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.

John Adams’ “Hallelujah Junction”: Delirious Dueling Pianos

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“Hallelujah Junction is a small truck stop on Highway 49 in the High Sierras on the California-Nevada border near where I have a small cabin,” explains American composer John Adams. “One can only speculate on its beginnings in the era of prospectors and Gold Rush speculators (although a recent visit revealed that cappuccino is now available there).” For Adams, Hallelujah Junction was “a great title looking for a piece.” Scored for two “dueling …

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Handel’s “I Was Born to Weep”: A Mournful Duet from “Giulio Cesare”

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Handel’s 1724 celebrated opera, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17 (“Julius Caesar in Egypt”), explores themes of “power, ambition, love, and revenge.” Set during the Roman Civil War of 49-45 BC, it chronicles the love story between Caesar and the cunning seductress Cleopatra. Amid this political drama, Cornelia and her stepson Sesto are determined to avenge the beheading of Pompeo (Cordelia’s husband) by Tolomeo, who rules Egypt with his sister, Queen Cleopatra. …

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Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile”: Toots Thielemans and Kenny Werner

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Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), who rose to fame during the era of silent films, is remembered as a legendary English comic actor and filmmaker. He was also a composer of music including the Flower Girl’s theme from the 1931 romantic comedy-drama, City Lights. “He couldn’t read or notate music,” writes Ariane Todes. “Rather, he described the process of writing it as “la-la-ing” to the arranger.” Yet, according to composer David Raksin, “very little escaped his …

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Michael Torke’s “Javelin”: A Glistening “Sonic Olympiad”

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In August of 1996, Gramophone magazine hailed American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961) for writing “some of the most optimistic, joyful and thoroughly uplifting music to appear in recent years.” Two months earlier, the New York Times described Torke as “a master orchestrator whose shimmering timbral palette makes him the Ravel of his generation.” We hear all of this in Torke’s glistening 1994 overture, Javelin. Described as a “sonic olympiad,” the work was …

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Remembering John Nelson

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American conductor John Nelson passed away on March 31, 2025. He was 83. Born in San José, Costa Rica, to American missionary parents, Nelson studied at Wheaton College and later at the Juilliard School. He went on to serve as music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (1976-1987), Opera Theatre of St. Louis (1985-1988), the Caramoor Music Festival in New York (1983-1990), and the Orchestre de chambre de Paris (1998-2008). Additionally, he …

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Ravel’s Pavane pour une Infante Défunte: A Dreamy Evocation

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A stately, processional dance, the pavane was popular in European courts throughout the Renaissance. With dreamy nostalgia, Maurice Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte (“Pavane for a Dead Princess”) evokes visions of these distant times. The brief work was composed in 1899 for solo piano, and orchestrated in 1910. Ravel chose the title because he liked the sound of the words. He insisted, Do not attach any importance to the title. I …

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Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in G Minor: Exploring Dreams and Passions

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Gabriel Fauré’s motivation for writing the Piano Quartet No. 2, in G minor, Op. 45 remains something of a mystery. There was no commission. The work appears to represent the composer’s personal exploration of the magical possibilities regarding an unusual combination of instruments: piano, violin, viola, and cello. Only Mozart, and a handful of other composers, had ventured into this territory. Arriving seven years after Fauré’s First Piano Quartet, the G minor …

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