The 47th International Viola Congress takes place in Columbus, Georgia (USA) from June 1st – 5th, 2022. This daily blog / report is delivered to you by DVS board member Emlyn Stam.

Day 4: Satuday, June 4th, 2022
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The final full day of the viola congress included an enormous array of activities. The morning session featured our own DVS board member Karin Dolman’s performance of her own composition Pierrot Suite in full costume. Dolman’s performance was very well received in a packed theatre. Her piece tells the story of Pierrot, Harlequin and Colombine with a few references to Schönberg, Richard Strauss and others. Her performance was preceded by a warm rendition of Bach’s Violin Sonata number 2 by David Rose from the Cleveland Institute.

Karin Dolman’s performance “Pierrot”, in full costume (source: Karin Dolman’s vlog)

Scholar David Bynog from Rice University gave a lecture on Britten’s unpublished youth works and sketches for viola, complemented by marvelous performances by Timothy Ridout. Britten’s youthful Sonatina is a wonderful work that reveals the extent of the young composer’s talent at the young age of 14. We can only hope that the Britten-Pears Foundation will agree to publish these works so they can be disseminated amongst violists and music lovers alike. Bynog’s lectures touched on Britten’s relationship with the viola as a youngster as well as his relationship with violists over the course of his career, including William Primrose and Cecil Aronowitz.

David Bynog and Tim Ridout present unpublished Britten works for the viola (source: IVC livestream frame capture)

In the afternoon Santiago Velo Quintairos and Fernando Fresno Zarza (members of our DVS delegation and students at Codarts Rotterdam) presented a lecture on performing traditional Muiñeira’s from the Galicia in Spain on two violas. Their work used looping and pickup microphones to create a sound texture including percussion sounds, voice and viola. Their presentation was warmly received and their performances were both lively and convincing.

Recital by DVS/Codarts delegates Fernando (l) and Santiago (r) (source: Karin Dolman’s vlog)

This was followed by a presentation by veteran violist Thomas Tatton on the Joy of Practice. He gave a number of important guidelines on practicing to the assembled crowd and went through real live examples with the group having them practice these under his guidance. Polish violist Marcin Murawski gave a lecture on Georgian composer Giya Kancheli’s 18 miniatures, a set of pieces of which he made the world premiere recording with pianist Nino Jvania. This turned out to be Kancheli’s last work and is full of warm melodic materials and jazz elements.

The evening concert featured a recital by Kim Kashkashian with pianist Renana Gutman. The program included Lera Auerbach’s dark, brooding viola sonata Arcanum and Kashkashian’s own transcriptions of songs from South America, Schumann’s Fünf Stücke im Volkston (originally for cello) and Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne (originally for violin). These transcriptions, especially the Stravinsky, proved to be less than successful as viola-piano works.

Kim Kashkashian’s evening recital (source: IVC livestream frame capture)

The traditional congress banquet featured an array of awards and in memoria, given that the congresses have not been held in the past (3) years due to the pandemic. The International Viola Society’s silver cleft for contributions to the viola was awarded to violist Robert Diaz and received by his parents and sister. The honorary membership was awarded to New Zealand violist Donald Maurice, whose achievements are too numerous and important to summarize here.

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Editor’s notes:
1) You can also follow Karin Dolman’s Columbus IVC VLOG (yes, video!) on facebook, starting here, and continuing here, here, here, here, and here.
2) Even if you missed the live event, you can still register (as a “Virtual attendee”) to explore all the recorded contents (lectures, recitals, masterclasses) of this congress for another 3 months! See the Congress Website for full information.

The 47th International Viola Congress takes place in Columbus, Georgia (USA) from June 1st – 5th, 2022. This daily blog / report is delivered to you by DVS board member Emlyn Stam.

Day 3: Friday, June 3rd, 2022
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The third day of the International Viola Congress featured some important contributions from the Dutch Viola Society. Violist Elisabeth Smalt and singer Alfrin Schmidt performed their original adaptations of Harry Partch’s songs. I gave my lecture on early-recorded performance practices, and violist Jutta Puchhammer-Sedillot (Université de Montréal) opened her lecture-recital with a performance of Dutch composer Theodor Verhey’s (1848-1929) charming Characteristic Pieces. Puchhammer’s lecture-recital focused on the numerous little-known works from the 19th and early-20th centuries for clarinet and piano that were also published in versions for viola and piano. The lecture, entitled ‘It does not always have to be Brahms’, revealed a broad list of works by some better and lesser-known composers from Max Reger and Charles Villiers Stanford through Egon Kornauth and Albert Wustrow. Puchhammer and pianist Elise Desjardins performed a selection of movements from the works discovered with admirable intensity and dedication.

Jutta Puchhammer lecturing on clarinet/viola repertoire (source: Marcin Murawski)

A lecture-recital by violist Rose Wollman (University of Notre Dame) focused on her original recital project centered on Ligeti’s Viola Sonata. Wollmann chose 17th and 18th-century works and commissioned contemporary works to play between the sonata’s various movements. She performed the world premiere of some of these newly commissioned works by violist-composers such as Garth Knox and Atar Arad. The recital will no doubt be impressive when presented in its full form in the future.

