for christmas Ulrich got me tickets to see the violinist joshua bell in concert this sunday, which also happens to be lunar new year. what an serendipitous gift!
joshua bell was the subject of the famous "stop and hear the music" DC metro experiment, in which he performed Bach partitas on his stradivarius violin while disguised in a t-shirt and baseball cap, and only a handful out of thousands of people paused during their rushed subway commute to listen to him play.
joshua bell was also one of a handful of my violin idols growing up, in addition to sara chang, hilary hahn, midori and itzhak perlman. i don’t remember how exactly he or any one of them made it onto my radar; i assume it was because all the violin students at my preparatory music school aspired to one day play like them, enrapturing concertgoers around the world.
when i was 9 or 10 my dad began seeking auditions with the teachers who had taught my idols, hoping that i would follow in their footsteps. i think the idea first took shape when we happened to see hilary hahn perform at a church in Skaneateles back when we lived in upstate new york. she was 12 and a rising star; i was 5 and still had hair ties wrapped around my bow and stickers on my fingerboard to mark off the different hand positions. later, after my family moved to maryland, my dad discovered that hilary hahn had once studied with a Mrs. Berkovich at the peabody institute, and so it was settled: Mrs. Berkovich would become my first teacher in maryland and i would spend 2-3 days a week shuttling back and forth to Baltimore for violin lessons, chamber music and orchestra practices. i don’t recall anything special about Mrs. Berkovich’s violin pedagogy though; i mainly remember that she was short, very gentle, had a wiry perm and spoke to me as if i were her own granddaughter.
throughout the years i would audition every few years with the teacher of either a well-known prodigy or another rising star at peabody. most of those highly sought after teachers rejected me, although one or two gave encouraging advice to accompany their rejections. one in particular, Victor Danchenko, urged my father not to push me too hard, but rather to let me grow at my own pace and build a more solid foundation. i googled him today and was sad to learn that he passed away in 2020.
I’m really excited to see joshua bell play on Sunday. when i attend grand performances like these, i usually leave feeling inspired, emotional and nostalgic; eager to look for ways to somehow put the violin skills I’ve retained to good use. i may not have stayed on the path towards virtuosity, but it’s interesting to catch a glimpse every now and again of the people i once looked up to and relive the awe of putting them on a pedestal. i used to think i would grow up to be just like them, and for a few hours this sunday evening - as we enter the year of the rabbit, my father’s zodiac sign - i might briefly forget that i didn’t.
Watching that video reminded me of that wacky Ted talk about what it takes to start a movement. . . it takes one to start and a second to follow behind, so it was like this that it took one or two people to stop to get the others to stop as well. really cool and hope you enjoyed the concert!