Los Angeles Times: Nokuthula Ngwenyama 'has lately begun to attract the right kind of attention'

[Violist: Nokuthula Ngwenyama (Darla Furlani)]

The acclaimed Violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, whose website is http://www.Ngwenyama.com, is also profiled at AfriClassical.com. She became the President of the American Viola Society in June.

Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times included her in:

“2011 Faces to Watch: Music”

“Nokuthula Ngwenyama has been a face to watch for a while: She brought her opulent tone to the viola solos in Berlioz's 'Harold in Italy' with the Los Angeles Philharmonic back in 2004. But maybe this Californian (of Zimbabwean and Japanese heritage), who also holds an advanced degree in theology from Harvard, has other priorities besides rushing her career. Her versatility in various kinds of music -- be it Bach, jazz or 'Che: A Musical Biography' for viola and guitar by Spanish composer Miguel Corella -- adds to the difficulty in finding a pigeonhole for her.

“No matter, Ngwenyama has lately begun to attract the right kind of attention. She's already an attraction in Japan. Last year she released an outstanding recording of viola sonatas by neglected 19th century Russian composer Anton Rubinstein.”

Nokuthula Ngwenyama at Mammoth Lakes Music Festival July 20-29, 2011 at Cerro Coso College, California

[Nokuthula Ngwenyama (Photo: Darla Furlani)]

The acclaimed violist and violinist Nokuthula Ngwenyama (b. 1976) is profiled at AfriClassical.com and has a website at http://www.ngwenyama.com/. She assumed the Presidency of the American Viola Society in June, but continues to perform with great frequency. The Mammoth Lakes Music Festival runs from July 20 – August 5, 2011. Nokuthula Ngwenyama will perform a total of 5 works on 4 programs during the Festival. All concerts begin at 7:30pm:

Wed July 20

Antonìn Dvoràk - Piano Quintet in A Major, opus 81

Sarkis Baltaian, Corey Cerovsek, Lina Bahn, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Emilio Colón

Fri July 22

Moritz Moszkowski - Suite for Two Violins and Piano, opus 71

Corey Cerovsek, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Sarkis Baltaian

Robert Schumann - Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, opus 47

Steven Vanhauwaert, Corey Cerovsek, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Brian Schuldt

Mon July 25

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - String Sextet in D Minor, opus 70, "Souvenir de Florence"

Corey Cerovsek, Rebecca Hang, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Emma Noel Votapek, Mark Votapek, Brian Schuldt

Fri July 29

Arthur Foote - Piano Quintet in A Minor, opus 38

Steven Vanhauwaert, Lina Bahn, Emma Noel Votapek, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Mark Votapek

Violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Born June 16, 1976, is New President of American Viola Society

[Rubinstein Sonatas; Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 49; Sonata No. 1 in G Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 13; Nokuthula Ngwenyama, viola and violin; Jennifer Lim, piano; EDI Records (2008)]

Nokuthula Ngwenyama is an American violist and violinist of Zimbabwean and Japanese descent. She was born June 16, 1976, and grew up in Southern California. Her earliest musical instruments were the piano and the violin. At age 12 she switched to viola because she was attracted to its sound. A few years ago the American Viola Society said: “Nokuthula Ngwenyama is recognized as one of the foremost instrumentalists of her generation.”

Nokuthula Ngwenyama has been profiled as a Musician of African Descent at AfriClassical.com for several years, and is featured frequently on AfriClassical Blog. Her own website is http://www.ngwenyama.com/ Nokuthula has several recordings on the EDI Records label, including Rubinstein Sonatas, which has been very well received and is widely available on major music websites. Writing in The Democrat and Chronicle on Dec. 5, 2008, music critic Anna Reguero said of the disc “The Rubinstein Sonatas, often overlooked, offer a touching portrait of Romanticism.”

Nokuthula has been a rising star in the viola world since she won the Primrose Competition at age 17. She directed that competition for 6 years, even while teaching at two universities and performing virtually nonstop. She recently was the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence in Cincinnati, and also performed a series of 6 concerts with CityMusicCleveland.org.

Here is an excerpt from our interview on January 13, 2011:

Now, this is the year, I believe, that you actually take office as President of the American Viola Society?

Yes, it is.

You've been, for three years, the President-Elect?

For three years I've been the President-Elect, and I will take office in June of this year.

I see. Actually, Juliet White-Smith...

Is the current President.

I actually interviewed her once!

Well she's done a great job for the organization! She's going to be a hard act to follow, actually! She has really implemented great programs and kept people on the right path, so to speak!

So you like the general direction that things are going?

