3 years ago a new cellist, Debbie Davis, moved to Chapel Hill and thought about starting a Cello Society similar to one she had in Pennsylvania. There was a lot of enthusiasm for it in the Triangle area and we enjoy our cello community throughout the state. We have 3-4 events each year, our last one was a presentation of seven speakers talking about "How I became a cellist". I was one of the speakers. The tall guy next to me is Emanuel Gruber, an Israeli who is now the Cello Professor of East Carolina University. Of course, we had a good natter about cello playing in Israel, we both took lessons from the same teacher, and were there in the Six Day War. The other speakers were (on far right) Tim Holley, Professor of Cello at NC Central University, Nancy Green, cello teacher recording CDs and Videos, Debbie Davis, who started the Cello Society and is a cello teacher, recitalist and freelancer, me, Emanuel, Liz Beilman, Assistant Principal Cello of the NC Symphony, and Nate Leyland, freelance cello. Here is my presentation. I am honored today to be part of our North Carolina Cello Society event. Each person has their own story, and perhaps mine is a little more unconventional. To give you some background, I was born in South Africa where my Welsh mother was recuperating from chest problems due to London's fog, and my English father, recuperating from war injuries. They met and married in Capetown. We travelled quite often between South Africa and the UK to visit family. Later in my early teens, I lived in England, France and Spain. When I was around 14, my mother, who had been an opera singer at the Old Vic Theatre in London, asked me to sing "Tell me fair Ladies" from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. The response was "oh dear". It was obvious I was not going to follow the singing tradition of her, or her nephew Stuart Burrows, a fabulous Mozart tenor who sang for years in opera houses all over the world. Soon after that, my mother met and married a kind, gentle Canadian-American man and we moved to Cleveland, Ohio. I was enrolled in the Cleveland Heights High School of several thousand students. The guidance counselor was at a loss where to put me, as I had no transcripts or documentation from the many schools I had attended in South Africa, England, and Europe. I told her I enjoyed music and had had some lessons on the piano, so she sent me to the Orchestra Director. Here was the first of many fortuitous opportunities throughout my life, and I owe the introduction and love of playing the cello, to the US orchestra program. The Director said he needed cellists and gave me a cello, a beginner's book, showed me his office and told me to practice. Fortunately, I could read music from my rudimentary piano playing. The orchestra in the meantime was playing Beethoven's 1st Symphony, the Swan of Tuonela, Grieg's Piano Concerto and West Side Story. After two months of self- teaching, I told my mother how much I loved playing the cello and could I have lessons? She enrolled me in the Saturday classes at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In the late spring, the Orchestra Director invited me to join the orchestra on their tour around the lakes and lower part of Canada. You can imagine how many notes I could not play. It was a wonderful experience, American students were so friendly and I had the best social life ever. Sadly though, I could not adjust to the school system. I was used to small private schools and could not keep up. All I wanted was to learn to play the cello. By this time my mother realized I was musical (singers don't know much about instrumental playing, they only live for their voice!) but she gave me my second fortuitous opportunity. After six months in the US, I returned to England, to the perfect place for me, Dartington College of Arts in Devon, where students and faculty lived in an 11th century manor. It's impossible to describe the place, well worth surfing around on the internet. You'll be blown over, especially by the Dartington Summer School website. Dartington students attended Summer school for free, working only short, easy jobs. The College of Arts had a two-year foundation course for young music students, and also on the estate, a private school, where I could get academic tuition, so I could graduate from high school. After a blissful 2 years with my teacher Michael Evans of the Dartington String Quartet, I was told to audition at a London conservatory, I did NOT want to do that, as I wanted to stay at Dartington. I needed a lot more training before going to London, but they were adamant. I cried and begged to stay, but to no avail. So at 18, I went to London to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. On weekends, I would go back to Dartington, until my teacher at the Guildhall (Bernard Richards of the English Chamber Orchestra) told me he would throw me out if I continued doing that. He was a kind man, but that can only go so far. After I straightened up, I realized how fortunate I had been given my third fortuitous opportunity at the Guildhall, but I was still too young for London, I've known all my life I needed that extra time at Dartington. In spite of my early behaviour, my teacher made it possible for me to attend the rehearsal and concert with the English Chamber orchestra, featuring Rostropovich's first performance of Haydn's Concerto in C, recently found in some Eastern European library. I was also able to attend at Oxford, his performance of all the Bach Suites. After he finished, he jumped up and said through his interpreter, he would be happy to give a masterclass to anyone. Many students had brought their cellos and he gave us a wonderful experience, in spite of the fact he could not speak English, having only just defected from Russia. He was hilarious. Jackie du Pre was also at the Guildhall during some of my time. We all loved her recitals. We knew each other from Dartington when she came down for summer school recitals. A masterclass with Paul Tortelier blew his socks off, hearing her Don Quixote. She had also recently recorded the Elgar Cello Concerto with John Barbirolli. She loved Dartington too and would run around the gardens as much as possible, as she spent so much time indoors. By the time I graduated from the Guildhall, I knew, with only five years of playing, I wasn't ready for a musical life, but what to do next with no money? My scholarships had expired on graduation and I didn't have enough credentials to apply to university. By this time too, I was missing the sun of South Africa, and one day, moaning about the weather to an Israeli student friend at the Guildhall, who conducted an orchestra I played with, I asked him and his wife about going to work on a kibbutz in Israel to get some sun. He laughed and said that was way too much physical work for me, but why not go play in the Haifa Symphony instead? The orchestra was auditioning for young players from London and other countries. It was not a very busy orchestra, as it only allowed Israeli