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Finishing work on a piece was always an exciting time, because Mr. Galimir and I generally worked on only one piece at a time. The end of the lesson would become a discussion about the next project. On one such occasion, we decided to begin work on Paganini’s first concerto. “Next week, the first movement, [...]
I had a noon lesson one day in the winter, and at the end, Mr. Galimir asked if I would like to go to lunch. I was a bit surprised, but excited as well at the chance to talk to him outside of the lessons. “So, Nathan, where should we go?” I had assumed he [...]
Mr. Galimir was constantly forgetting my hometown. He knew it was somewhere in the South, which was like a foreign country to a New Yorker. Of course, New York was once a foreign country to him, but musicians tend to adopt New York as their home quite readily. To remind the readers, I’m from Lexington, [...]
The Mendelssohn Octet is one of the first pieces that every chamber musician falls in love with. Fun to play, fun to hear, fun to study. Every measure reflects the idealistic side of the 16-year-old composer. It’s also one of the most popular pieces to read whenever large groups of string players assemble. However, since [...]
Before we started work on Prokofiev’s first violin concerto, I told Mr. Galimir that I didn’t know the piece at all, and had in fact never heard it. He wanted to keep it that way, to make sure that I had no damaging influences. “Good!” he exclaimed. “No recordings, and don’t buy the music and [...]
When Mr. Galimir’s part to Prokofiev 1 did appear the next week (although not before causing me much pain), it nearly crumbled in my hands. It looked as though it should have been kept under glass! He must have had it for 70 years, and it contained all of his valuable bowings and fingerings. Before [...]
We stared at an empty coach’s chair. It was unusual, said the other three, for Felix Galimir to be late. So we brushed up a few passages, alternating playing with talking, mostly questions tinged with nervous anticipation. Our cellist asked if we thought Galimir would hear the entire Haydn quartet or just the first movement. [...]
The fall of 1998 was a time of transition for me at Curtis. I was beginning my third year, which meant that half of the people I met when I entered Curtis were gone. In addition, the Montagnana Quartet, the group I had played in since coming to Curtis, was no more. Luckily the other [...]
The day of my first lesson with Felix Galimir was a horribly complicated affair for someone who had spent most of his life in one city. This was the first day of school, September 1996, and I had just moved from Lexington, KY to Philadelphia the week before. I had had a few days to [...]
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