August 15, 2011. Boyce Lancaster interviews the violinist Vadim Gluzman. They sat down while Vadim was visiting Columbus, OH to play Mendelsshon’s Concerto in d minor for Violin and Strings with ProMusica (Mendelsshon was 13 when he composed this piece). An Israeli violinist, Vadim was born in Russia and currently resides in Chicago (he teaches at the Roosevelt University). Boyce and Vadim talked about Alfred Schnittke, Felix Mendelsshon’s, and the young composer Lera Auerbach. We can offer you two samples of Vadim’s art. Here's his performance of Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Symphony Orchestra of Saarbrücken Radio, Günther Herbig conduction and here – an excerpt from Lera Auerbach’s Double Concerto, which he plays with his wife, the pianist Angela Yoffe, and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrei Boreyko conduction. You can listen to the interview here, and below is Boyce’s introduction to his conversation with Vadim.
Vadim Gluzman: Music’s Fearless Champion
I recently read an interview Vadim Gluzman did with Laurie Niles for violinist.com in he told the story of how he came to play the violin. Gluzman was six years old when he took examinations for entrance into a specialized school for musically gifted children in what was then the Soviet Union. At one point, members of the panel examined his hands, which Gluzman said he thought was to make sure his fingernails were clean. The following day, Vadim saw his name on a list of those accepted for study. Next to his name, it said “Скрипка,” (roughly pronounced “Skripka”) which means violin. Gluzman said he had a fit, because he and his father, Michael, had designs on him studying piano, which his father had described to him as the king of instruments, rather than the violin, which his father described as the queen.
Thirty years later, Gluzman concedes that, indeed, his hands are perfectly suited for the violin, though he still marvels at how they knew by examining the hands of a six-year-old boy that he was born to play the violin.
One only has to listen to Vadim Gluzman play to know that the members of that panel were absolutely correct. When he picks up the ex Leopold Auer Strad on loan to him from the Stradivari Society of Chicago, it is as though it was destined for his hands.
According to Gluzman’s website (vadimgluzman.com), “Leopold Auer was one of the greatest and most influential violin pedagogues of all times.” Auer taught a veritable Who’s Who of violinists: Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, and Efrem Zimbalist, to name a few.
However, it was a chance encounter with Isaac Stern that set him on course for a career. Gluzman went to the front desk of the Jerusalem Music Centre where he had heard Stern would be listening to young musicians. When he told the receptionist that he wanted to play for Isaac Stern, he was told “Welcome to the club. You should have arranged this two years ago!” It was then that Stern happened to walk by the desk. The receptionist explained the situation to him and, amazingly, the violinist told Vadim to go warm up…that he would be given five minutes.
Two hours later, young Vadim was still with the world-renowned musician. Upon Gluzman’s return to Tel Aviv, he found a scholarship and a new violin waiting for him, along with an offer to study with Stern whenever he could.
The same bravery it took for him to track down Isaac Stern compels him to program the music of composers which many do not know. He is particularly passionate about Alfred Schnittke, whom Gluzman describes as “fearless.” He states that Schnittke wrote the music he thought he should, rather than what the government expected. Schnittke grew up in “a country which made it its business to make people afraid.” One only has to read the stories of Prokofiev and Shostakovich to understand the oppressiveness of Soviet Russia and the restrictions imposed by the Composer’s Union.
The passion that drove Vadim Gluzman to approach Isaac Stern in the first place and to program and perform music by Alfred Schnittke and Balys Dvarionas still drives him today. You will hear that in this recent conversation I had with him. – Boyce Lancaster
Vadim Gluzman
August 15, 2011. Boyce Lancaster interviews the violinist Vadim Gluzman. They sat down while Vadim was visiting Columbus, OH
to play Mendelsshon’s Concerto in d minor for Violin and Strings with ProMusica (Mendelsshon was 13 when he composed this piece). An Israeli violinist, Vadim was born in Russia and currently resides in Chicago (he teaches at the Roosevelt University). Boyce and Vadim talked about Alfred Schnittke, Felix Mendelsshon’s, and the young composer Lera Auerbach. We can offer you two samples of Vadim’s art. Here's his performance of Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Symphony Orchestra of Saarbrücken Radio, Günther Herbig conduction and here – an excerpt from Lera Auerbach’s Double Concerto, which he plays with his wife, the pianist Angela Yoffe, and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrei Boreyko conduction. You can listen to the interview here, and below is Boyce’s introduction to his conversation with Vadim.
Vadim Gluzman: Music’s Fearless Champion
I recently read an interview Vadim Gluzman did with Laurie Niles for violinist.com in he told the story of how he came to play the violin. Gluzman was six years old when he took examinations for entrance into a specialized school for musically gifted children in what was then the Soviet Union. At one point, members of the panel examined his hands, which Gluzman said he thought was to make sure his fingernails were clean. The following day, Vadim saw his name on a list of those accepted for study. Next to his name, it said “Скрипка,” (roughly pronounced “Skripka”) which means violin. Gluzman said he had a fit, because he and his father, Michael, had designs on him studying piano, which his father had described to him as the king of instruments, rather than the violin, which his father described as the queen.
Thirty years later, Gluzman concedes that, indeed, his hands are perfectly suited for the violin, though he still marvels at how they knew by examining the hands of a six-year-old boy that he was born to play the violin.
One only has to listen to Vadim Gluzman play to know that the members of that panel were absolutely correct. When he picks up the ex Leopold Auer Strad on loan to him from the Stradivari Society of Chicago, it is as though it was destined for his hands.
According to Gluzman’s website (vadimgluzman.com), “Leopold Auer was one of the greatest and most influential violin pedagogues of all times.” Auer taught a veritable Who’s Who of violinists: Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, and Efrem Zimbalist, to name a few.
However, it was a chance encounter with Isaac Stern that set him on course for a career. Gluzman went to the front desk of the Jerusalem Music Centre where he had heard Stern would be listening to young musicians. When he told the receptionist that he wanted to play for Isaac Stern, he was told “Welcome to the club. You should have arranged this two years ago!” It was then that Stern happened to walk by the desk. The receptionist explained the situation to him and, amazingly, the violinist told Vadim to go warm up…that he would be given five minutes.
Two hours later, young Vadim was still with the world-renowned musician. Upon Gluzman’s return to Tel Aviv, he found a scholarship and a new violin waiting for him, along with an offer to study with Stern whenever he could.
The same bravery it took for him to track down Isaac Stern compels him to program the music of composers which many do not know. He is particularly passionate about Alfred Schnittke, whom Gluzman describes as “fearless.” He states that Schnittke wrote the music he thought he should, rather than what the government expected. Schnittke grew up in “a country which made it its business to make people afraid.” One only has to read the stories of Prokofiev and Shostakovich to understand the oppressiveness of Soviet Russia and the restrictions imposed by the Composer’s Union.
The passion that drove Vadim Gluzman to approach Isaac Stern in the first place and to program and perform music by Alfred Schnittke and Balys Dvarionas still drives him today. You will hear that in this recent conversation I had with him. – Boyce Lancaster