The program is America’s most popular classical music radio program, with more than 1.3 million weekly listeners.

Performances by Kantor and Longendyke can be heard throughout the week on WFIU Public Radio from 1-3pm and at other times on more than 260 stations around the country.

Recordings and video from their residency can be enjoyed on the program website.

Tim Kantor was recently appointed concertmaster of the Evansville Philharmonic. An avid chamber musician, he is a founding member of the Larchmere String Quartet, the Eykamp String Quartet in Residence at the Evansville Philharmonic and University of Evansville.

He has also performed as a member of the Kuttner String Quartet in residence at the Jacobs School of Music, the chamber music and “Quartet in the Community” residencies at the Banff Centre, the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar.

He has performed with many of today’s leading musicians, including Joshua Bell, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Atar Arad, Evelyne Brancart, Eric Kim and Alexander Kerr.

Timothy is devoted to the performance of new music and has participated as soloist, concertmaster and chamber musician with the new music ensembles at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University.

He also performs as a soloist and chamber musician with the Percussion Plus Project at DePauw University and with Margaret Brouwer’s Blue Streak Ensemble.

Kantor graduated with honors from Bowdoin College and has a Masters degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. His former teachers include Jaime Laredo, Paul Kantor, Stephen Kecskemethy and Andrew Jennings.

He is also a dedicated teacher and is the Assistant Professor of Violin at the Fundacion por la Musica in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

Hailed for her wide range of interpretive abilities and colorful musicality, American pianist Clare Longendyke has given performances around the United States and in Europe. A graduate of the Boston University College of Fine Arts (Bachelor of Music magna cum laude), the École Normale de Musique de Paris/A. Cortot, and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (Master of Music), Longendyke’s extensive performance experience has made her an equally passionate soloist as collaborator and chamber musician.

Laureate of the prestigious Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship (2009-2010), Clare lived and studied in Paris, France for three years, where she performed at the Salle Cortot and the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, among other venues. Winner of the 2012 Jacobs School of Music Piano Department Concerto Competition, she performed Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Indiana University Concert Orchestra and conductor Scott Sandmeier. In 2013, she won second prize in The Schubert Club of Minnesota’s Bruce P. Carlson Scholarship Competition.

Longendyke has performed in master classes for Jeremy Menuhin, Janos Starker, Gabriel Chodos, Martin Canin, Anthony di Bonaventura, Sandra Rivers, and Mark Kaplan, as well as members of the Shanghai String Quartet and the International Contemporary Ensemble. She has studied with professors Maria Clodes-Jaquaribe and Linda Jiorle-Nagy of Boston University, Erik Berchot, Pavlos Yallourakis, and Jean-Louis Haguenauer, and attended the New Music on the Point Festival, the Young Artist Academy of the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, France, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Aria International Summer Academy.

An advocate for the composition and performance of new music, Longendyke spent two years as pianist of the Indiana University New Music Ensemble where she frequently worked one-on-one with composers such as Frederic Rzewski, Joseph Schwantner and Joan Tower. She actively performed and premiered works by student and faculty composers during her tenure at both Boston University and Indiana University and performed as part of the Bloomington-based ensemble, Holographic. In 2007, she was given special recognition for her interpretation of the piano works by celebrated American composer Elliott Carter.

Longendyke completed her graduate studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in May 2013 as a student of the French pianist and Debussy-expert, Jean-Louis Haguenauer. A dedicated teacher herself, Clare served as an Associate Instructor of piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music from 2011-2013, and has taught children and adults in both private piano lessons and group settings since 2005.

The quartet performed in the final round of the competition on Sunday, May 12, alongside the Kenari Quartet, also Silver Medal winners (of the Senior Wind Division).

