JAVS Summer 2000

55

AVS CHAPTERS

The Rocky Mountain Viola Society is alive and well, as evidenced by the recent "Viola for the New Millennium" mini-Congress! The event was held March 11-12 on the campus of the University ofWyoming in Laramie and included special guest artist/teachers Pamela Goldsmith and Mimi Zweig. The Saturday sessions began with auditions to determine which twelve students would perform in the weekend's six hours of master classes. Pamela Goldsmith, currently on the faculty of the University of Southern California and a board member of the AVS, conducted the first mas ter class later that afternoon, working with four university students. Her energetic teach ing was highly informative and helpful as she involved all attendees as well as the perform ers. She also fielded questions, including some regarding her Baroque bow and performance practice issues following one student's per formance of a movement of Bach. Following a dinner break, Ms. Goldsmith performed a marvelous recital with pianist Tamara Goldstein. The recital featured the Hummel sonata, Bach's Sixth Suite in D, and lesser known· works La Nuit by Vieuxtemps, Four Caprices for Viola Solo by Grazyna Bacewicz, and Elegy by Mazas. Earlier in the day she had answered a query about performance anxiety by stating that she was not the one to ask: she has always enjoyed performing so much that her nerves have never given her much of a bat tle. This joy dearly came out in her playing, and what a fabulous performance! Sunday began with a viola ensemble music reading session. Ten violists gathered on the stage of the Fine Arts Concert Hall to wallow in that indescribable sound and learn of new music

for violas plural. The rest of the day was dedi cated to Mimi Zweig. Ms. Zweig, on the fac ulty of Indiana University since 1983 and director of the preparatory string program there, gave two master classes of over two hours each. She worked with eight students during the two sessions ranging in age from 11 through 20-something. She offered excel lent tips, to be sure, and it was a treat to watch her active, in-your-comfort-zone, hands-on approach to solving technical problems. At one point, listeners joined her on stage for exercises to warm up the body and fend off tension and other maladies. Between the two master classes, all enjoyed lunch and later a lively Q & A with Ms. Zweig in which she advocated playing without the use of shoulder rests. Eventually we got around to her intend ed topic, how she uses Kreutzer Etude No. 2 in detail for both left and right hand develop ment of young violists. The Rocky Mountain chapter is indebted to host violist Jim Przygocki of UW and Katie Fouse for their work in organizing this superb conference. Katie was especially involved with the organi zation of the master class competition ... no small task! Rockley's Music in Denver brought boxes of viola music and Charles Dixon of William Harris Lee & Sons of Chicago brought more than a dozen fine violas and sev eral bows for us to try out during the confer ence. Rocky Mountain area violists interested in attending future events or receiving the RMVS newsletter Violaspeak should visit our website to learn more about us at http://www.viola.com/rmvs.IB

-Clark Potter