Jacob Avshalomov

Composer and conductor Jacob Avshalomov was for 40 years the conductor of the Portland Youth Philharmonic, the nation’s first — cited by many as its best — youth orchestra. He writes that he often came down to Corvallis for collaborations with OSU choral director Robert Walls. Somewhat later, the OSU Choir, augmented by community singers, also traveled to Portland with successor director Ron Jeffers, to perform Rachmaninov’s The Bells with his excellent Portland Youth Philharmonic.

Of the piece played in Thursday’s concert 2007 by Corvallis offspring Adam Matthes, then graduating from Eastman School of Music, he wrote:

"I composed the Sonatine for Viola (and /or clarinet) while at the Eastman School in 1943 in Bernard Rogers’ composition class. It was first performed there by Vitold Kushleika. Moving to N.Y. after WW II, I taught at Columbia University, where the piece was performed by Abram Loft (later of the Fine Arts String Quartet) and then by Emanuel Vardi at the Museum of Modern Art. The work was my first published piece, published by Music Press. They went out of business some years ago and I have re-published it under our own Howlet Press Music. Several years ago it was recorded (on Albany/Troy) by our son Daniel, who is the violist of the American String Quartet. I must have had a premonition that I'd have a son who would become a violist!

Last November I visited Eastman School for a short residency while they premiered our choral work, ARCANA, to poems by my wife Doris (Dan's mother), lectured to the Choral Lit class, counseled composers, and coached a young violist in the self-same Sonatine in a room less than 50 yards from where I had written it half a century ago! The clarinet version works equally well, but was an after-thought, suggested by Brahms' double duty for his works."

Matthes was joined in the work by Eugene pianist Victor Steinhardt.

Chintimini Chamber Music Festival • (541) 753-2106 • dcaldwell26@comcast.net

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