Timothy Judd

A native of Upstate New York, Timothy Judd has been a member of the Richmond Symphony violin section since 2001. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he earned the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music, studying with world renowned Ukrainian-American violinist Oleh Krysa. The son of public school music educators, Timothy Judd began violin lessons at the age of four through Eastman’s Community Education Division. He was a student of Anastasia Jempelis, one of the earliest champions of the Suzuki method in the United States. A passionate teacher, Mr. Judd has maintained a private violin studio in the Richmond area since 2002 and has been active coaching chamber music and numerous youth orchestra sectionals. In his free time, Timothy Judd enjoys working out with Richmond’s popular SEAL Team Physical Training program.

Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes: Klezmer Conversations

by

When the February Revolution of 1917 broke out in Petrograd, Sergei Prokofiev resettled in the United States, stating that his native Russia “had no use for music at the moment.” Soon after arriving in New York, the 28-year-old Prokofiev received a commission from Zimro, a touring Soviet ensemble made up of Russian Jewish immigrants. The new sextet was to be based on themes from a notebook of Jewish folksongs. In his autobiography, …

Read more

Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet”: Overture-Fantasy After Shakespeare

by

Perhaps as a result of his turbulent personal struggles, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was drawn to stories of doomed love. It is a theme which runs through the Pushkin-inspired operas, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, the ballet Swan Lake, the Manfred Symphony, and the hellish Dante-inspired tone poem, Francesca da Rimini. Predating all of these works was the Overture-Fantasy on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, composed in 1869 by the 29-year-old Tchaikovsky. The …

Read more

Ingram Marshall’s “Wanderer’s Night Song”: Hymnodic Twilight Meditations

by

“The all too familiar hymns of my childhood have come back to haunt me,” wrote American composer Ingram Marshall (1942-2022) above the program note for his 1992 work for string quartet, Evensongs. Marshall went on to describe the six sections of Evensongs as “hymnodic meditations” concerning twilight. The concluding section, Fast falls the eventide: Wanderer’s Night Song is haunting and atmospheric. Frequently, Marshall blended elements of minimalism and electronic music (listen to the 1982 Fog …

Read more

“The Star-Spangled Banner”: The National Anthem as Arranged by Rachmaninov and Stravinsky

by

On September 14, 1814, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key penned the words that would later form the National Anthem. The defining image of the poem was the sight of the U.S. flag, with its fifteen stars and strips, flying defiantly above the Fort following the battle. The triumphant image was central to the …

Read more

“Show Boat”: Excerpts from Kern and Hammerstein’s Groundbreaking Musical

by

When Show Boat opened at New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre on December 27, 1927, it marked a revolutionary moment in the American musical theater. Audiences were confronted with a new kind of work which was neither a frothy operetta, nor a loosely constructed Jazz Age musical comedy. The Musical Play was born, with its serious, dramatic themes, and integration of music and dialogue. An entry in The Complete Book of Light Opera includes this description: Here …

Read more

Balakirev’s “Islamey”: A Spirited Dance from the Caucasus Mountains

by

It was a trip to the Caucasus Mountains that inspired Russian composer Mily Balakirev (1837-1910) to write Islamey: Oriental Fantasy, one of the most technically challenging works ever conceived for solo piano. In a letter, Balakirev commented on the spirited folk music he heard there, as well as the natural beauty of the region, which lies at the intersection of Europe and Asia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea: …the majestic …

Read more

Jascha Heifetz and Bing Crosby: Berceuse from Godard’s “Jocelyn”

by

Jascha Heifetz was the ultimate “crossover artist” before the term existed. During the Second World War, Heifetz joined popular entertainers such as Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in performances for U.S. servicemen. Heifetz’ collaborations with Crosby included this performance, recorded in Los Angeles on July 13, 1946, months after the War’s end. Accompanied by the studio musicians of the Victor Young Orchestra, Heifetz and Crosby performed the Berceuse (Lullaby) from the opera, …

Read more