Sixteen violins are coming to Jacksonville for this concert. Jacoby Symphony Hall on Saturday, none of these violinists will hold his or her own instrument. When the curtain goes up at the Robert E. The combination, he says, “allows me to shape musical phrases and express myself to my heart’s content.” Piotr Szewczyk, a Polish-born violinist and composer, plays a modern American violin made by Gregory Sapp in Chicago.Īndy Bruck, who first played a violin 50 years ago, now plays one made in 1996 by Robert Kimble, with a bow made by Charles Nicolas Bazin in France in the late 1800s. He was torn between it and one made in France in the 17th century. It was a new violin, made in Vermont, out of Vermont wood.
Kuo, a 29-year-old native of Los Angeles who joined the symphony last fall, bought his violin about five years ago. Whenever she plays it as associate concertmaster for the Jacksonville Symphony, she is joined by 15 other full-time violinists, each with her or his own distinctive voice. “When we choose an instrument, we choose our voice,” Melissa Barrett said.Ībout 30 years ago, Barrett chose a modern Italian violin, a Pistucci made in Naples in 1930. So when violinists first hold a different violin, they don’t merely play or listen. They are lifelike extensions of themselves.
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When asked what it will feel like to play a different violin in an upcoming concert, Jonathan Kuo prefaces his thoughts with an interesting choice of verbs.įor professional violinists, their instruments aren’t just objects made of wood and string.