players to teach in the afternoons, so there was plenty of opportunity for the international players to sight-see and swim in the Mediterranean. This was my fourth fortuitous opportunity! I was accepted and after a summer with my brother and his family in Zimbabwe, I moved to Haifa. This is where I began to really understand the gift that I had been given to play the cello. It didn't matter if you couldn't speak another language, music is international. I often played chamber music with Haifa residents who spoke many languages coming from Europe after the war, but we all played together and had a grand time. It was a very happy three years in Israel and I was able to study with Uzi Weisel in Tel Aviv. I didn't spend ALL my time on the beach! In my second year, just before the Six Day war started, the Royal Navy arrived to take British citizens away from Haifa. I declined the invitation. Somehow, it didn't seem right to leave. Most of the men in the orchestra had gone to fight, but those who were too old, women who were not in the army, and some of the young internationals who were still there, stayed, and we played for the wounded in the hospitals and did other volunteer work. It was only six days anyway, and Haifa had not been bombed. I did get a telegram from my mother telling me that Haifa was on fire, but the newspapers had neglected to point out that the fire was actually from a factory chimney down by the port. A few days after the end of the war, it was exhilarating to be able to visit the whole city of Jerusalem, which had not been possible before the war from the Israeli side. The following year I was sorry to leave Israel, but now with an American husband (French horn player from the Paris Ecole Normal) and a new baby, the grandparents on Long Island were anxious to see their first grandson. Here are Israeli cuttings of reviews. 1967-04-03__p3__lively_small_group_jpost__article_.pdf file:///C:/Users/Jane%20Salemson/Documents/Scan0213.pdf A new chapter, we moved to the US. There was an hiatus for a few years bringing up two boys, but I continued to play in various orchestras in New York and in North Carolina, where we moved to Chapel Hill. That was 46 years ago. Soon after that, I was fortunate to get a position as a string teacher in the Chapel Hill Schools. Joining ASTA was helpful in learning teaching techniques and being part of the state regional orchestra string events. I continued playing in orchestras - Raleigh, Durham, and Greensboro, and had a busy teaching studio as well. Not long after arriving in Chapel Hill, several musicians I had met, decided to put together a baroque ensemble, and invited me to join them. This was quite innovative at that time as the baroque rage was only getting started. Two of the members were PhD musicologists, so they were the ones to make us play correctly! For several years we presented concerts around the state, and in the summers, attended the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute to hone our baroque skills, and for me to learn the bass viol which I enjoyed playing, needing it sometimes instead of the baroque cello. Feeling homesick in the mid-80s, I took my boys to England for 3 years, to get to know their UK family and a taste of another country. It was a great experience for us all, I was fortunate to get a peripatetic cello teacher job for 4 schools, and played in local orchestras. Highlights were playing Elgar's "The Dream of Gerontius" with Sir David Willcocks in Exeter Cathedral, Bach's St. John Passion, with an old friend who sang the part of the Evangelist. I continued playing the viola da gamba as Alison Crum, the doyenne of viol playing, came down for workshops regularly to Exeter University. Visits of course to Dartington were frequent, especially with visiting friends. Returning to Chapel Hill gave me the opportunity to work on office skills, as my friends loved playing gigs, but didn't like the office work. It turned out I quite liked it and Musica Musicians has been going for 33 years. I still continue with my teaching studio and orchestra playing. At the beginning of the new century, I was able to participate in the ASTA International Workshop held in Brisbane. I had always wanted to visit Australia and New Zealand and spent 6 weeks down under. The workshop was excellent as usual, and the best part was making new friends, the Ozzies and Kiwis are very friendly. After the workshop I visited several of them in their homes and played chamber music together. In 2010 while visiting Dan, Elisa and Zoe in Nairobi, a special highlight was coaching the cello section of the Kenya Youth Orchestra for a series of concerts. I spent a week living with the orchestra in a private school and they worked very hard. They were rewarded with an invitation by the British Commissioner to perform at his beautiful residence, and the audience was very appreciative. Another concert was held at one of the universities in Nairobi, I have a wonderful video of us after the concert. Such fun! For a year in 2014, I lived in Salisbury, England, playing with the Salisbury Symphony and a small chamber orchestra. I also played treble viol with friends and at a workshop with Alison Crum. This past summer's visit to Salisbury brought another highlight, performing Rossini's Petit Messe Solonelle in the Cathedral, also with the Salisbury Symphony. One of the joys of being a teacher and getting older is catching up on former students. Just in the past few weeks, I've had the privilege of playing with two of them. One now, a fine violinist, recently was concertmaster of a Musica string ensemble gig at Duke University. She was seven when she joined the youth orchestra I conducted for many years. The second was a 4th-grade beginner cellist whom I started when teaching in a Raleigh school. She too is a fine cellist. We were the cello section of a small chamber orchestra in this year's Good Friday service in Raleigh. I treasure the emails and tweets from former students, as they continue their musical lives which are so different from my student years. Reading back through this narrative has made me realize how fortunate I have been in my musical life in spite of such a late start. Yes, I would have liked being a more proficient and confident player, but after graduating, life widened, and the opportunity to focus just on the cello was not easy. I think it is more difficult nowadays to be a working classical musician. There's a moral here for students. Start early and work hard during your academic schooling. When you get out into the big wide world, there are so many other enticements! Difficult to practice and study! Remember, whatever happens in your lives, no-one can take your education away from you. Those who do continue are so motivated and focused, but will there be job opportunities for them all? This should be our next event – “Where are the jobs?” www.nccellosociety.weebly.com
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November 2020
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