Credit: Tom Zimberoff
Leila Josefowicz is a brilliant violinist who is totally tuned in to traditional, contemporary and especially trending repertoire by composers of our time. In fact, her world premiere performances include Jüri Reinvere’s Concerto for Violin and Harp (2024), John Adams’ Scheherazade 2 (2015), Helen Grime’s violin concerto (2015/2016), Esa-Pekka Salonen’s violin concerto (2009), and other works by Oliver Kunssen, Matthias Pintscher and Luca Francesconi.
Her musical journey began in Canada, anchored at The Colburn School and Curtis Institute of Music and went full steam ahead after a Carnegie Hall debut under Sir Neville Marriner in 1994 – which resulted in recording contracts and concerts. Her global career includes appearances with the best of the best symphony orchestras, recitals at leading concert halls and Artist-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony for the 2023/2024 season.
Josefowicz will be giving concerts in California between February 23-28 at venues in San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara which includes a master class at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her refreshingly innovative program for these concerts features Debussy’s violin sonata, Szymanowski’s Myths, Op. 30, Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Conversio and an arrangement of Stravinsky’s Divertimento from the Fairy’s Kiss – with pianist John Novacek.
Szymnowski is a rather neglected composer nowadays but his music has a tinge of sophisticated exoticism to it as evidenced in the three-part Myths, inspired by Greek mythology – which he wrote in 1915. Szymanowski himself described the piece as one which represents a new expression of violin playing. “The Myths have been inspiring to learn and play and am so glad to highlight these fantastical and imaginative pieces in my program. They highlight so many different forms and sounds of sensuality, extremely colorful textures and sweeping gestures,” says Josefowicz.
She comments about discovery involved in making Myths performance ready and impactful. “It was a pleasure to put this all together with my longtime collaborator John Novacek. And it is fascinating and delightful to find how many different sounds the violin and piano can make together and how many different moods and tonal qualities are possible for these instruments in this work.” Josefowicz mentions that a goal in preparing Myths involves making gestures as clear as possible and to differentiate between the different sounds asked for by the composer. “To do this with imagination and clarity is asking the ultimate control of our skill and instruments. When you look at the gestures of the writing, you see that it could be for full scale orchestra. And to have two people create the same magnitude as well as intimacy can be very empowering.”
Myths is certainly an example of Szymanowski’s revelatory compositional style and a must-hear for those who crave off the beaten path repertoire. Another must hear is a master class of Josefowicz the day after her Santa Barbara recital (February 26). She shares thoughts about this type of on the spot teaching. “I often have mixed feeling about master classes because of the dynamics involved. Sometimes I feel the emphasis is too much on the person giving the class, rather than who is performing. However, a successful class can be really inspiring for everyone witnessing positive changes in the mechanics of playing or interpreting that can happen quite quickly with the right guidance.”
Josefowicz teaches at the College division of Mannes School of Music and adds that although she prefers private teaching, it’s not always an option, so tries to make a master class situation “as motivating and informative as I can. It has been a thrilling experience to really help players improve and become more themselves as musicians.” We can all learn from the articulate and insightful teaching and playing of Leila Josefowicz.