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.

Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B Minor: The “Unfinished”

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Mystery surrounds the two movements of Franz Schubert’s unfinished Eighth Symphony. Why, after nearly completing a piano score for a succeeding scherzo in the autumn of 1822, did he stop? Although the 25-year-old Schubert lived six more years, in the words of musicologist Michael Steinberg, “he seemed not to give it another thought,” choosing instead to move on to other large-scale works such as the “Great” C Major Symphony. Perhaps the onset …

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Philip Glass’ Étude No. 6: Yuja Wang

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With his twenty Études for solo piano, written between 1992 and 2012, Philip Glass follows in the footsteps of composers such as Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Rachmaninov, and Ligeti. Glass wrote the first book of Études as an exploration of “tempi, textures, and piano techniques,” adding “At the same time, it was meant to serve as a pedagogical tool by which I would improve my piano playing.” Étude No. 6 was commissioned in 1994 by WNYC …

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David Oistrakh Plays Debussy: “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair”

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La fille aux cheveux de lin (“The Girl with the Flaxen Hair”) is the eighth piece in Book I of Claude Debussy’s solo piano Préludes, written around 1910. The title was inspired by an 1852 poem by Leconte de Lisle. We explored this dreamy, ephemeral piece in a previous post. David Oistrakh performed this transcription for violin and piano as an encore during a 1972 performance at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. He is …

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Fauré’s Piano Trio in D Minor: A Revelatory Farewell

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The Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 is the revelatory penultimate work of Gabriel Fauré. Fauré composed it amid declining health, shortly after his 1920 retirement as director of the Paris Conservatory. Completely deaf and nearly blind, the composer wrote in a poignant letter to his son, “and so one says goodbye, little by little.” The Piano Trio is a musical goodbye. Filled with tender nostalgia and childlike innocence, it inhabits …

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Paul Dukas’ Fanfare from “La Péri”: Prelude to a Mythical Ballet

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Paul Dukas’ 1912 ballet in one act, La Péri, is based on a Persian folktale. Iskender, an aged king, steals the magic Flower of Immortality from the hands of the sleeping Péri, a beautiful winged fairylike creature. Immediately, Iskender is filled with the vitality of youth, and consumed with earthly material desires. He falls in love with Péri. Performing a dance which brings her gradually closer, Péri is able to take back …

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Michael Torke’s “Last Year”: Music for Solo Violin and String Orchestra

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Last Year by American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961) suggests the beautiful melancholy of a cold, overcast winter day. The solo violin’s contemplative melody emerges over frigid, unrelenting pizzicati. As the music develops, the concertmaster picks up the melody and enters into a duet with the soloist. To my ears, there are echoes of the music of Tchaikovsky at its loneliest and most brooding. This is part of a collection of twelve meditative …

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Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, “Turkish”: Isabelle Faust, Bernard Haitink and the Boston Symphony Orchestra

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For Mozart, a virtuoso keyboardist from the age of 5, the violin was a second instrument. Following his teenage years, Mozart largely abandoned performing publicly on the violin to focus on the piano. He composed his 21 mature piano concertos from age 20 to the final year of his life. Still, by all accounts, Mozart played the violin exceptionally well. In 1756, the year of Mozart’s birth, his father Leopold published a …

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