We love celebrating the viola and the talented violists who play it. Professional violists such as Kim Kashkashian prove this vital instrument deserves its rightful place in the orchestra and that violists have just as much right to the solo spotlight as other string players.

 

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Aspiring bass players have a plethora of professional heroes to follow, from jazz greats, Avishai Cohen and Charnett Moffett to the great bass “trailblazer,” Gary Karr. Today, we’d like to introduce you to the young, female bass phenom, Mikyung Sung (sometimes spelled Soung).

 

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As the movie awards season comes to a close, we thought we'd take a look at film composers. As musicians, we understand that movies wouldn’t pack nearly the emotional punch they have without the right soundtrack. While many movie soundtracks are primarily filled with clips of songs not written specifically for that movie, most will also include at least one original piece — if not an entire score.

 

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Long before Mimi Zweig launched her ground-breaking website StringPedagogy, she developed a teaching style that blends her own ideas with her past teachers’ influences, as well as elements of other philosophies she admires. The result is a method that has helped guide generations of students to successful music careers as performers and teachers.

 

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Sooner or later, most people find themselves at a crossroads in their career. Mimi Zweig arrived there early. As detailed in part I of this three-part series highlighting Zweig’s career, she was already an accomplished violinist and violist at the age of 22.

 

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For nearly half a century, Mimi Zweig has been teaching and inspiring young violin and viola students. A Professor of Violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the director of the JSoM String Academy she founded in 1975, Zweig could be considered classical music’s version of Stella Adler.

 

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Italian instrument maker, Antonio Stradivari, has long been regarded as one of the finest instrument makers of all time. Primarily a builder of violins, violas, and cellos, his career started around 350 years ago. Today, many instruments he made with his own hands are still in use. His instruments command the highest prices at auctions and have been owned and played by some of the world’s top musicians of every generation for the past 300-plus years.

 

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For all the attention given virtuoso musicians, where would any of them be without an extraordinary instrument?

If you've been a violin student for any length of time, "Guarneri" is a name you've heard. Now is the time to learn a bit more about this famous family of luthiers.

 

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For an artist with such eclectic tastes in music, there's one thing violinist Regina Carter doesn't much care for, and that's labels. When Carter, 53, transitioned her formal studies from classical to jazz, it set her on a path to musical discovery that she continues to explore.

 

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Considered the grandfather of jazz violinists, Stéphane Grappelli 1908 – 1997 was a French violinist who had a long, prolific career spanning into his late 80’s, and founded one of the first all-string jazz groups, the Quintette du Hot Club de France.

 

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