Grace Notes

At what age did you start playing the violin? 

I started playing violin at age 5. At that time my parents asked if I’d like to start piano lessons with a local teacher since both of them have enjoyed playing piano their entire lives. But I appealed for violin lessons. We had a much loved and well-used record player growing up, and as a youngster I heard a lot of classical albums and musical theater. Some of my favorites were records of Bach and Vivaldi violin concertos and the musical Fiddler on the Roof, and I remember being so drawn to the sound of the violin.

When did you take up playing on a period (Baroque) instrument?

During my sophomore year of college at the Eastman School of Music, a friend of mine invited me to join the historical performance chamber music class since they needed a violinist for their upcoming performance of a Baroque opera. My schedule had already been decided, but it sounded fun and, on a whim, I decided to join. That class absolutely changed my life! I still remember in our first session being given a Baroque bow and challenged to choose an emotion and articulate the music in front of us in such a way that the rest of the class could feel that emotion. How much color, variety, and shape could we achieve just with our bows? We also explored performance practice with a wide range of composers and varieties of ornamentation. I was so inspired in this class by the encouragement to use as much imagination with the music as possible.

Tell us a bit about your upcoming solos in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. What do you love about them? 

I find Vivaldi’s music so vivid and approachable. My first experience of playing The Four Seasons was playing a string arrangement of Summer in youth chamber orchestra as a pre-teen. I was so excited by the energy of that season and was eager to listen to the rest of the piece. I was drawn to the musical poetry in the works and how they made me feel the descriptions of the seasons in the music. What I’ve noticed playing this work now over the years is how Vivaldi’s music resonates so directly with an audience. He knows how to weave poetry and music together, doing it with a sense of tunefulness, drama, and energy and beautiful soulful slower, quiet moments as well. There is a huge range of color in this music.

You worked on a major recording, “The Beethoven Project” of the complete sonatas for Baroque violin and fortepiano, a collaboration with Ian Watson. You released 4 CDs over 5 years! Why did you choose this project? How did you make time to learn, rehearse, and record all 10 sonatas?  

Ian and I had the opportunity to collaborate on a variety of sonatas via the Handel and Haydn Society, including those by Beethoven, and enjoyed working together. The Beethoven set is a gorgeous and important collection of works for violin and piano, and they’ve resonated deeply with me from a young age. There were few recordings of the whole set on period instruments at the time, and we felt this would make a unique and exciting project. We decided to record the set of four discs, one at a time spread across five years, so we could thoroughly prepare and perform the works.

You have been with Upper Valley Baroque almost since the beginning. What keeps you coming, musically? 

The combination of leadership and community surrounding Upper Valley Baroque is so warm and supportive. There is a great team of people here on every level that make this happen, including incredible musicians from all parts of the country. And Filippo welcomes us to the music with such clear and engaging direction. You can feel the love of everyone involved including all those who attend our concerts, and I’ve been so struck by the curiosity about what we do and appreciation for the music. The various hosts and community members who support us are incredibly generous as well! Upper Valley Baroque is truly a gem.

What are your interests and activities, outside of your professional work as a performer? Tell us about your musical family.

Some hobbies I enjoy outside of music are baking, listening to pop and jazz music, and walks with my dog Gracie. For the past few years I’ve had a lot of fun teaching Baroque performance practice to violin students at the New England Conservatory through the Pratt Residency. My biggest role for the last 18 years has been as mom to my two great kids, Christian and Natalie, who both love all kinds of music. Christian is a percussionist and a cellist, and has a knack for keyboard improvisations, and Natalie dances and plays violin. My husband George also enjoys conducting outside of his job at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. He conducts our nearby community orchestra, the Reading Symphony Orchestra, and started a summer orchestra 30 years ago at MIT. This past summer we were all able to participate together as members. My daughter and I shared a stand in the violin section and our son joined as a percussionist. There’s always some kind of music playing in our house. And our dog, who’s an avid howler, likes to join in, too.