I really do, with the American Viola Society! But the American Viola Society does so many things, including the Primrose International Viola Competition. I've been the Director for that for the last six years.

Well, then you're pretty thoroughly involved in what they do!

Yes, I am! So it's going to be hard to kind of give up the reins of the Competition to run the entire Viola Society, but on the other hand, you can't do both! So this is my last year being Director of the Primrose International Viola Competition, which takes place this June, and from that I will just transition to being President of the entire Viola Society.

It sounds like quite a major transition.

It is!

Is it a full-time position?

No. Right now, being the Director of the Competition is a full-time position, because we're six months out from the Competition! So that is taking a lot of my time!

I see.

In addition to having to prepare for concerts and travel, and also be a mother to two young children, it's very difficult!

How old are your children?

I have a four-year-old, and I have a 19-month-old.

Yes, I would see that as quite a challenge!

It really is!

The 19-month-old, is that a boy?

Yes. A girl and a boy!

They have a good chance of being musically inclined!

Well, they seem to enjoy it! My daughter is already taking piano...

Really!

Yes, she loves it! In fact every morning she races downstairs and says “Mommy, can I play the piano?”

Wow!

So, “Sure you can! That's fine!” She loves it! In fact I have to kind of say “Sophia, no more piano. You have to go to school. You can play when you get home.” “Okay, okay!” She wants to stay and play.

One World Symphony, With Violist Tracey Dixon, in Halloween Program 'Danse Macabre Faust' in NYC Oct. 29 & 31

[One World Symphony Violist Tracey Dixon with daughter Mackenzie]

Adrienne Metzinger sends us a profile of Tracey Dixon, violist with the One World Symphony:

OneWorldSymphony.org

“One World Symphony violist Tracey Dixon is a freelance violist and violin/viola teacher in New York City. She has a B.M. in Viola Performance from Brooklyn College. She has studied under the tutelage of Masao Kawasaki, Stephanie Baer, and Veronica Salas. Tracey has also done chamber music studies at New York University and C.W. Post. She has also played with various groups and artists such as, Huxley Vertical, Katy Pfaffl, Tamar-Kali and many others. Ms. Dixon maintains a violin/viola studio at the Brooklyn Music School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Why would you recommend New York families to celebrate Halloween with One World Symphony? It truly is an event for all ages and is such a fun program. There's the parade before each concert and everyone gets dressed for the occasion, but the music is the coolest scary music that gets us in the Halloween spirit. I don't know of any other orchestra doing it consistently.

What is your highlight of your One World Symphony career to date? That would be my first concert with One World, to honor a fabulous acquaintance, James Coleman, whom I had the pleasure of knowing and working with and because of him, I play with One World Symphony.

To the audience and public, what qualities about One World Symphony would you say that make it unique in the crowded New York cultural scene? I love the vibe, programming and the marketing of the symphony. It’s fresh and daring. You see instantly that we are no run of the mill orchestra.

If you had to choose, what would you say is your favorite piece of music? I have too many, so I'll say Bernstein's Candide.

What music do you listen to in the subway or car? Hip hop. Real true underground hip hop. Not the garbage they call hip hop that is on the radio.

How do you balance being an artist, mother, and a New Yorker? Truly, I have no idea. It is all God and faith to me. Before I had my daughter, Mackenzie, I balanced life very well, I think. My husband and I have been married 6 years, so Mackenzie showed up during year 4 of our marriage. I could practice whenever I pleased and we would go out whenever and wherever we wanted. We lived that New York life and we are both native New Yorkers. Now, as a mother, life as I knew it seems like a distant memory that I wouldn't change for the world. I do miss the time to myself and being able to practice but then everything falls to the wayside when it comes to the little one.

***

One World Symphony

Sung Jin Hong, Artistic Director and Conductor

One World Symphony Vocal Artists

Gregory Eaton, Organist

Hungry March Band, Parade of Horrors

Charles Gounod: Faust (1859, highlights)

Camille Saint-Saens: Danse Macabre (1872)

Leon Boellmann: Toccata from Suite Gotique (1895)

Jason Candler: Boneyard (2010, world premiere) for audience, Hungry March Band, and One World Symphony

Friday, October 29, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.* (parade begins at 7:15 p.m.)

St. Ann and the Holy Trinity

157 Montague Street

Brooklyn Heights

Sunday, October 31, 2010 at 4:30 p.m. (parade begins at 3:45 p.m.)

