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Oberlin Portrait:
Felix Petit
Violinist, Concerto Competition Winner
Story by Michael Chipman
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About the Oberlin Concerto Competition
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Violinist Felix Petit, a junior from Caracas Venezuela, studies with Roland and Almita Vamos.
Violinist Felix Petit, a junior from Caracas, Venezuela, the final winner of the Oberlin Concerto Competition, recently performed the Bartok Concerto No. 2 with the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra on Saturday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m. in Finney Chapel.
Petit was born in Caracas and began violin lessons at age nine. He studied at the Latin American Violin Academy from the age of 12 with maestro José Francisco Del Castillo. He has attended and performed at the Weathersfield Music Festival, Rena Sofia Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Petit has performed with Trio Villa-Lobos whose pianist is Monique Duphil, professor of pianoforte, and as soloist with all of the major Venezuelan orchestras. At Oberlin, in addition to winning the concerto competition, he has performed on the annual Honors Recital and has studied with Almita and Roland Vamos since 1996.
Professor of violin Almita Vamos says of his work, "Felix is a natural player with terrific facility and temperament. He's very flexible: a true artist."
What is your first memory of
music?
A concert of the orchestra my father plays in. They were
playing the Tchaikovsky 5th Symphony and I fell
asleep.
How old were you when you started
playing?
I began playing violin when I was 9.
What inspired you to be a musician?
What keeps you inspired on discouraging days?
I don't know exactly what inspired me. It could have
been the idea of being able to know how to play an
instrument and having absolute control in what you could do
with it. Lately what inspires me to be a musician is the
idea of getting into a professional orchestra.
What is the most memorable
performance you have ever seen and why?
A concert of the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George
Solti three weeks before he passed away. They performed the
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and the Bartok Concerto for
Orchestra. That was the first time I saw a concert of Solti
live. He was very old and it seemed that it took him a long
time to get to the podium at the beginning of the concert,
but once he turned to the orchestra and started conducting I
could not believe how much magical energy he had.
If you could perform with one
musician living or dead, who would it be and what would you
perform?
There are a lot of musicians that I would like to
perform with. I don't consider myself on his level, but I
would like to play Mozart violin and piano sonatas with
Vladimir Horowitz.
If you could master another
instrument, what would it be?
I would like to play double bass.
If you couldn't be a musician what
profession would you choose? Which profession would you
definitely not choose?
I would like to own a restaurant. I would not want to be
a tobacco company lawyer.
What do you listen to after a long
day?
After a long day I listen to salsa music.
What do you like to read?
I like reading books of the Venezuelan historian Arturo
Uslar Pietri.
The three words that best describe
you:
Short, chubby, and Indian-looking.