For more information on the Fischoff Competition, click here >

Performer Biographies

As the son of a diplomat, Brendan Shea began violin at the age of three and studied while abroad in Belgium, China, the United States and Taiwan. At the age of 10, he performed Sarasate’s “Carmen Fantasie” in Carnegie Hall, and the following year, he made his debut with orchestra at the age of 11, playing the Paganini Concerto with the Landon Symphonette in Washington, D.C. While in elementary school, he won all available competitions at the Levine School of Music and in the Washington, D.C., area. His early teachers include Zakhar Bron, Vladimir Klotchko and Olga Khroulevitch. Shea studied with Milan Vitek at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he earned a Bachelor of Music and Artist Diploma in violin performance. Since entering the conservatory, he has performed regularly with orchestras and in recitals nationally and internationally, and has been a regular contender and semi-finalist in many major international competitions, including the Carl Nielsen, Sendai, Sibelius, Isang-Yun and Seoul competitions. His collegiate level awards include first place with honors in the Glazunov International Competition in Paris and the Oberlin Concerto Competition. He is currently completing his second year as a Master of Music student of Ik-Hwan Bae at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he is also an associate instructor.

Jonathan Ong is a Performer Diploma student of Alexander Kerr at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he is also associate instructor of violin. He is a prizewinner in the Singapore National Violin Competition, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition and the Alexander & Buono International Strings Competition. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has given performances in cities across the United States, Asia and Europe, including a concert tour around the People’s Republic of China as first violinist of the Zhang Piano Quintet. Ong began his musical training in Singapore at the age of 6, and by age 16, he was accepted to the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Lynn Blakeslee. Upon his graduation, he was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate for demonstrating outstanding performing ability, becoming one of the youngest students to receive this award. Following a two-year period in the Singapore Armed Forces, he was accepted to the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Kantor on a full scholarship. His other teachers include Lynette Lim, Zvi Zeitlin and Fredell Lack. Among the many distinctions he has received are the Dorothy R. Starling Scholarship, the Howard Hanson Scholarship, the National Arts Council Overseas Arts Bursary and sponsorships from the Shaw and Lee Foundation in Singapore.

Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, violist Abigail Rojansky is currently completing her Master of Music degree at the IU Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Atar Arad. Previous teachers include Karen Ritscher at Oberlin Conservatory, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree, as well as Helen Callus and Madeline Praeger. She has performed across the United States and in the U.K., China, Singapore, Germany and Quebec in venues such as the Walt Disney, Davies Symphony, Beijing and Esplanade concert halls. Rojansky has participated in solo and chamber music master classes for artists including Paul Silverthorne, Yo-Yo Ma, Anner Bylsma and members of the Alexander, Belcea, Brentano, Cleveland, Cypress String, Emerson, Mendelssohn, Miami String, Pacifica and Smith Quartets. Previous festivals include the Mannes Beethoven Institute in New York, California Summer Music, Academie du Domaine Forget and Youth Music International. Her playing has been described by the Oxford Daily as “remarkably mature” and by the Oxford Times as “prov[ing] to be the highlight of the evening.” Continuing her progressive approach to chamber music, Rojansky champions the performance of new works and recently participated in the west-coast premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’ quartet “Visions and Miracles.” Most recent performances include a recital with the Wasmuth String Quartet as a part of a residency with the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany, as well as a master class with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.

Cellist Warren Hagerty was born in Naperville, Ill., and grew up mostly in Orange County, Calif. He is in his fourth year of undergraduate studies at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he has studied cello performance with Eric Kim and Sharon Robinson. He has performed on the continents of Australia, Europe and North America in venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House. In December 2010, he played two concerts in Carnegie Hall as principal cellist of the New York String Orchestra Seminar under the baton of Jaime Laredo. In March 2013, he participated in a residency with the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany, with the Wasmuth String Quartet, which culminated in the quartet’s European debut, playing works by Haydn, Beethoven, and Ligeti. Hagerty has been a member of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra since 2011, as well as a member of the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra since 2010. He has performed in master classes for Yo-Yo Ma, Mark Kosower and Sung-Won Yang.

Former students of Hurst from both the Jacobs School and the University of Michigan created the award to honor the professor emeritus of double bass after his retirement in 2012. They all contributed to the Lawrence Hurst scholarship fund, which now has a medal awarded each year in addition to the monetary award.

