{"id":154,"date":"2006-12-28T16:36:48","date_gmt":"2006-12-29T00:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=154"},"modified":"2013-02-07T17:57:25","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T01:57:25","slug":"a-violist-you-should-know-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/12\/28\/a-violist-you-should-know-about\/","title":{"rendered":"a violist you should know about"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got to know Naoko Shimizu<\/a> at Tanglewood in 1994. We were both fellows at the Tanglewood Music Center. I did not know her well, but there were only 12 violas there that summer, and so everyone knew each other at least a little. One of the 8 weeks we were there, Samuel Rhodes<\/a> (violist of the Juilliard Quartet and faculty member at the Juilliard School) gave a masterclass. Naoko got up and played the Bart\u00c3\u00b3k concerto – and I mean PLAYED! She knocked it out of the park. Before then she hadn’t sat principal of the section in the orchestra and was very quiet and kept to herself. We had no idea who we were dealing with. Come to find out, she was a student of Nobuko Imai<\/a>, one of the world’s leading violists and teachers, studying with her in Germany. The next five summers she went on to play at the Marlboro Festival and tour with Musicians from Marlboro.<\/p>\n

I didn’t hear anything about her for a while, then I happened upon a blurb about her winning the ARD Competition<\/a> in Munich in 1997 and the Concert Artists Guild competition in 1998.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2001 I heard about her from a fellow Tanglewood alum – she’d won a Principal viola position with the Berlin Philharmonic<\/a>. I was floored – this is like hearing that someone you’d gone to a summer program with had been elected president or senator.<\/p>\n

Anyway, a couple of months ago I was doing one of my periodic Google searches for people I’d once known, and found links to a company which was producing recordings of Naoko’s. So, if you’re game, buy one<\/a> and hear some truly phenomenal playing.<\/p>\n

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I got to know Naoko Shimizu at Tanglewood in 1994. We were both fellows at the Tanglewood Music Center. I did not know her well, but there were only 12 violas there that summer, and so everyone knew each other at least a little. One of the 8 weeks we were there, Samuel Rhodes (violist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[55,93,3660],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-orchestra","tag-soloists","tag-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-2u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5722,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/12\/local-violist-makes-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":0},"title":"local violist makes good","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"David Lau, who was a member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic and a winner of the Young Artists Concert competition, has won an audition to the august ensemble, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. \u00a0You may have heard of one of their earlier music directors: Felix Mendelssohn. \u00a0David studied at the Interlochen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/3182_82771447306_674297306_2213088_7699737_n-400x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24436,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/17\/joel-krosnick-1941-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":1},"title":"Joel Krosnick (1941-2025)","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I was saddened to see the news that longtime cellist of the Juilliard Quartet Joel Krosnick had passed away yesterday. I never worked or studied with Krosnick, but one of the summers that I was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center I went to a concert of the Juilliard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cello"","block_context":{"text":"cello","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/cello\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/krosnick.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/krosnick.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/krosnick.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/krosnick.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/krosnick.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/krosnick.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14924,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2018\/08\/29\/on-the-eve-of-a-new-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":2},"title":"on the eve of a new season","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"August 30th marks the beginning of my 23rd season with the Oregon Symphony. Closing in on a quarter century! Wow, where did the time go? My first season I came to Portland from the Berkshire region of Massachusetts, where I was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. I really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/noble_sig.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5702,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/06\/great-violist-passes-portland-connection\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":3},"title":"great violist passes – portland connection","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The great Raphael Hillyer, founding violist of the Juilliard Quartet, has passed away at the age of 97.\u00a0 This titan of the viola (and string quartet) world has a Portland connection: one of his children, from his second marriage, Reiko Hillyer, lives here.\u00a0 I had no idea! NY Times obituary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "viola"","block_context":{"text":"viola","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/viola\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/raphael_hillyer.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/07\/26\/new-hires-at-juilliard-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":4},"title":"new hires at juilliard school","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It looks like there may be a new arms race amongst conservatories - there are some quite high profile artists included in this latest round at the Juilliard School. Here are the bios of these new faculty members, from a Juilliard press release: New York, New York -- Jul 25,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"conductor\"","block_context":{"text":"conductor","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/tag\/conductor\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1167,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/24\/huggett-to-lead-new-program-at-juilliard\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":5},"title":"huggett to lead new program at juilliard","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"From today's New York Times: Last October the Juilliard School announced that it would establish a graduate program in historical performance, shaped in large part by the American expatriate William Christie, who spearheaded the modern early-music movement in Paris. Now Juilliard is announcing specific dates and faculty members. 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