Here at Stand Partners for Life, we get a lot of questions about the future: what happens if I'm not playing concerto X by age Y? What will happen if I study with teacher Z, or go to school-- I ran …
020: Ray Chen – how insecurity leads to maturity
Virtuoso Ray Chen hardly needs an introduction, but let's start with his Gold Medal at the Queen Elisabeth competition in 2009, at the age of 20! His career since then, by all appearances, has been an …
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Robert Cole (1923-2016): flutist, teacher, Grandpa
Before my first rehearsal as a member of the Chicago Symphony, I asked my grandfather how I’d know the exact moment to come in after Barenboim’s downbeat. “Ha! You’ll know.” I had hoped for …
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Which violin concerto has the toughest opening?
Editor's note: The original version of this post was missing several concertos, each of which was pointed out by my faithful readers. I have now added the most requested, including one that was …
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10 essential back-to-school gifts for the 21st-century violinist
Way back in the 90s, my parents in Lexington, Kentucky sent me away to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. I had never lived on my own before, so they made sure I had some essentials with …
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Why I ditched my shoulder rest after 30 years
We had a great run, didn’t we? We finished all ten Suzuki books, learned the Tchaikovsky concerto, went to Curtis, won some prizes and a few auditions… I’ve been with you longer than I’ve been with my …
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