Spearheaded by Park Carmon, the medal will be awarded each year at the end of the spring semester, if there is a worthy candidate.

The winning candidate must be currently enrolled, deemed among the top bassists at the Jacobs School based on the outcomes of the orchestral auditions and demonstrated performance level, and show strong evidence of having a professional performing career.

These judgments are made by the String Department (in consultation with the bass studios and the chair), the Financial Aid Committee and Hurst.

If the recipient is not enrolled the following fall, the monetary part of the award is not given.

Originally from the Minneapolis area, Berg played principal and assistant principal bass in several Jacobs orchestras during his tenure at the school, where he received both his B.M and M.M degrees.

This spring, he made the semi-finals in the Grand Rapids, Mich., auditions and the finals in the Winnipeg, Canada, auditions.

He was a master’s student of Hurst during Hurst’s last year before retiring and continued his studies with Craig Brown this year.

Music Beat

Janos Starker played important role with music school, students, fans

It isn’t that our lives intersected often and certainly not in a “we’re buddies” sort of way. Janos Starker lived in different circles. But he was an important part of my life for the past 60 years. We became friends, and I’m very sad that he’s left us.

Early on, in the 1950s, I was simply one among the couple of thousand at Chicago Symphony concerts in Orchestra Hall, where — most often with a man he idolized, Fritz Reiner, on the podium — he authoritatively commanded the cellists. The cellos sounded wonderful, as did the whole of that fabled Reiner/Chicago Symphony combination.

Member Starker labeled the Chicagoans of back then as “the Guarneri de Jesus of orchestras, warm, lush, virtuosic.”

Along the way, I also heard the principal cellist step forward as soloist, in the effulgent Dvorak Cello Concerto. Oh, my, that caressing sound! Seemingly, he produced it without effort, as an act of nature. I would welcome that sound on numerous occasions during decades ahead. Janos Starker was obviously meant for a wider career, and he wanted one. In fact, that’s what ended his stint with the Chicago Symphony. He told me some years later, when I first met him in 1974 to do an interview for a magazine story: “I said to Fritz Reiner that if I could have the same free time he had, then I’d stay. He said he couldn’t do that because others would want to do it, too. So, I left.”

He left, of course, for Indiana, where the visionary Dean Wilfred Bain, seeking to enhance the School of Music’s reputation, hunted teachers from among prestigious professionals such as the ambitious cellist and like Menahem Pressler, promising that, as faculty members, they’d be encouraged to continue their outside careers.

Once he left Chicago and until I came to Bloomington, my ties to Janos Starker were mostly via recordings. I came to possess and value a number of them: the Dvorak, the Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites, the Kodaly Sonata (which he made his own), and sundries.

In 1984, Richard Gray, then dean of journalism at IU, who had been a colleague of mine at Northwestern, made a second stab to get me to Bloomington. I had left Northwestern for consulting work in New York. “Come to IU,” Dick Gray urged.

I said, “Well, maybe,” and agreed to apply for a position. As part of the process, since among my duties would be teaching arts journalism, Anya Peterson Royce, then dean of faculties, lined me up to meet with two bigwigs from the School of Music: Mr. Tuba, Harvey Phillips, and Mr. Cello, Janos Starker.

They asked pointed questions of why I wanted to come and what I would seek to accomplish. I don’t remember the exact questions or any of my answers, but I must have met muster. Following that session and others with faculty and students in the School of Journalism, I was offered a professorship. And in December 1984, I moved to Bloomington, ready for classes.

Here, I soon took on my Herald-Times duties. So, I often heard Janos (that’s what I would come to call him when we got to know each other better) in recital. I also began to invite him annually to my Reporting the Arts class, an invitation he graciously continued to accept for 15 years or more.

