The violacentric blog

Tanya and Scott Go to the UK: Part 4

  Together, Tanya and I have had 14 addresses (mostly apartments) in the US alone. I had another 10 before I met her, and she had 11 before she met me. In addition to our combined total of 35 US addresses,… Read more

Tanya and Scott Go to the UK: Part 3

Once we had decided on England, we needed to pick a city. Not easy, as there are lot of good candidates to choose from! 

Most English cities have most of what we're looking for in a place to live. The…

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Tanya and Scott Go to the UK: Part 2

It took a long time to decide what we wanted in a place and what our options really were. We had some false starts. Almost 3 1/2 years ago we applied to Canada on their self-employment visa, and we still…

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Technique Tips Video Series

Tanya and I have been teaching viola lessons online via Skype since 2011. At this point, the vast majority of our studio is entirely online, and we've gotten to meet viola players (and even a few violin players) on five…

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In Memoriam: Barbara Barstow

Over forty years ago, Barbara Barstow started me on violin (and later converted me to viola!) in her home teaching studio in Belle Mead, New Jersey. Barbara was also the conductor of many of the orchestras at the New Jersey…

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Greatest Hits from the Twenties

 

1520's and 1620's: Doubling Choirs

During the first 200 years of the viola's existence, it was doing mostly what it was invented to do: doubling vocal parts. Now, more than 500 years later, many believe the viola is still the…

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Celebrating 300 Years of Bach

Originally posted on 1/3/20 as 'Artist-in-Residence' for the American Viola Society:

Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to being the American Viola Society's artist in residence for the next couple of months. I'm supposed to write a new blog post…

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New Orleans, Louisiana

from an earlier post:

Tanya and I used to live in New Orleans. A week after our duo CD Sketches from the New World was released-- and before we could have the CD release party-- Hurricane Katrina hit, and the…

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Our Adventure in the Orchestra World

from an earlier post:

 

 

As a young teenager, I wrote orchestral music that was performed in my home state of New Jersey by the Philharmonic of New Jersey, the Hunterdon Symphony, the New Jersey Youth Symphony, and the Brunswick Symphony…

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The Popularity of the Viola

Originally posted on 2/28/20 as 'Artist-in-Residence' for the American Viola Society:

Classical musicians and audiences often see things differently. In my experience, audiences love the viola. These are people who (probably in most cases) didn't attend conservatory to study an…

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Viola Lessons....Online?

Originally posted on 2/21/20 as 'Artist-in-Residence' for the American Viola Society:

It was around a decade ago that I first heard about the possibility of taking viola lessons via Skype. Once I thought about it a bit and saw the…

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Parochialism in Music

Originally posted on 2/14/20 as 'Artist-in-Residence' for the American Viola Society:

I have spent a bit of time in different musical worlds, and I've noticed that those who primarily spend time in only one or two of them tend to…

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Violacentrism > Viola Separatism

Originally posted on 2/7/20 as 'Artist-in-Residence' for the American Viola Society:

Although the viola is the greatest instrument of all time (it says so in the Book of Cremonus), I'm actually not a Viola Separatist. (Sorry.) That is to say…

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The Composer's (Holy?) Intentions

Originally posted on 1/31/20 as 'Artist-in-Residence' for the American Viola Society:

People seem to like an agreed-upon authority to magnify their already pre-existing opinions. 

Whether cherry-picking from the Constitution or the bible, it's not merely their own little opinion now---…

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