Onward and upward, for young violinists of the future!

As most of you who know about my work is aware, I haven't spent my energy trying to be "famous" in the traditional sense, performing all over the world.   Early on, after I got a big push in New York Times about my NYC debut recital, I made a decision that it is not the kind of life I want to have; win a competition (or a winning review like this), get a manager who would book me to perform Ravel's Tzigane (for example) 10,000 times a year in small colleges in small towns all over the world.  That model: competition->manager->concert career still exists, but to me it presented a life too ordinary, too common, and too boring.   Why would I want to do the same thing and follow the same paths which others have done for ages?  Why would I want to drag myself in dirty airports constantly, just to make money for a manager?  For crying out loud, it's the age of internet!   But that's just me.  I chose to have a family, children, and relative peace and quiet in my personal life.

Of course, there are many ways of building a career, or starting a career: some starlets maybe desperate enough taking off their clothes playing Bach (!) but sure, you get the attention you need to stand out from those who don't take off their clothes (LOL!)  You can have strange hair-do's, wearing strange clothing or whatever works, whatever makes people buy that 10,000th Bach album you want to sell.  I would say, if that suits you, by all means go ahead and do so! :)

My work using "Subharmonics" and interactive systems I have been working with and describing in my blog, aren't these kind of "attention-getting" efforts.  Sure I did get some press and notoriety because of "Subharmonics", but my true aim is not to "become famous" because of it.  As history proves (for example, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto was deemed "un-performable" when it was first written) when you do something new, those who are afraid, or those who can't do it, would brush it aside and criticize it.  In fact "Subharmonics" is quite a difficult technique to master, probably as artificial harmonics must have been back in the times of Paganini.  When unsuccessful, it sounds simply horrible!! :)  But mark my words, as I am preparing a text-book and a possible events on "Subharmonics" in the near future, this will become a standard extended technique in the coming decades, as more and more composers will feel comfortable writing it in.

I will announce shortly, that I am starting a summer program in a music festival next year, for "future strings", in collaboration with the Real Time Musical Interaction Team at IRCAM and others.  My aim is to open up the new sound world to violinists and other musicians, easily and ready to go forward with their creative projects.  This maybe easier to embrace for younger violinists and musicians who grew up with digital media, but I am getting plenty of interests and inquiries from established composers and performers which made me think of opening up, sharing and pushing forward.

So, leave the "old models" to those who want to do it the "old way" constantly dragging themselves around the world doing the same-old same-old  :)  And let's step forward, onward and upward!   This post maybe a bit cryptic :) but in the coming days and months, I intend to follow up on the specifics, and I will keep you posted!