December 1 - please spread the word to any composers you know! In online events, our engaging AVS Greenroom series hosted by Steven Tenenbom continues monthly, and we are excited to host a Fall AVS Workshop Series centered around the Body Mapping approach to body awareness, balance, and ease. As if all the projects mentioned above weren’t enough, we are also entering a festival year! Our team is already hard at work planning for the 2024 American Viola Society Festival , so please mark your calendar and plan to join us on June 19-22, 2024 at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Held alongside the live rounds of the Primrose International Viola Competition, this event provides an experience like no other - a broad array of lectures, recitals, workshops, masterclasses, and more, alongside brilliant performances by the world’s brightest rising stars of the viola. Teachers, students and young professionals, please plan to participate in the AVS Solo Competitions, Ensemble Invitational, and Orchestral Audition Competition and Seminar, all of which will feature live final rounds and performances at the festival. (Preliminary round submissions for all festival competitions are open through December 15.) This will be the first combined AVS Festival and Primrose Competition since 2018—you don’t want to miss it! All of these offerings sound exciting, but the truth is that they can’t happen without you. Your membership and donations provide our team with the resources needed to create content and events that serve our mission and our community. If you aren’t already an AVS member, we invite you to join and participate! If you are already a current member, please invite a friend. If your budget allows, please donate as you are able to support your favorite AVS project. If you feel called to service, please reach out and volunteer. But most of all, please join in and enjoy our wonderful community. There’s no limit to what we can accomplish together!

Warmest greetings to you all as we enter a time of year that, for many of us, marks a new beginning - a new school year, a new professional season, or a new period of focus at work after summer travels. As I sit down to write my first President’s Letter for our wonderful

journal, I’m incredibly humbled, filled with gratitude, and excited for our bright future as an organization. As a member of the American Viola Society since my college days, I’m so thankful for the many resources and opportunities the AVS continues to provide to the viola community after more than a half-century. It is fitting that this issue features retrospectives of David Dalton and William Primrose - the remembrances in these pages will elicit a smile, warm your heart, and renew your sense of awe of these two giants of the viola. In these pages, you’ll also travel to Thailand for the International Viola Congress review, and back to the Renaissance as you’re immersed in Laurent Zakowsky’s fascinating perspective on the history of the viola. Other articles serve the practical needs of our community, such as research, pedagogy, and wellness, and throughout you’ll find useful insights inspired by a shared devotion to our instrument and community. This is an exciting time for AVS as many of our long-term projects are coming to fruition, and we look forward to the continued health and growth of our society. The first recording on the AVS Presents label is near release, and will be made available to all current AVS members very soon. We’re also working on next year’s release, and welcome proposals for the 2025 Recording Project related to the theme “Music from the Americas” through January 1, 2024. Advertiser Index Anderson Musical Instrument Insurance Solutions. . . . . . . .37 AntiquusStrings.....................57 Arizona State University. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC ASTA National Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 AVS History & Reference Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Yours in alto clef, Ames Asbell

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 39, No. 2, Fall 2023