Church of the Holy Apostles

296 Ninth Avenue (at West 28th Street)

Manhattan

$20 Students/Seniors with ID

$30 General

*Benefitting St. Ann's Roof Restoration Fund

Be seduced by Mephistopheles’ dark magic in Gounod’s Faust, and be captivated by Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre and Jason Candler’s Boneyard (2010, world premiere). For a third straight year, celebrate Halloween in costume with the entire family, Hungry March Band and One World Symphony to support St. Ann’s Roof Restoration Fund.

Program length: 80 minutes without intermission

Part II of AfriClassical Interview With American Viola Society President Juliet White-Smith

["Fashionably Late: Juliet White-Smith Debuts!; Centaur 2982 (2009)]

On July 15, 2009, AfriClassical posted “AfriClassical Interviews American Viola Society President Juliet White-Smith.” As we present Part II of the interview, we want to again express our appreciation to Dr. Juliet White-Smith for making time for us between the two major Summer festivals at which she is performing this year:
Q. “I wonder if I could move to your CD? I wanted to first of all ask how you decided to call it 'Fashionably Late'”?
A. “I'm 47...”
Q. “Oh, by that standard?”
A. “Yes, and this is my first one.”
Q. “And then, how did you select repertoire for the CD?”
A. “Years ago, I had toyed with the idea of doing a CD of all African American music.” “ It wasn't feeling like it was something that was going to work and meet all the needs of me personally and something to put out there. So all of this, with the exception of the Colgrass, these are all first recordings. And I had performed the Walker several times at that point, and I really wanted to do that piece.” “Both the Gardner piece and the Walker, I felt passionate about and wanted to get their music heard. I know that George Walker has had a lot of things recorded. He's recorded a couple volumes of piano music and he's had some orchestral stuff done, but I thought people have got to hear this Viola Sonata! But I felt the same way about Maurice Gardner's music as well. So then at that point I felt well, that's not enough there, what else should I do? My husband and I had performed the Colgrass. So then I realized I've got two Pulitzer winners, between Walker and Colgrass, and that might make a nice bookend for the recording, so that's kind of how it went.”
Q. “How did you assemble the performers who are on the CD with you?”
A. “Well, my husband is the percussionist. The pianist lives in Denver now.”
Q. “That's Heidi Brende?”
A. “Yes.” “She had coordinated a Women Composers Concert a couple of years in a row, and we'd done a couple of other things, and realized that we clicked really well. The first time I performed the Walker, I asked her if she would be willing to learn it. So I think our first performance was actually at C.U. in Boulder on a guest recital I was doing there. Then we did it on a UNC concert of Black composers, and a couple of other times, I think at University of Denver since then and there might have been one other one in there.”

Q. “In addition to the recording I wanted to ask you about this piece that you're doing, 'Capricious...'?
A. “'Apparitions.'”
Q. “Apparitions,' okay, thank you.”
A. “Okay.”
Q. “That is by a fellow faculty member, is that right?”A. “It is, Paul Elwood. He just joined the UNC faculty this past academic year. The other violist that I'm playing with is a good friend and colleague who teaches at Penn State, Tim Deighton.” “Tim has a couple of pieces, the Michael Kimball pieces and this John Hawkins piece, and we were trying to figure out 'Do we know anybody who could compose something?' I said 'Well we've got a new faculty member.' So I asked Paul if he'd be willing to write something, and he was more than willing. I had heard some of his stuff when he first got here. He's very quick at composing, and it's really interesting stuff. He asked if we'd mind if he wrote a bowed banjo part for it, since that's his instrument, the banjo. And at first I thought 'Oh, no!' But I checked with Tim and he was fine with it, and I said 'Yeah, sure, go ahead.' Because Paul really – he wanted to see South Africa too.” “Tim and I have been talking for a couple of years, when we found out about this Congress that we wanted to possibly do a duo recital. And then in the meantime we kind of went our separate ways, but then we, I think toward the end of last Summer, started to think about doing this again. Then we did sort of a preview performance. We have an annual Viola Day here. I live in Fort Collins, Colorado.”

Q. “Is that the one that's called 'Viva-la-Viola'?
A. “Yes.”
Q. “So a reference to the Rocky Mountain Viola Society?”
A. “Right, and I founded that back in '95. That's how I got started in my involvement in the American Viola Society.”
Q. “Oh, interesting.”
A. “By starting that chapter, yeah. So anyway we performed it. We got snowed out the night before. We had to cancel the faculty performance. So we tacked on our performance to part of the students'.” “They loved it! Everybody really took to the piece.” “The bowed banjo has a little bit of a sitar-like effect. Paul said that he's written a really good piece.” “He loves old movies, and this piece gets its title from the Fellini film '8 ½.'”