Featured Artist Kim Kashkashian giving a Masterclass (source: Marcin Murawski)

Viola guru Kim Kashkashian is a featured artist at this year’s congress. She gave a masterclass in front of a large crowd of adoring violists. Our own Santiago Velo from Codarts University played a movement of the Ligeti for this class at a high level.

The evening showcase featured a unique standup comedy viola performance by Isabel Hagen. Hagen is a professional standup comedian who also studied the viola at Juilliard. Her performance featured comic songs performed with her own plucked viola accompaniment, as well as some humorous interchanges between short performance of serious viola music and hard-hitting jokes. Hagen touched on many of the standard tropes popular with today’s young generation of comedians. Seeing a violist thrive as a standup comedian on such a high level is a testament to both the versatility of the instrument and its players today.

Isabel Hagen, violist and standup comedian (photo source: livestream screenshot)

<previous day> <next day>

Editor’s notes:
1) You can also follow Karin Dolman’s Columbus IVC VLOG (yes, video!) on facebook, starting here, and continuing here, here, here, here, and here.
2) Even if you missed the live event, you can still register (as a “Virtual attendee”) to explore all the recorded contents (lectures, recitals, masterclasses) of this congress for another 3 months! See the Congress Website for full information.

The 47th International Viola Congress takes place in Columbus, Georgia (USA) from June 1st – 5th, 2022. This daily blog / report is delivered to you by DVS board member Emlyn Stam.

Day 2: Thursday, June 2nd, 2022
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The second day of the IVC 2022 featured a packed schedule. The first recital with students from Université de Montréal started at 08:00 with Piéces de Concours. The hour was so early that none of our DVS delegates were able to attend. We were told that the unfortunate students had no opportunity to warm up because the building was closed beforehand.

The first lecture of the day was given by Sachin Shukla (a student at the New England Conservatory) on the Walton Viola Concerto. He explored the concerto’s cryptic dedication to Walton’s love interest Christabel in the context of Walton’s working class origins and Christabel’s status as a member of the nobility. His theoretical analysis of the concerto was highly original and an article in the American Viola Society’s Journal is forthcoming this fall.

Leanne Darling (State University of New York) gave an inspiring lecture recital on looping, the use of live, electronically recorded loops in solo viola repertoire. She explained the technological tools involved and gave practical advice on practicing with and using loops for improvisation. The presentation concluded with a performance of 5 fascinating contemporary works for solo viola involving looping. One of the highlights was the work Flight by New York composer Trevor New full of stilted textures, unusual in this genre of music.

Leanne Darling performing with loop station (source: Karin Dolman)

A short walk to the Columbus State University’s Space Science Center followed for a recital in the omnisphere cinema. Meditative 3D animations with scientific and space-related themes accompanied the performances. This multidisciplinary experience connecting science and viola music was an interesting addition to the conference program.

This was followed by a recital featuring the previously unknown concerto for violin and viola by Ferdinand Thierot, a salon-like composition which was admirably performed by violist Jutta Puchhammer, violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel and pianist Elise Desjardins.

Vogel, Desjardins and Puchhammer (photo credit: Marcin Murawski)

Daphne Gerling and Katherine Lewis gave a fine performance of Polish composer David Pajdzik’s concerto for two violas entitled Old Time Suite from 2019. The piece, a rather severe neo-classical work reminds one of Henryk Górecki’s late works.

The socially engaged, multidisciplinary performance piece Taioro ki te Ao from New Zealand was one of the highlights of the congress. The performance features the Māori spoken word performer Sharn Maree Cassady whose texts reflect on the challenges her people face as a result of colonization. The work centers indigenous narratives conveyed through Cassady’s powerful and gripping stage presence and superb sense of rhythm and intonation. The music composed by Anthony Ritchie provides a strong emotional counterpoint to the text and was performed with seriousness and verve by violist Donald Maurice and pianist Sherry Grant.

From the performance of Taioro ki te Ao (photo credit: Marcin Murawski)

Timothy Ridout was the guest of honour for an evening concert featuring no fewer than 3 concerti accompanied by conductor Paul Hostetter and a professional orchestra pulled together for the occasion. His strong musical presence was palpable from the first note of Alessandro Rolla’s Viola Concerto in E flat major. Ridout plays with grace, incredible skill and a constant communicative sense of character. His proficiency extends to a complete knowledge of the orchestral score, a sense of engaged music making with the orchestra and an enormous pallet of sound colours which keep the listener engaged throughout. The second work on the program by Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova, called Suite in the Old Style, opened with Ridout playing a drum at the back of the orchestra. The work features uncanny orchestration with a prominent role given to the harpsichord. Tabakova draws on a myriad of influences in this attractive, colourful work including Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Bulgarian and Celtic folk musics. Compositional forms and tropes from the 18th century are used with a sense of fun and irony. The work represents a valuable contribution to the repertoire for viola and chamber orchestra. Ridout performed the piece with great zeal and a keen sense of timing. The final work of the evening was Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Potpourri op.94. This work was previously known in a severely truncated form as the Fantasia for viola and orchestral owing to 20th century editions of the piece that cut out its middle sections. The full Potpourri contains myriad riches including variations on themes by Mozart, Rossini and others. Ridout played the work with ease and grace emphasizing its humorous character and tossing off technical fireworks with bravado. Ridout has clearly fulfilled his promise to become one of the leading violists of our time.

