My Interviews on Violinist.com

Bringing the Florence Price Violin Concertos to Life: A Conversation with Er-Gene Kahng

Back in 2009, not long after I joined the Philharmonic Society of Arlington, that group celebrated its 75th anniversary season. The winner of that year’s Young Artists’ Competition was violinist Er-Gene Kahng, who performed the Mendelssohn concerto. I made a rare appearance as a violist in that concert, my last before I went back to the first violins for good.

Almost ten years later and 3000 miles to the west, I remembered and met Er-Gene again at her performance of the Florence Price Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Camellia Symphony in Sacramento. Florence Price’s two violin concertos were recently rediscovered amidst other forgotten manuscripts by Price in an abandoned house that was once her summer home. Kahng, a Professor at the University of Arkansas, has edited and recorded these concertos in order to bring the work to a wider audience. –>Read More

Embracing Improvisation: A Conversation
with Val Vigoda

Val Vigoda is an electric violinist, singer/songwriter, and founder of the musical trio GrooveLily. She has toured the world with Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Val has also co-written, with Brendan Milburn, songs for Disney’s Tinker Bell movies as well as the score for the stage musicals Striking 12, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Toy Story: The Musical, and many others, including Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, starring Val as Kat, a contemporary composer and single mom who meets and falls in love with the time-traveling explorer. –>Read More

Interview with George Ogata, Founder and Conductor of the MIT Summer Philharmonic Orchestra

George Ogata founded the MIT Summer Philharmonic Orchestra (MITSPO) after 7 years as Concertmaster of the MIT Symphony Orchestra. Now in its 19th season, the MITSPO draws top amateur players from throughout the Greater Boston area to come together for a summer festival of music making. –>Read More

Interview with composer John Kramer about his new work, ‘The Poet’s Calendar’

Pianist and composer John Kramer conducted a performance of his award-winning composition, The Poet’s Calendar, newly orchestrated, with the Arlington-Belmont Chorale and Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra, on December 15, 2013. APO violinist and violinist.com blogger Karen Allendoerfer interviewed John about the piece on November 25. –>Read More

Interview with James Russell Smith about his piece, ‘Memories of Cape Cod Winter Birding’

James Russell Smith is Assistant Chair of Composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, and Assistant Conductor of the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra.  His new piece, Memories of Cape Cod Winter Birding, for Soprano and Orchestra, premiered on April 29, 2012 with Robin Ginenthal, Soprano, and the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra.  –>Read More