JAVS Spring 2017

News &Notes

In Memoriam: Bernie Zaslav Scott Slapin

Bernie was involved in commissioning many works by major composers of the twentieth Century, and he taught on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Northern Illinois University, and Stanford University. Over the past two decades, Bernie was also a prominent member of the Viola List online (www.viola.com), maintained by Allan Lee. His warmth, humor, and vast knowledge always came through in his posts, and it is on the Viola List where I first met him. Later I was able to meet him in person several times when I had an artist residency at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA, not far from where he lived. Many on the Viola List were pleasantly surprised to find that someone with Bernie’s qualifications would be so friendly, down to earth, and free with his time to answer questions. He had many good stories, which are enshrined in the Viola List’s archives online. If you haven’t had the opportunity to meet Bernie, or if you would like to relive fond memories, you simply have to get his autobiography The Viola in My Life; An Alto Rhapsody (published by Science and Behavior Books, Inc.), which comes with two CDs of his gorgeous viola playing. Run, don’t walk! His intelligent, funny, and kind personality always shines through, taking the reader through the Classical music scene of the twentieth century including stories about the big performers and composers of his time, navigating various aspects of the New York freelance scene, acquiring his very impressive Guadagnini viola, and touring the world with first-class string quartets. In his last weeks, Bernie had managed to wrap up remastering some live recitals from the late 1980s and early 1990s with Naomi, and I’ve found out that we can look forward to that album being released soon, likely on the Music and Arts label. I’ve heard the playing, and it is incredible and not to be missed. I’m a big fan of his

Bernie Zaslav. Image provided courtesy of Dwight Pounds.

Juilliard-trained violist Bernard Zaslav, Bernie to many, was born in Brooklyn in 1926. Bernie began his career in the viola section of the Cleveland Orchestra under Georg Szell and subsequently, as Tully Potter wrote in Strad Magazine, “played in just about every string quartet in the U.S. at one time or another” including the Kohon String Quartet, the Composers String Quartet, the Fine Arts String Quartet, the Vermeer String Quartet, and the Stanford String Quartet. Bernie recorded well over one hundred string quartet albums on major labels of the time and won much critical acclaim performing throughout the world in major concert halls. With his wife Naomi, a fine pianist, he also performed for decades as the Zaslav Duo.

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring 2017

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