NewsRelease

(Posted 2-10-04)
Contact: Tiffany Aumann, 336-334-5371

Prominent Cellists Honor Mentor During Silva Centennial
 
GREENSBORO— On March 5-7, the UNCG School of Music will present the Silva Centennial Celebration, honoring the playing, teaching and scholarship of cellist Luigi Silva (1903-1961).  Home to Silva’s Cello Music Collection of some 1,775 musical scores, archival materials and books, UNCG is proud to host many of Silva’s most prominent students for three days of public concerts, master classes and workshops.

Among the list of notable former Silva students who will be performing and teaching at the Centennial are: Joel Krosnick, Juilliard String Quartet; Timothy Eddy, Orion String Quartet; Barbara Stein Mallow, Mannes College of Music; Charles Wendt, University of Iowa emeritus; Martha Gerschefski, Georgia State University emeritus; Eckhart Richter, Georgia State University emeritus; and Margery Enix, Chapman University emeritus.

The celebration also welcomes Luigi Silva’s grandson, prize-winning guitarist Benjamin Silva. An arranger like his grandfather, Silva will be performing his own transcription of Scarlatti, and collaborating with other performers at the event.

A total of four public concerts will be performed during the three-day event. An opening gala will be held Friday, March 5, and feature works by Haydn, Paganini and Gabrielli. On Saturday, cellist Joel Krosnick and pianist Gilbert Kalish will present works by Beethoven, Brahms and more, while on Sunday, seven artists will pay tribute to the music of Silva. Tickets for these concerts are $15.

A unique feature of the celebration will be Saturday’s first North American performance in over 50 years of Villa Lobos’ “Fantasia Concertante” for 15 cellos. The fantasia was commissioned in the 1950s by the New York Violoncello Society, of which Silva was a member. Two recordings of the piece have been made, including one that features Silva as a performer.

“There are two reasons why this piece has not been played in 50 years. – First, it is incredibly difficult with the lead cellists playing almost exclusively in violin range. Second, the parts are not currently available. We had to go from a manuscript and computerize it,” Whitehouse said. “The work alternates between fiery and lyrical writing and bears Lobos’ trademark colorful harmonic language.”

Led by Dr. Jonathan Kramer of NCSU, the 15-cello ensemble features some of North Carolina’s finest, including musicians from the North Carolina Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony and several of the state’s universities, as well as performers from California, Iowa and Pennsylvania.

This concert will begin at 2 p.m. in the School of Music Recital Hall and tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and $3 for UNCG students.
Born in Italy, Silva began his study of cello at the age of 8, but was soon told that his hands were too small for cello. Silva turned his weakness into a strength, developing a versatile left-hand approach to playing that is still taught today. After studying cello at Bologna Conservatory, Silva went on to earn respect as a performer, pedagogue, transcriber, scholar and writer. He performed throughout Europe in the 1920s and ’30s, before moving to the United States in 1939. Silva taught at the Eastman School of Music, Juilliard, Mannes and Yale, among other reputable institutions.

A remarkable group of teachers, performers and scholars will introduce the passion, intelligence, and vision of Silva to a new generation of cellists, and demonstrate how his teaching influenced their own artistry.

“In a way, we are discovering our roots,” said Dr. Brooks Whitehouse, faculty member of the UNCG School of Music and organizer of the event. “Many players attending including myself have studied with students of Silva. His teaching has been passed down to us through a generation.”

Luigi Silva’s cello legacy lives on today not only in the excellence of his former students, but in his many published cello concert transcriptions and etude editions as well. In the 42 years since his death, much of this material has gone out of print. All this makes a visit to the Silva Collection at UNCG’s Jackson Library a vital part of the celebration.

On the opening day, the Special Collections reading room will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. There will be a display of writings, manuscripts and photographs, and the library staff will give a presentation on the collection’s contents and its online catalogue (http://library.uncg.edu/depts/speccoll/cello/).  In addition, copies of Silva transcriptions, selected writings and recordings will be available to browsers at the School of Music library. The school’s collections of Rudolf Matz, Maurice Eisenberg, János Scholz, Fritz Magg, Bernard Greenhouse and Elizabeth Cowling, together with the Silva Collection, make up the largest body of cello music in the world.

In honor of the richness of UNCG Cello Music Collection, Whitehouse plans to hold regular Celebrations of the other cello music collections at the Jackson Library. The intent is to establish a tradition similar in scope to the university’s popular Focus on Piano Literature series.
 

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