please email me

[Richard Young]

Greetings,

 

I am writing to you now because I'd like to discuss with each of you the work that we will do together this year at WSU.  As you probably know by now, I will be coming to Wichita every other weekend.  This means that we must be very well organized to make the best use of our time, right from the very first day.  With that in mind, it would be so useful for me to learn as much as possible about you between now and then.  I would therefore appreciate it if you could email me -- not on this "group" email, but privately. 

 

You might begin by telling me about the repertoire and technical studies you have already done.  In particular, what material have you worked on since August 2007?  Which of these pieces have you performed in public? 

 

Also give me an idea what your ultimate professional goals are -- for instance, whether you want to be a professional orchestra player, chamber music player, teacher, etc. 

 

Of course our general goal is to improve your violin playing.  But our work should never be aimless.  It should be guided by a clear plan -- one that is tailored to your particular needs.  Most important, it should reflect a balance between your most inspired & idealistic "dreams" and "reality."                 

 

Here is my contact information.  Email is best, especially for now.  You may also call me if you wish... though please not after 9 p.m. since my wife & I go to bed on the early side.  

    email: rwy...@comcast.net

    home phone: (847) 433-4818

    cell phone: (847) 525-0747

 

Looking forward...

Richard

 

[Tim Jones]

Hello! It's great to hear from you.

My name is Tim Jones. The fall semester will begin my fourth year of college. In the past three, the most notable works which I have played include Vieuxtemps Concerto No. 5, Saint-Saëns Concerto No. 3, and last year, the Sibelius Concerto. While playing these pieces, I also studied the Bach G Minor Sonata, D Minor Partita, and C Major Sonata, respectively. My etude study has been admittedly lacking; I have prepared scales in various methods from the Flesch book, but otherwise have only intermittently pracitced etudes such as Fiorillo and, last year, Paganini Caprice No. 9, never truly polishing these pieces. John wasn't the strictest regarding such studies, and while I know that I could have made myself accountable for them independent of John, honesty is that I did not. Of those pieces, I performed most at least somewhat publicly; I took the Vieuxtemps and the Saint-Saëns to a number of competitions, along with the G Minor and D Minor Bach. In my second year of university study, I won Wichita State's Concerto-Aria Competition and performed the first movement of the Saint-Saëns with the University Symphony, in Wichita and on tour at public schools throughout Kansas City and parts of Nebraska. Later that year -- in May of 2007 -- I gave a recital comprised of the Saint-Saëns, the Bach D Minor, and Milhaud's Sonatine Pastorale.

For the sake of beginning our interactions entirely openly and honestly, I should tell you that last year was the worst of my life, mentally, emotionally and musically. In the end, I never performed any of the pieces which I had studied, and in truth, did not complete my study of the C Major Sonata, which I am accordingly still working on.

Regarding other musical endeavors, you might want to know that I obtained a permanent position in the Wichita Symphony in May of 2005, just after graduating from high school, and accordingly will be beginning my fourth year in the WSO in the fall as well as my fourth year of college. I have always asserted that chamber music is a fundament of my musical enjoyment, learning and experience; I could not say that I have ever loved or enjoyed any musical experiences as wholly as I have my time spent in string quartets.  Over the course of my first two years of college, I played in two quartets and studied pieces such as Haydn's Kaiser Quartet, Shostakovich's Quartet No. 8, Beethoven's Harp Quartet, Piazzolla's Four for Tango and the Barber String Quartet, among other pieces, including several by local student composers. Due to externally incited circumstances involving both faculty and students, I was unable to be part of a string quartet last year -- this, undoubtedly, contributed toward the detrimental musical and emotional sentiments of the year which I noted earlier.  I was, however, given the opportunity to play Stravinksy's Soldier's Tale last year, which was a phenomenal experience in a branch of chamber music which I had never experienced from the performing side. For the record, in the coming year we expect and plan to form a quartet comprised of Sun Hye Oh and I, Nikki Feryok and Quinn Lake, a graduate violist and cellist respectively.

Regarding future repertoire, I would like to mention that having had such an effective and successful musical experience with Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale last year, I had been hoping and planning to play the Stravinsky Concerto next year, were it a reasonable choice after considering all other aspects such as repertoire restrictions based on plans for competitions and other similar endeavors with musically limiting guidelines. After months spend searching for the sheet music, which is out of print, I finally recently found it but learned that Sun is planning to play it. Assuming that my Stravinsky desire is accordingly implausible, I had wondered about the Shostakovich Concerto -- not because of the similar stylistic aspects related to the time period and region -- but because Shostakovich is another composer whose work I feel I could connect to exceptionally effectively at this point in my experience.  However, this is not to neglect note of two important facts; one, I by no means intend to imply that I would not find equal musical substance and personal connection in any other particular pieces, and two, I fully acknowledge in even mentioning the Shostakovich Concerto that I am aware that it is exceptionally difficult and inordinately long, in comparison to many concertos. It is simply a thought that passes into my head upon discovering that the Stravinsky, the piece which I had dreamed of playing, will likely not be available as part of my repertoire in this coming year.

I apologize for the length of this email, which is continuing to expand. I also apologize for the great delay of my response; I took a long weekend out of town camping, and was not able to receive your email until late yesterday. The last point which I would like to make note of is one which is highly difficult to explain thoroughly, rationally and objectively; please understand that I say this to you with extreme confidentiality, and that I say this only in an attempt to be honest and wholly open with you before coming into your studio. I want you to know that I have, in my past three years at Wichita State, come to feel that I have been treated very poorly by most of the faculty in our department. Throughout the course of those years, individually and in combination, professors have been underhandedly immature and sometimes decisively betraying of me. Because there is no reason or worth to me delving into expansive explanations of this, I will not; however, I ask that you might believe that I as a student could be equally objective in some such situations as are the professors involved, and that no one's perspective is implicitly any more reasonable that anyone else's. I grew up in Wichita and accordingly came to know the string faculty of the University gradually over the course of a decade before becoming part of the actual University community; I stayed in Wichita for college almost entirely because of the position I earned with the Wichita Symphony, an opportunity of experiences which I could not sacrifice, and upon becoming part of the University community I gradually found less support, appreciation and kindness in many of the faculty with whom I interacted. As I said, I hope that you would refrain from discussing my sentiments with the faculty, though I have had many discussions with several of them regarding such issues -- but I feel that you should know upon becoming part of this community that there is dissention and dissatisfaction among several of the students regarding their treatment as students and as people. I say this not expecting that you would contribute to this negativity, nor to warn you against it; I only say it because I need you to know how I feel about my academic experience in general, and to conceive of the effects of the relationship between my academia and my music.

Again, I apologize for the late and long response. I sincerely look forward to meeting and working with you. I would love to have experienced your masterclass and performance session, as an observer or participant, and absolutely would have spoken with you at that time, but for any number of mysterious administrative reasons, the violin studio was not informed that the event was taking place. Such organizational issues have been many of the problems encountered in our department, so although intensely and severely disappointed and, admittedly, insulted, I was not surprised.

Thank you again, and best wishes for the continuing summer. I look forward to being part of your studio and I will hope to talk to you in some way soon.

- Tim

Tim Jones
316 655 4501
stuntm...@gmail.com