Going for Baroque

In the exclusively J. S. Bach competition, first-prize winner Simos Papanas played the Adagio and Fugue from the G minor solo Sonata, and the first two movements from the E-minor Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo in the semi-final round. The final round consisted of movements from the A-minor, E-major Violin Concertos, as well as the 3rd movements of Brandenburg No. 4.

"I have always loved Baroque music," says Papanas. "In fact, I had studied it a lot even before coming to Oberlin, but Oberlin is where I first got to know what historical performance is about. Baroque repertoire makes so much more sense when performed on period instruments. Of course, someone as amazing as Marilyn McDonald had a lot to do with making me love the Baroque violin."

Heidi Powell, second-prize winner, says that she was attracted to Oberlin by its creative opportunities and approach to learning, "and the opportunity to study with Marilyn. I enjoy being her assistant at Oberlin and teaching Baroque violin. It amazes me how much interest there is in historical performance."

Powell has been studying violin since the age of four. Of her attraction to Baroque music, she says: "Most of the early repertoire is still mostly unknown and rarely played, so there are no 'traditional' ways of playing the pieces. I also love the sound and color possibilities of gut strings. I find them so much more rewarding to work with."

Powell's Baroque violin, she says, "is still a baby." Timothy Johnson finished it in May. "I'm still getting to know the instrument and it opens up more and more each day. This close connection with my violin is very special. It has been fun to know the instrument since it's birth."

Although Emily Fowler's bachelor of music degree will be in modern violin performance--she studies with Professor of Violin Almita Vamos and Professor of Violin and Viola Roland Vamos--she has also studied secondary Baroque violin with McDonald. She has been admitted into Oberlin's Master's program beginning this fall, where she will concentrate on the Baroque under McDonald's tutelage.

When asked what it is about the Baroque violin that attracts her, she says, "I love the repertoire, the expressive possibilities of the instrument--which are much different from 'modern' violin--and the early music circle. The historical performance scene is thriving and dynamic, and exciting to be a part of."

Fowler performs, at least for now, on a school instrument, a German copy of a Guadagnini from 1738. "It's known as the 'toothpick neck' around the historical performance studio," she says, "because the neck is so thin. But all that will change, because it's being properly retrofitted this summer."

American Bach Soloists was founded in 1989 by artistic and music director Jeffrey Thomas and organist Jonathan Dimmock. The ABS has won praise by the San Francisco Examiner for "setting a new international standard" in its presentation and recording of historically informed, virtuoso performances of music of the Baroque and Classical periods.