By GERT KUMI

Why, one year after Dorothy DeLay left us, would people be eager to participate in the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies? What is so unique about her legacy? What was the transforming power behind her teaching?

Itzhak Perlman conducts a master class in Paul Hall. (Photo by Nan Melville)

With these questions in mind, 119 people flocked to the second biannual Starling-DeLay Symposium, which ran June 3-7 at The Juilliard School. The first symposium, held two years ago, launched an event that provides a wonderful opportunity for young artists, teachers, and professional violinists to gain insight into the teaching methods of Dorothy DeLay, and to explore new approaches to their own teaching and performance. This year's symposium differed in that Miss DeLay, who died in March 2002, was not present. One of the world's most renowned violin teachers of the 20th century, she taught at Juilliard for more than 50 years and was the holder of the School's Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Violin. "Legacy of Learning 2003" honored the memory of Dorothy DeLay and her great contributions to violin teaching, performance, and pedagogy.

"Miss DeLay was a powerful and positive force in the world of music and the violin," said Juilliard’s dean, Stephen Clapp, who was one of the teachers at the symposium. "Her impact—on Juilliard, major orchestras and chamber ensembles, music festivals, teachers, and thousands of her students, both famous and unknown—is beyond calculation."

The five-day symposium was devoted principally to the topic of teaching the exceptional young violinist. Exploring this issue was a series of master classes with a distinguished roster of soloists and teachers, including Itzhak Perlman (who now holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Violin Studies), Paul Kantor, Brian Lewis, Anne Akiko Meyers, Donald Weilerstein, Won-Bin Yim, David Kim, and Stephen Clapp—all former students of Miss DeLay who are intimately familiar with her pedagogical methods and who utilize elements of her approach in their own teaching. Participating in the master classes were 10 exceptionally talented young artists, chosen from some 150 applicants. Ranging in age from 9 to 23, the group included young violinists from the U.S., France, and Canada. Each presented repertoire of his or her choice in three master classes. The young artists were also featured in evening recitals in Paul Hall.

Brian Lewis teaches a class in stretches and scales in Room 320. (Photo by Nan Melville)

Another important component of the symposium was a series of violin technique and pedagogy sessions with Brian Lewis, a Juilliard alumnus and former DeLay student who serves as the symposium's creative coordinator and is himself experienced in teaching gifted young violinists. Mr. Lewis focused on short character pieces and had selected two such pieces for each class. He had the participants listen to different performers and comment on what they thought about the performer's choices. Without suggesting which one might sound better, Mr. Lewis asked questions about vibrato or fingering, or what kind of bow stroke a certain artist used in his recording and why. His whole point was to generate critical thinking among the musicians and make them aware of this process as a tool to emphasize and encourage the individuality of the performer. Miss DeLay was famous for employing this same method with her students. According to Brian Lewis, Miss DeLay strove to create independent thinkers in search of their artistic voices.

It was interesting to see how all the master teachers focused mainly on similar things, seeing them from different perspectives. For example, Mr. Perlman had students from his studio demonstrate different ways of interpreting the same piece of music by asking questions about what means they might employ to make a piece calmer or more energetic: what kind of vibrato would this require, or what kind of bow speed should the student employ? All of these suggestions were simple tools, but they made a huge impact on a piece. One student played the beginning of the Dvorak Violin Concerto and Mr. Perlman had him imagine how the character of Kramer in the comedy "Seinfeld" would have played the same piece. Simply by employing a faster vibrato and a faster bow speed, the young artist came up with a fantastic performance that made everybody in the audience laugh.

Won-Bin Yim, on the other hand, focused more on how to relate what performers see in the score with what the composer had in mind when writing the music. It was amazing to see what we as performers can come up with, if we know a little bit of the history and the circumstances under which the piece of music we're performing was created. One of the young artists in his master class played the first movement from the Sibelius Violin Concerto; Mr. Yim had her focus on the character of the piece, and how to make it come alive by employing certain elements in her playing. First he asked the student if she watched movies, and what kind of movies she likes to see. And then he encouraged her to imagine what would come up in her mind when listening to Sibelius Violin Concerto. The student thought of the movie Dr. Zhivago and came up with two words, snow and cold. Taking advantage of that, Mr. Yim asked the student about what means would she employ to portray that kind of atmosphere in the music. To accomplish that, she reduced the amount of vibrato she was using at the beginning and used more bow and less bow pressure also, which made the performance less dramatic and more distant and cold. Just by using her imagination the student gave us a completely different performance.

The master classes, which were at the center of the whole event, were wonderful experiences. They enabled everyone to see different approaches, and engaged both teachers and students in a conversation on how to make their performances sound better.

Two of the symposium's distinguished guest artists presented full-length recitals in Paul Hall as part of the evening offerings: Anne Akiko Meyers (joined by pianist Li Jian) gave a varied program of works by Messiaen, Janacek, Satoh, and Ravel; David Kim (joined by pianist Gail Niwa) presented a program with works by Prokofiev, Dvorak, and Sarasate. The participants had the opportunity to listen to two different performances, by both Anne Akiko Meyers and David Kim, of the Italian Suite by Stravinsky.

Also attending the symposium were 125 participants, who were free to observe and partake in all of the activities. This diverse group included people from countries including Chile, the Philippines, Canada, England, and Brazil, and from more than 30 states that included Texas, Washington, Utah, Oregon, and California.

All the participants in the symposium expressed their absolute enthusiasm about the caliber of the teachers and the guest artists, as well as the superb organization of Brian Lewis. As one participant noted: "David Kim, Paul Kantor, Brian Lewis, and Stephen Clapp were excellent! This is a great event for us teachers who are in need of 'recharging' our batteries, especially as we face more advanced students than ever. Please continue these symposiums! I highly appreciated Brian's intelligent choices in his own topics, and all his fun with a great scales class and technical exercise sessions. It is exactly what we need more of."

Another observed: "The pedagogy classes were wonderful. The variety of players and the different styles of the artists and teachers were especially stimulating. I am sure much of what I have learned here will continue to inspire me for years to come."

This was exactly what the organizers were aiming for. Dorothy DeLay's unique legacy can inspire teachers and young musicians for years to come—and this valuable symposium will serve as a platform to accomplish that.

Gert Kumi earned his master's degree in violin last May as a student of Stephen Clapp.