He would tell the budding journalists “to write engagingly as a listener” and “as reporter, be accurate in passing along what happened at a concert” and “to entice more people to the arts” and “as reviewer, be part of the community.” He would talk about his teaching objectives: “to improve what students don’t do well, but if nature didn’t give them something, I can’t supply it.” He selected students, he said, “for brains, for the ability to develop, for the willingness to think and serve music.” About his concert work, he’d say that “the composer is most important. We serve the composer and the music. It is not for us to get in the way but to respect genius. Of course, even geniuses make mistakes. The performer’s job is to determine how mistakes can be overcome. For that, we need to know the language of the composer, his outlook, method, style.”

“Why do I do it?” he once asked himself aloud. “Because I love it. I love music. I can’t live without it.”

For Janos’ 80th birthday, not only did his friends and colleagues throw a major celebration locally, with dozens of his former students returning and Mstislav Rostropovich invited to conduct a concert, but the cello world decided to honor him with a book, “From Budapest to Bloomington, Janos Starker and the Hungarian Cello Tradition.” Janos asked that I contribute what came to be its longest section, “The Starker Story — A Life in America Since 1948.”

That allowed me access to papers, his home, his fellow musicians and the man himself. We spoke at length. And I sat in on coaching sessions. They were a revelation. “Play whole bars, not individual notes,” he told one cellist, rising to lead the young man’s bow arm. “No war going on.” “Linger a little on the D.” “Don’t push the stomach out. Sideways.” “Arm up.” “You can do it if you think about it.” “Stress on line.” “Yikes” (in response to a slide). “Joyous ending!” “If I see you in the fall, and I still see the fingers like that, I’ll kill you.”

He was tough, a disciplinarian, but students knew he loved them. As teacher, soloist, human being, he was generous and thoughtful. He loved to talk, to relax with friends. He loved his family. He was a loving and lovely man.

My last extended conversation with Janos occurred in November 2011. We spoke for about and hour-and-a-half with WTIU cameras rolling for an “Indiana Legends” program that, I guess, is still to be. He was ebullient, sharp, witty, occasionally bemused and preaching music.

Toward the end, before I could ask my final questions, he said, “That’s enough. I’m tired.”

He smiled and asked for a drink, ready to relax. I wasn’t about to argue for more.

Since then, I saw Janos occasionally at a concert, and there would be waves or a few words spoken.

Now, he is gone. I can wave to him only in mind and heart. But I plan to do that, grateful for memories and recordings, which I’ll play to make my ears happy and, sometimes undoubtedly, make my tear ducts produce.

Thanks, Janos. I’m so glad I knew you.

Reach Peter by sending an email to features@heraldt.com with “Jacobi” in the subject line.

In this February 2006 file photo, Janos Starker tells a cello student to find the balance point of the bow. Starker passed away April 28. David Snodgress | Herald-Times

Copyright: HeraldTimesOnline.com 2013

Grammy-winning cellist Janos Starker praised as a ‘true genius’ and demanding teacher

Janos Starker, a widely acclaimed cellist and stalwart professor at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, died at his home in Bloomington Sunday morning at the age of 88.

His passing ends a musical career spanning a first public performance at the age of 6, a professional debut at 14 years old, stints with the Dallas Symphony, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chicago Symphony, performances around the world, and more than 50 years of teaching at Indiana University. He established the university’s Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center in 1979.

Starker also won a 1997 Grammy Award for best instrumental solo performance for a recording he made of Bach cello suites. His discography includes more than 165 works.

The cellist was a “true genius,” according to Emilio Colon, an associate professor of cello at Indiana University. Colon started studying under Starker in 1986 as an 18-year-old graduate student at IU.

“There are human beings that have the rare qualities that come around only once in a lifetime,” Colon said. “That was him, because there was absolutely nothing he could not do on the cello.”

Colon remembered his former teacher and colleague as someone who dedicated much of his life to teaching and to Indiana University. Starker trained students in a number of instruments — he even served as guitar teacher at the university for a time, Colon said.

Starker was an active faculty member at the Jacobs School of Music, teaching a class this year. His title was distinguished professor of music. He joined the school in 1958, a decade after immigrating to the United States.

He was also known as an exacting instructor.

