JAVS Spring 2020

Karin Dolman presented a lecture-workshop, Finding Your Own ViolaWay , in which she demonstrated her ideas about introducing many new pedagogical ideas, such as using higher positions earlier, and exploring a variety of fingerings, especially original ones, to expand a student’s technique. Following Dolman’s lecture, Ricardo Kubala from Brazil gave a lecture-recital, Brazilian Music for Solo Viola . Composers included: Claudio Santoro; Marlos Nobre; and Alexandre Lunsqui. Kubala performed examples from each work, discussing the composers’ styles and the specific techniques each composer utilized. Stanisławska, who are colleagues at the Academy of Music in Łódź. Their concert included Krzysztof Grzeszczak’s Violjordas for 3 violas, which was accompanied by a video by film artist Paulina Majda, a provocative new multi media work. The rest of the recital continued with solo performances by members of the trio: Stanisławska played the world premiere of Preludium for solo viola by Maciej Wijata; Wilczak-Płaziuk performed a work by Slawomir Zamuszko; and Kukuła-Kopczyńska performed a work by her husband, Janusz Kopczyński, Transcience. The evening’s performance ended with the trio reuniting for Triviolium by Bogdan Dowlasz. The evening’s performance was presented by TRIVIOLIUM, a trio of violists Jolanta Kukuła Kopczyńska, Róża Wilczak-Płaziuk, and Dorota

Poland, the country was invaded by Sweden. He fled to the countryside where he was exposed to Polish folk music, which influenced many of his compositions. Frendin and Olsson performed several of these works, playing baroque instruments. Day Five The final day of the congress began with a morning lecture-recital by Xi Liu about viola works by composer Boris Pigovat. Jesse Maximo Pereira, another Brazilian violist, followed with Hommages , a performance of Brazilian music for viola by composers Marco Padilha, Ernani Agular, Claudio Santoro, and Ricardo Tacuchian. The next session was a lecture-recital given by Kenneth Martinson about the rich body of viola music by Italian composer Marco Anzoletti. David Swanson and Jordan Wright, students at the University of Tennessee, presented a session, My Viola: New Technologies for Achieving Accessible String Instruments for Those With Disabilities . This is a topic that is relevant and important, and hopefully this team will continue to present on the topic. Gregory Williams presented an interesting lecture recital about the three sonatas for solo viola by the German-Jewish composer, Gunter Raphael. These rarely performed works are challenging and of the scope of Hindemith’s (a contemporary of Raphael) solo sonatas. Williams performed movements from each of the sonatas. Christine Rutledge performed her program, Bach and the Poets: Slow Dancing , a project she introduced at the 2018 Rotterdam congress. This program was a performance of six slow dance movements from solo works by J.S. Bach, interspersed with video readings of original poetry commissioned by Rutledge by Michigan poets. The afternoon recital, Late Romantic Chamber Works for Tenor, Viola and Piano , was presented by violist Ames Asbell and tenor Richard Novak, with pianist Joey Martin, all from Texas State University. Works performed were Four Hymns for Tenor, Viola and Piano by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Rachmaninoff’s Five Songs for Tenor, Viola and Piano , arranged by Lorin Chisholm, a welcome addition to works for this combination.

The late-night serenade headlined Swedish violists Henrik Frendin and Håkan Olsson, joined by harpsichordist Anna Paradisos in a program entitled Telemann in Poland . During the years 1705-1706, when Telemann was visiting Henrik Frendin (left) and Håkan Olsson (right) before their performance of works by Telemann. Photo by Dwight Pounds.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 36, No. 1, Spring 2020