JAVS Summer 2014

The Festival Not officially opening until Thursday, the festival portion got an early start on Wednesday, when several young professionals offered master classes to area high school violists. In the evening, a panel of violists (Hillary Herndon, Ed Klorman, Kate Lewis, Kathy Steely, and me) led a spirited discussion on career opportunities with a packed audience as part of a Young Professional Development Roundtable. Thursday, June 12 Yoga or Alexander Technique sessions greeted early risers each day of the festival. As with previous viola congresses, overlapping sessions made for difficult decisions, and I unfortunately was unable to attend the 8:30 a.m. session with April Losey and Katherine Rapoport (but you can read about the session on violinist.com). The 9:00 a.m. recital featured “rising stars” of the viola and was evidence that the competition would not be the only place to hear exceptional, young talent. Performances by William Johnston of Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So and by Marcus Pyle of two movements from Erland von Koch’s Viola Concerto were standouts in a concert that demonstrated that the future of the viola is in very good hands. Noon saw the official opening of the festival with remarks by AVS President Nokuthula Ngwenyama, PIVC Festival Committee Chair Ed Klorman, and Colburn School President and CEO Sel Kardan. Wing Ho, one of the competition’s judges, then led the Beijing Viola Choir in arrangements, including two works by Chinese composers. Closing out the session was David Aaron Carpenter (a laureate of the Primrose Competition from 2005) with a set of virtuosic showpieces intended to dazzle and entertain the crowd, with siblings Sean Avram Carpenter and Lauren Sarah Carpenter and area musicians in the accompanying ensemble. And dazzle he did; Carpenter’s impeccable technique and flair for showmanship harks back to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when string players played more diverse fare on a recital than the “three major, serious works” that has become de rigueur among classical string players.

From left to right: Jessica Meyer, Myrna Layton, Margaret miller, and Marcus Pyle at the Community Engagement session (photo courtesy of Dwight Pounds)

V OLUME 30 S UMMER 2014 O NLINE I SSUE

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