“He was demanding,” said Charles Webb, dean emeritus of the Jacobs School of Music. “He demanded a lot from himself and from his students. He always gave the utmost that he had. Whether it was in a private lesson, whether it was in a master class, there was never any slacking. He was going for the finest quality that he could find in any case.”

Starker, the son of a tailor, was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1924. He received a cello before his sixth birthday and entered Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy of Music at 11 years old.

The son of Jewish parents, Starker was in a Nazi concentration camp for three months. After surviving the camp, he worked as an electrician and sulfur miner in 1946.

The IU Jacobs School of Music intends to hold a memorial for Starker, said its current dean, Gwyn Richards.

“The school of music honors by making music,” he said. “It’s the highest form of expression for us. We will, as a family, plan. It will probably be in the fall. And it will require careful planning because people from all over the world will want to be here.”

Starker is survived by his wife, Rae, and daughters Gwen Starker Preucil and Gabriella Starker-Saxe. He is also survived by grandchildren Alexandra Preucil, Nicole Preucil and JP Saxe.

A Centaur Records compact disc, Electric Vivaldi: Global Solstice, his recording of symphonic electric guitar music, will be released in May 2013.

More information in the Strad Article: http://www.thestrad.com/Article.asp?ArticleID=2560

Jacobs School seniors perform recitals to show what they’ve learned

In the frenetic push toward graduation, Anna Roder played her violin both among the peaks of Colorado and in the sprawl of London — all in the space of a few days.

But on the night of her senior recital, she stood on a stage somewhere in between, ready for the culmination of four years of violin study in Bloomington.

As the tension in Recital Hall rose to a crescendo, the star of the moment made the subtlest of nods to the pianist behind her and raised her bow to shoulder level. With that, the silence gave way to a sudden burst of sound. For the next hour, the music flowed on, as Anna treated the audience to three pieces she had spent months memorizing — a Mozart, a Beethoven, and one by Belgian composer Ysaye.

The following evening, it was Amsterdam native and fellow violinist Diederik van Wassenaer’s turn to captivate listeners. When he shuffled in from stage right dressed in all black, the auditorium was lit much more dimly than the previous night. The scene was appropriate; Diederik led off by launching into a dark Bartok sonata so full of sudden time changes that he and the pianist both needed sheet music to follow along.

After the ensuing onslaught on his violin came the night’s only intermission. The brief rest allowed his fingers and bow to recover — and gave his audience a chance to process what they had just witnessed. Then, he continued with a Mendelssohn concerto he had played years earlier.

“They’re both really different,” Diederik said. “The Bartok sonata is an adventure just going from the beginning to the end. You don’t know if you’re going to make it; it’s really out there. It’s like going to a peasant wedding in Bulgaria on acid. There are all these folk melodies and then it just gets out of hand and turns into this modernist landscape.”

As for the Mendelssohn piece, he said it, too, has plenty of drama, but in a different way.

“It’s so much lighter and more precise,” Diederik said. “It has more air and is more fluffy and more operatic. It’s definitely more traditional, but it has a lot of guts, too.”

Whether by Bartok or Beethoven, the pieces selected for the senior recitals have all been chosen for a reason. Each violin student at IU’s Jacobs School of Music must complete a certain set of requirements, which ranges from a solo Bach component to a sonata and concerto.

For Anna, part of the night’s program was included with one eye squarely on the future.

“The decision to do Mozart sprang from the fact that I’m auditioning for grad schools this semester, and for a couple I needed a Mozart concerto,” Anna said. “I’m using this for an audition for Vienna.”

Practice makes perfect

As one might expect, preparation for senior recitals required an extreme level of devotion from the pair of musicians. Practice sessions on the order of five hours were not uncommon. Diederik said he often warmed up for an hour and a half, playing nothing but scales the whole time. Indeed, routine is so important that even one day away from the instrument can be detrimental.

“There’s a saying that goes, ‘If I miss one day of practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it,” said Diederik, referring to wisdom commonly credited to violinist Ignacy Paderewski.

He’s not sure he agrees.

