Word: cellistic
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Troubled by such problems, Cellist Janos Starker recently hit on a solution that is "so simple as to be almost silly." Working with a Chicago violinmaker and a specially designed drill, he bored small, cone-shaped holes in the undersides of the bridges of several string instruments; these holes, says Starker, act like tiny megaphones and "dramatically" amplify the quantity and quality of the tone. So far, he has applied his treatment to 50 string instruments, including the Stradivari played by Chicago Symphony Associate Concertmaster Victor Aitay, who says it has made a "tremendous difference." Starker has applied...
Most musicians agree that women are all right in their place-just as long as that place is not the first desk, a position that gives them authority over the other players in their section. When that happens, egos get bruised. Says a woman who is a first cellist: "How do I tell an older man that he consistently comes in early on bar 24?" The majority of conductors avoid such problems by refusing to promote women to the first desk; one noted maestro once told a string player that she played better than any of his men, but alas...
Respect, Not Money. All of this only makes the girls work harder. Philadelphia Cellist Elsa Hilger, 62, who in 1935 became one of the first women ever to play with a major U.S. orchestra, feels that she is "one of the gang." She insists upon carrying her own bags, does not mind the bothersome business of changing behind trunks and fussing with her wardrobe while on tour (harpists find that pleated skirts stay neatly pressed if wound through the strings of their instruments). Says Boston's Leinsdorf: "Uniformly, the women's pride is so great that their attendance...
Among the hardest-hit symphonies is the Philadelphia Orchestra, which recently filed suit to prevent three of its best string players - Cellist Charles Brennand, Violinists Veda Reynolds and Irwin Eisenberg - from joining the faculty of the University of Washing ton. The orchestra contends that the musicians handed in their resignations four months shy of the year's notice that their contracts call for. The three, plus Violist Alan Iglitzin, who was released from the orchestra four months ago, are scheduled to perform their first concert next week as the university's new resident string quartet. Meanwhile, the orchestra...
...shopping centers, college recruiters are raiding orchestras with all the fervor of pro-football scouts. At Indiana University, for instance, the music department lists 40 teachers from top U.S. orchestras, including three former concertmasters and 15 first-desk players, and such internationally ranked soloists as Violist William Primrose and Cellist Janos Starker. Boasting five campus orchestras and the resident Berkshire String Quartet, Indiana last year sponsored 501 musical events. Snaring topflight musicians is easy, says Indiana's Dean Wilfred Bain (with some exaggeration), because "people who push brooms are treated better than symphony players." Beyond that, the lures...