Featured Artist Tim Ridout stalked by DVS vloggers backstage (source: Karin Dolman)

<previous day> <next day>

Editor’s notes:
1) You can also follow Karin Dolman’s Columbus IVC VLOG (yes, video!) on facebook, starting here, and continuing here, here, here, here, and here.
2) Even if you missed the live event, you can still register (as a “Virtual attendee”) to explore all the recorded contents (lectures, recitals, masterclasses) of this congress for another 3 months! See the Congress Website for full information.

The 47th International Viola Congress takes place in Columbus, Georgia (USA) from June 1st – 5th, 2022. This daily blog / report is delivered to you by DVS board member Emlyn Stam.

Day 1: Wednesday, June 1st, 2022
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This year’s International Viola Congress is happening in the small town of Columbus, Georgia, USA. It’s been almost 3 years since the previous IVC (in Poznan, Poland), but more importantly, for the first time since 2012, the congress is once again organized in the United States, in conjunction with the American Viola Society’s annual festival.

Columbus is a quiet town with a distinctly southern atmosphere on the Alabama border. Houses with white columns and front porches with rocking chairs and friendly, southern hospitality. People routinely greet you when you pass them on the street. The various churches clearly play a big role in the community. It is also notable for those of us coming from abroad that numerous people on the street openly carry firearms. I also overheard one spirited discussion about politics in America at a local café.

Host Katrin Meidell welcoming Congress visitors (picture credit: Marcin Murawski)

The congress is taking place at the Columbus University’s Schwob School of Music and is hosted by the viola professor Dr. Katrin Meidell and her amicable team. The distinguished violist Manuel Diaz, her predecessor who is nearly 90 years old, was given an AVS award at the opening ceremony. He told the audience his incredible life story from his family’s flight during the Spanish Civil War to their arrival in Chile as refugees in the 1930s. In Chile, Diaz took up the viola and became the principal of the national orchestra. Eventually the coup in Chile forced Diaz to flee to the United States with his family where he in turn worked at the Atlanta Symphony and for a firm as an engineer before he was able to take up a professorship at Columbus State University.

After this warm introduction we were treated to an enthusiastic lecture by Andrea Houde (from the University of West Virginia) about using imagery to aid viola teaching. She spent a great deal of time addressing imagery for technical right and left hand matters which led to a spirited discussion. Her work does tend to assume that there is a single ‘correct’ bow hold and left hand position for playing the viola, which is at odds with the diversity of historical and contemporary practices.

Andrew Braddock (from West Kentucky University) gave an insightful lecture on Hans Werner Henze’s viola repertoire. He gave a spirited performance of Henze’s highly serious and fraught viola sonata. His performances exuded a great deal of precision while avoiding emotional extremes. His performance of the solo piece An Brenton similarly conveyed his great knowledge of the repertoire.

Numerous competitions and masterclasses also took place on day 1. Happy competitors of all ages received prizes from the American Viola Society. It was encouraging to see the racial diversity represented by today’s American viola students.

Visual impression from Natalie Loughran’s recital (image credit: Karin Dolman)l

The winner of the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition Natalie Loughran gave the evening’s showcase recital with pianist Tatiana Muzanova. The program opened with Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro played with a warm, clean, graceful tone and an appealing vibrato. Loughran certainly plays with a high degree of precision and clarity of line and structure. She followed this with a performance of her own arrangement of the American composer William Grant Still’s (1895-1978) Suite, a beautiful if repetitive work with a neo-impressionist flavour. Still, an African composer born in Mississippi is rather unknown outside of the United States. Loughran’s performance of the second movement Loop from Ligeti’s Viola Sonata was unconventional in the application of a kind of Blues swing. I had never heard the piece played this way before and found it refreshing. The technical execution of the various left hand jumps was top notch. This was followed by a performance of American composer Stephen Coxe’s Elegy, an atmospheric if rather one-sided solo viola work which makes good use of the full register of the instrument. The final work on the program was Henri Vieuxtemp’s beloved Viola Sonata, performed with a great smoothness of sound and line and an intense vibrato. While performed with technical proficiency in every respect, the predictability of Loughran’s performance did little to overcome the deficiencies inherent in Vieuxtemp’s cookie cutter composition. Loughran’s playing reminds one a great deal of Kim Kashkashian’s in the subtle, smooth approach to sound and bowing. Given her young age of 24 and her already impressive accomplishments we are sure to hear more of Loughran in the future.

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Editor’s notes:
1) You can also follow Karin Dolman’s Columbus IVC VLOG (yes, video!) on facebook, starting here, and continuing here, here, here, here, and here.
2) Even if you missed the live event, you can still register (as a “Virtual attendee”) to explore all the recorded contents (lectures, recitals, masterclasses) of this congress for another 3 months! See the Congress Website for full information.