“When you step away from your instrument for more than a few days, you can’t really hear it in the performance, but you can feel it,” he said.

Bucking the ghost of Paderewski, Diederik opted to take a break from his rigorous rehearsal schedule on the eve of his recital. Leaving his violin behind, he spent the bulk of his spring break on the road, away from Bloomington. After a stop in St. Louis, he traveled to Nashville with his girlfriend to catch his first glimpse of the Music City. While there, they soaked in the sounds of bluegrass, a genre that has captured Diederik’s attention since his move to the U.S.

Though classically trained, Diederik does not hold a classical view of the role of violin. In his opinion, the instrument’s boundless versatility is its greatest strength.

“I like playing it because you can do almost anything,” Diederik said. “You can bow it, you can pluck it, you can have harmonics, you can play unbearably high and quite low, you can play really, really fast — you can do anything. And it used to be not very loud, but now, you can plug it in.”

Since arriving in Bloomington, he has done all of the above, dabbling in everything from bluegrass to soul.

In fact, his next labor of love will see him arrange and perform string parts for the IU Soul Revue, which features R&B, funk, contemporary urban black popular music, and, true to its name, soul. His first assignment, to flesh out a quartet arrangement for The O’Jays’ “Family Reunion,” was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm by Dr. Tyron Cooper, the program’s acting director.

His penchant for being inventive has not, however, been strictly limited to violin-related activities. Last summer, he pulled together and played in a concert at Rachael’s Cafe for Children of Bungoma, a nonprofit started by a SPEA graduate student and aimed at raising money for the homeless youth of a village in Kenya. The event, he said, was well attended and relatively successful.

Realizing a dream

Over spring break, Anna reprised a role in her own recurring fundraiser for the symphony orchestra in her hometown.

While her week did not feature a voluntary step away from violin, it did include a return to Steamboat Springs, Colo., her refuge in the Rockies. She paints a picture of this small, snow-prone city as a vibrant community, but admits the people are more concerned with winter sports than they are with music.

“I love it there,” said Anna, “but I wish I could transport the music school to Steamboat Springs and get the best of both worlds, the amazing music and the amazing scenery, in one place.”

Her family has lived there since she was 10, when her parents, who both hail from Germany, relocated from Los Alamos, N.M. Though Anna was just three years old when her family left Germany for the Southwest, a prophetic anecdote from those early years has endured.

“My dad taught at the University of Bayreuth, where there’s also a music university,” Anna said. “There were some buskers playing violin, and apparently — it sounds like it’s made up, but it’s not — I grabbed my grandmother’s coat so I could say, ‘I want to play that someday.’”

Nearly two decades later, as she stands on the precipice of a professional career in violin performance, “someday” has become every day. Thousands of hours of diligent practice have her primed to make a living with her bow.

But for Anna, practice hasn’t always come easy. After settling in New Mexico, her parents enrolled her in violin lessons that employed the Suzuki method to help their precocious daughter realize her goal. Her habits, though, still left something to be desired when her family packed up once again, this time leaving New Mexico for its northern neighbor.

Once in Colorado, Anna was introduced to Teresa Steffen Greenlee, who would serve not only as an instrumental force in shaping her technique and regimen, but also a dependable friend and confidant. Since leaving home for college, Anna said, she makes a point of seeing Greenlee whenever she returns home. On occasion, she even gets the opportunity to play alongside her former mentor, as she did over spring break in the Winter Soiree.

“Performing is why I practice,” Anna said. “I love performing, talking to people after concerts, seeing smiles on their faces, and being able to play knowing that everybody’s completely quiet because they’re waiting to hear what you do next. It’s an awesome feeling.”

The value of subtleties

Anna and Diederik took distinct paths before Jacobs School, and will likely diverge once more after graduation. However, they have shared a crucial guiding force in their time at IU. Mark Kaplan, a professor of music, has taught each individually, fostering their growth in unique fashion.

