JAVS Summer 2000

46

j OlJR."AL OF THE AMERICA." V IOL-\ SOCIETY

VoL 16 0 . 2

David Shalkln, Tab~a Zimm~rmann, and Donna Dalton

Spain who studies with Gerard Causse. A gift ed performer, she will certainly mature in her stage demeanor. Sarin became the recipient of a new viola and a cash award of lO,OOOFF ($1500). Fourth and fifth place honors were given to Srine Hasbirk, Denmark, and Agathe Blonde!, France. These violists received cash awards and CD recording opportunities. The prize awards, generated from various sponsors, were handsome; the standard of performance was high. The Concours Maurice Vieux, afrer a hia tus of seven years, is welcomed back as an event of international status with rhe projec tion of another such competition in 2003, according to M. Dupin. Marc-Olivier, a grad uate in viola of the Paris Conservaroire, has been irs direcreur for the past seven years. He will step down from this position in August, but will continue in his capacity as president ofLes Amis de !'Alto, the French organization for violists that has awakened from an appar ent slumber in a forceful way, and was a spon sor of the Vieux competition. Dupin will also devore himselfmore fully to composing-par ticularly film music.

Hovering over the other events of Ren contres (Encounters) seemed to be the spirit of that great French violist and reacher, Maurice Vieux. He was often recalled to memory simply through the benign presence of one of his most notable students, Serge Collar. The venerable Collar, now retired to the more tranquil atmosphere of the French countryside, represents the second generation of his reacher Vieux. His own considerable pedagogical gifts are represented in a host of excellent professional violists (Causse and Pasquier among them). The respect for Collar, who incidentally was a part of the initial per formances of Pierre Boulez's Le marteau sans maitre, was manifested all around as he was addressed, simply and almost reverentially, as maitre. The week's program offered recitals, lec tures, lecture demonstrations, and exhibitions. Those few among us who were not French speaking may have felt at a disadvantage. But in France, French is spoken, bien sur! (At the upcoming viola congress in August in Sweden, I suspect English will be de rigeur.) Ross Charnock, an expatriated Brit and violist by