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.

Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber”: Music of Transformation

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The word “metamorphosis” signifies a transformation from an embryonic state to maturity. Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber by Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) employs this process. The four-movement orchestral work, completed in 1943, is based on obscure music by Weber, an innovative opera composer who is credited with expanding the size and dramatic scope of the orchestra at the dawn of the Romantic period. The themes, almost completely preserved, are drawn …

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Remembering Cristian Ganicenco

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Cristian Ganicenco, principal trombonist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, has passed away. He was 58. Last Friday, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra put out the following statement: It is with immeasurable sadness we share the passing of our Principal Trombone, Cristian Ganicenco, after a private battle with cancer. Cristian was a longtime and deeply valued member of our Orchestra. Since joining in 1999, he contributed to our mission through …

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Grieg’s Two Elegiac Melodies: From Norwegian Verse to String Choir

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In 1880, Edvard Grieg composed a cycle of songs for voice and piano (12 Melodies, Op. 33) based on the poetry of fellow Norwegian nationalist Aasmund Olavsson Vinje (1818–1870). A year later, Grieg transcribed two of the songs, The Wounded Heart (Hjertesår) and The Last Spring (Siste vår),  for string orchestra under the title, Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34. Divided into multiple shimmering lines, and preserving the natural rhythms of speech, the …

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Tchaikovsky’s “Autumn Song” (October) from “The Seasons”: Olga Scheps

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In 1876, while completing the ballet score for Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky composed The Seasons, a series of atmospheric tone paintings for solo piano. Commissioned by the publisher, Nikolay Bernard, the brief pieces were published on the first day of each month in the St. Petersburg music journal, Nuvellist.  Set in D minor, Tchaikovsky’s October submission, Autumn Song, is quiet and melancholy. It accompanies a poem by Tolstoy which describes yellow windswept leaves. The interpretive marking is …

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Sibelius’ “Valse triste”: A Fleeting Dream-Vision

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Described in an early review as “evocative of a fleeting dream-vision,” Jean Sibelius’ Valse triste (“Sad Waltz”), Op. 44 was originally conceived as incidental music. It accompanied a haunting scene from the 1903 Symbolist play, Kuolema (“Death”), by the composer’s brother-in-law, Arvid Järnefelt. A program note from the original production offers the following description: It is night. The son, who has been watching beside the bedside of his sick mother, has fallen asleep from sheer …

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Arvo Pärt’s “Solfeggio”: Adventures with a Diatonic Tone Row

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What happens when you treat the simple C major scale as a diatonic tone row? The answer can be heard in Solfeggio, the first a cappella choral work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935). Composed in 1963, the same year as Pärt’s Symphony No. 1, Op. 9, “Polyphonic,” Solfeggio anticipates the composer’s later meditative tintinnabuli style. Solfeggio unfolds with a sense of cosmic timelessness. Serene clusters of sound form and dissipate as each vocal …

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Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 1, “Polyphonic”: An Exuberant Exploration of Counterpoint

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There is an adage that composers, as they age, write music of increasing contrapuntal complexity. The phenomenon can be heard in the music of Mahler and John Adams, but Estonian minimalist Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) followed a decidedly different path. In his youth, Pärt embraced the prevailing modernism, and the 12-tone system of Arnold Schoenberg, in which the twelve notes of the chromatic scale are treated equally so as to negate the …

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