“There was one specific point sophomore year when I was playing a Mozart concerto,” Diederik said. “He pointed something out and said it wasn’t clean. I kept playing it and thought it was clear, but he said it still was not clean. He was referring to the tiniest attack, the tiniest bit of noise. That was the first time I realized people can hear everything. That’s the way you have to approach music if you really want to do it professionally. You have to know what you’re doing at all times.”

Anna, who said she has had similar experiences with Kaplan, offered a similar take on the professor’s direction.

“He pushes you above where you’re happy to always get better,” she said. “It’s constructive and always useful.”

The final grade

With their parents among the transfixed listeners in Recital Hall, Anna and Diederik put those years of meticulous instruction to the test when they graced the stage. The performances, though, held more than just symbolic value; they also formed the backbone of the grade each will receive for their six credits of lessons.

But while they weaved their way through the passages of the night’s program, the academic implications seemed secondary.

A classical music aficionado himself, Diederik’s father, who is Dutch and still lives in the Netherlands, knows the Mendelssohn piece well. Hours earlier, he was aboard a plane bound for the United States. But as he sat in the auditorium between Diederik’s mother and girlfriend, there is no sign of jetlag on his face. This was the first time he has seen his son play in Bloomington; sleep could wait.

After the show, they shared a warm embrace and exchange, switching back and forth between English and their native Dutch as they did. But no translation was needed to sense the obvious: His father was filled with pride.

“What Dad thinks means a lot because he knows the music, the pieces, and the composers,” Diederik said. “He’s not very critical and never has been of my playing; I just want him to know I’ve been here for a reason.”

A night before, in her intimate post-recital reception, Anna stood between her parents, wearing an expression of visible relief. Now, she explained, she could finally turn her attention to the slew of coming auditions, including one in London that has special appeal for the self-described Anglophile. But whether or not her next stop sees her land on her continent of birth or the one where she was raised, she said she knows her parents will be encouraging.

“Both have been amazingly supportive,” Anna said. “They’re the reason I have the violin I have, which I upgraded two years ago. They’ve always said, ‘Do what you want to do, and we’ll help you there. Just make sure it’s something you want to do.’”

Laurent Grillet

Laurent Grillet holds a Gold Medal from the Bordeaux National Conservatory and a Performer Diploma in violin from the Jacobs School. From 2003 to 2005,  he studied chamber music at the Lyon National Superior Conservatory where he was taught by Zoltan Toth and played in masterclasses for the Tokyo string quartet, the Danel string quartet and the Debussy string quartet. He later played for Valentin Erben (Alban Berg string quartet) and Lukas Hagen (Hagen string quartet). As a chamber musician Mr Grillet has toured in France, Spain and China. 

In 2012, he performed with the Starling players, directed by Alex Kerr and Eric Kim. In May of the same year he gave a concert at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall with the Donatello Quartet.

Jacobs faculty participating in the March 4 concert are Jorja Fleezanis, violin; Stephen Wyrczynski,  viola; and Peter Stumpf, cello. They will perform Beethoven’s Violin Sonata in A Major, Op. 30 No. 1, Wagner and Primrose’s “Träume” from Wesendonck-Lieder (arr. for viola), Prokofiev’s Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 119, and Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 60 by Brahms.

Rivers has concertized throughout the world, including Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Russia, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and extensively across the United States.

She has appeared at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Tanglewood, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Aspen, the Kennedy Center and on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center. She has worked with such noted conductors as Arthur Fiedler, Anshel Brushilow, Jean Morel, Isaiah Jackson, Michael Morgan and Keith Lockhart.

In addition to her solo career, Rivers has become widely known for her concert partnerships with many of the world’s leading soloists, including Itzhak Perlman, Kathleen Battle, Kyung-Wha Chung, Anne Akiko Meyers, Elmar Oliveira, Cho-Liang Lin, Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, among others. Her collaborations with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and with Sarah Chang have twice taken her onto the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and with Jay Leno.

She is a Steinway Artist and has recorded for EMI/Angel, CBS Masterworks, RCA Victor Red Seal, Teldec, Pony Canyon, Musical Heritage and Zafiro.