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 Sixth Symphony: The Youthful Charm of the “Little C Major”

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In March of 1827, the biographer Anton Schindler brought a stack of Franz Schubert’s lieder to Beethoven’s deathbed in an attempt to comfort the ailing composer. Schindler recounted that after studying the songs, Beethoven commented, “Truly in Schubert there is the divine spark.” Schubert and Beethoven lived in Vienna at the same time. Yet, they traveled in different circles and their creative paths diverged widely. While Beethoven’s ferocious, revolutionary symphonies were shaking up the musical …

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John Corigliano’s “Gazebo Dances”: Visions of the Village Green

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Gazebo Dances, by the American composer John Corigliano (b. 1938), inhabits a dreamy, nostalgic world of summer afternoon picnics and concerts on the village green. Composed in 1972, the piece was scored originally for piano four hands. Each of its four brief movements was dedicated to one of the composer’s “pianist friends.” In his program notes, Corigliano writes, I later arranged the suite for orchestra and for concert band, and it is …

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William Schuman’s Third Symphony: An American Monument

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The ten years between 1935 and 1945 produced a handful of contenders for the title of “great American symphony.” The list includes Samuel Barber’s epic 1936 Symphony in One Movement, the third symphonies of Roy Harris and Aaron Copland, and David Diamond’s Second Symphony, as well as symphonies by Howard Hanson and Walter Piston, among others. Many of these commissions were initiated by Serge Koussevitzky, the influential music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, …

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Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos in G Minor: Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra

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The Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor, RV 531 is one of Antonio Vivaldi’s most intensely dramatic and convention-defying works. Out of the composer’s nearly 500 surviving concerti (30 of which feature the cello), it is the only “double” concerto for the instrument. The first movement begins not with the standard tutti ritornello but with the two solo instruments taking center stage with a vigorous conversation in thirds. Immediately, we are …

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Bach’s “Canon a 2 Cancrizans” from “The Musical Offering”: A Divine Puzzle

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The canon, which features one or more imitations of the same melodic line performed at varying intervals over a given duration, is one of music’s most intriguing contrapuntal devices. In The Musical Offering, BWV 1079, J.S. Bach takes this technique a step further with the canon cancrizans, or “crab canon.” Here, the melodic line can be played as written, and also in reverse, in a way similar to a crab crawling backwards. …

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Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony: An Awe-Inspiring Contrapuntal Edifice

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“Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music,” said the eighteenth century German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major may be the most architectural symphony ever written. Constructed with monumental building blocks which are assembled according to principles of balance, proportion, and repetition, its four movements add up to a majestic and soaring musical structure. It takes us on a gradual, time-altering procession which requires that …

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Arvo Pärt’s “Da Pacem Domine”: A Timeless Meditation

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Time has a deep meaning, but it is temporary, like our lives. Only eternity is timeless. –Arvo Pärt A sense of mysticism and timelessness pervades the music of the Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt. Emerging from the currents of twentieth century minimalism, it is music which inhabits the quiet, meditative space of Gregorian chant and early polyphony. “The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity,” said Pärt, who …

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