Category: Current Local Events

Several weeks ago, I got an email from Kelin’s Violin Shop (Kelin Zhang is a skilled luthier who runs a violin shop here in Plano, Texas) with news that he had finished building his new recital hall, and was hosting a contest for local music students to celebrate the grand opening. I immediately thought about getting one of my younger students who has shown unusually good progress to enter. Jennifer has been taking lessons for about a year now, and I thought she would enjoy the experience.

The contest was held a week ago yesterday (Saturday, November 11th). I was able to attend, and I thought Jennifer did well, although the contest itself come off with several glitches, which I attribute to being the first time that Kelin has put on this sort of event, and I expect that future events of this kind will be run more smoothly.

I found out the following Monday that Jennifer won in her age group! Yesterday, she was featured in a performance for the winners of each age group. I have a video of her performance, but I will need to get her father’s permission before posting any photos or videos of her, so that may or may not happen.

It is very rewarding as a teacher to have a student win a contest! This may be an annual event, so I hope that I have other students enter (and hopefully, win) in the coming years.

Tuesday evening was my Fall recital for my students. This time, I invited Leann Cupp to present her two new students as a joint recital. Recitals are one of those things that I believe to be vital to the learning process of playing any instrument. It’s a time to show off the result of a lot of very hard work.

Tuning and warming up prior to the performance

I am always pleasantly surprised that the students do better than they did in rehearsal. Something about the slight edge of nervousness that enhances the performance. Or maybe it’s the superb acoustics at the Lord of Life Lutheran Church. Whatever it was, every student did better at the recital than they had been doing previously.

My Fall 2010 Students

Now, to start the preparation for the Spring recital in May.

Saturday evening, my wife and I went to hear Mariusz Patyra play the Paganini Violin Concerto #1 in D Major. It was an interesting evening.

Mr. Patyra immediately struck me as an interesting character, with just his appearance. He is tall and thin, and has a slight resemblance to John de Lancie (“Q” in Star Trek TNG) with an Art Garfunkel hairdo. He wore an Erroll Flynn-style flying-collared shirt with a mismatched coat & pants that were about 3 inches too long, giving the appearance that he had been dressed against his will. The appearance was quite comical.

However, given the piece he was going to play, and given the fact that the Plano Symphony is a very good orchestra, I figured he could handle it.

He turned out a superb performance. But you had to close your eyes to get the best effect, because he basically just stood still and played (a lot like Heifetz did). With eyes closed, however, you could easily forget that you weren’t listening to Heifetz. He was simply world-class. The audience gave him a standing ovation at the end of the first movement (some folks consider that a breach of etiquette; you are supposed to wait until the whole piece is over), and another after the end of the third movement.

My Patyra then gave an encore. I did not understand the name of the piece, nor did I recognize it. It was far less technically challenging that the Paganini, but an excellent piece to demonstrate the gorgeous tone of his “Il Cannone” 1742 copy made in Dallas in 2000 by John B. Erwin.

The remainder of the evening was not nearly so memorable. After the intermission, we heard Rossini’s Overture to William Tell, followed by Respighi’s Roman Festival. The PSO is a fine orchestra (you can close your eyes and forget that it’s not the Dallas Symphony Orchestra), and the William Tell Overture was enjoyable, but Mr. Patyra’s performance was a tough act to follow.

I did not particularly enjoy the Respighi piece. That’s not because the PSO did a poor job on it — they played quite well. I just don’t care for the piece. To me, it isn’t really music, it’s just a long collection of only marginally-related sounds, and I found myself wishing that I had gone home early in order to get some extra sleep.

I could have gone home after listening to the Paganini, and felt like I’d gotten more than my money’s worth.