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News > Season opens tonight
Season opens tonight September 30, 2007 After several starts and stops, the Reno Philharmonic has found a workable lineup for tonight's season-opening concert. The show features Johannes Brahms' Double Concerto for Cello and Violin, and the orchestra had to replace violin soloists twice. The program was originally supposed to feature cellist Alisa Weilerstein performing with violinist Chee-Yun, but Chee-Yun broke her collarbone in an automobile accident. The orchestra then turned to one of Weilerstein's longtime friends, violinist Karen Gomyo, but she came down with the flu. So, it was on to Plan C and San Francisco Conservatory of Music violin professor Axel Strauss. "He's a fantastic player," Weilerstein said. "I'm really happy he could do it. I was surprised he was available." Strauss was born and raised in Germany and moved to the United States in 1996 to study with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. The original plan, he said, was to spend a year in the U.S., but it didn't work that way. "After a year, I realized, 'Hold on. A year is just not enough. It's just starting to get fun,'" he said. "So, I stayed another year. Then, after that, I won the Naumburg Violin Competition, and that sort of changed everything. "» All of a sudden I was able to make that transition from student life to professional life." Since winning Naumburg, Strauss has performed with orchestras throughout the world. "I started playing violin when I was 4," he said. "I grew into it. It just became part of my life, and I never even thought about doing anything else." Weilerstein has a similar story. Both of her parents are musicians, and when she started playing cello at 4, she never looked back. "I don't remember thinking about anything else," she said. "It had nothing to do with the fact that my parents are musicians. "» It was just sort of fate. I always wanted to do it. When I was 4 years old, it was my dream to play concertos with orchestra. That to me was the ultimate achievement and ultimate fun." Although Weilerstein and Strauss weren't originally scheduled to play together in Reno, they have performed together elsewhere, and both musicians say they're looking forward to tonight's collaboration. "We played together at the Bravo! festival in Vail last time," Strauss said. "She's a wonderful cellist, a very dynamic and very passionate player." Each musician has performed the Brahms Double Concerto numerous times, but never with each other, so they've been working on their approach. "First of all, there's the Brahms side of things, what he was looking for in his piece," Strauss said. "Then, it's also what each personality brings to the mix somehow. You know, every personality changes the energy of the performance. That's one thing that makes our profession so interesting, that you get to play with so many different people and you get to experience so many different aspects of music making." |
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