The DNA of a Symphony Musician

The remarkable talent lineage of our WSO musicians

By Arlene Dahl

Human beings are the product of three hundred thousand years of genetic selection to produce the characteristics that define us as individuals. Like the human traits passed down from generation to generation, each musician on stage in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra is the product of generations of musical knowledge passed down from teacher to pupil. All of us who teach are aware that when we explain a specific technical detail during a lesson, we are not merely telling the student how we solved a particularly challenging part of an etude, sonata or concerto, often we are reiterating the very words, thoughts and philosophies of our teachers, who themselves were the repositories of the pedagogues that preceded them.

All the WSO musicians began their musical training at an early age, and each has studied with a succession of teachers who inspired their pupils through their personalities and musical knowledge. Many musicians travelled to other countries and continents in pursuit of musical excellence. If one examines the biographies of the Winnipeg Symphony musicians, it becomes apparent that we have worked with a dazzling array of mentors and professors. Some of our teachers performed as concert soloists, some taught at prestigious music schools and academies, some did both. Some musicians learned their craft with international concert stars, others learned from esteemed musicians in professional orchestras. And each of our teachers were, in turn, taught in similar fashion by the soloists and symphonic musicians of their generation. Every artist you see on stage has at least an indirect, if not direct, connection to the great composers and orchestral musicians of the past.

Julie Savard joined the WSO as a first violinist in 2002 and shortly after also became a member of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.

Julie Savard, the highly proficient, talented first violinist, (who also possesses a great sense of humour), is highly sought after as a teacher herself. Julie studied with Lorand Fenyves, the Hungarian-born, (naturalized) Canadian concert violinist, chamber musician and teacher whose pupils can be found in symphony orchestras and concert hall stages around the world. Fenyves studied with Jenö Hubay, a professor at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. Hubay, and cellist David Popper performed chamber music with Johannes Brahms. Isn’t it remarkable that Julie Savard is only three degrees of separation removed from Brahms?

Lorand Fenyves also studied with Zoltán Kodály, the prolific composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue and philosopher. He was known internationally as the creator of the ‘Kodály method’ of music education for children. As a composer, Kodály utilized, and therefore preserved, folk music of Hungary in his compositions. Is it any wonder,then, that Lorand Fenyves was in such demand as a teacher here in Canada and abroad? Perhaps that propensity to teach was instilled in Julie as well.

Celebrating his 50th year with the WSO during the 2023 – 2024 season, Jan Kocman is the longest-serving Principal musician in the orchestra’s history.

Let me share another example of musical lineage. Jan Kocman, the consummate professional and distinguished principal flutist of the Winnipeg Symphony has shared his talent and artistry with Winnipeg audiences for a half-century. His musical genealogy extends back to eighteenth-century France. Jan studied with James Pellerite (Principal Flute, Detroit Symphony and Professor of Flute, Indiana University), who was taught by William Kincaid (Principal Flute, Philadelphia Orchestra. Kincaid studied with Georges Barrére, the flutist who premiered Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune in 1894.

Barrére’s lineage continues back in time to Francois Devienne, a composer and performer of the 1700s. Devienne composed three hundred instrumental works, mostly for winds, including a dozen flute concertos. This eighteenth-century composer was known as ‘the Mozart of the Flute.’ Devienne’s teacher, Félix Rault was a composer and flutist in the Paris Opera Orchestra who, in turn, studied with Jean-Baptiste Blavet, one of the finest virtuoso flutists in France. Blavet was the Principal Flutist in Louis XV’s ‘Musique du Roi’ and performed the premiere of Georg Philipp Telemann’s ‘Paris Quartets.’ Our own principal flutist has a direct musical tie to the court musicians of pre-revolutionary France.

Arlene Dahl, a section cellist in the WSO, has been the recipient of several awards for musical distinction.

If you would permit me a bit of self-indulgence, I will share my own cello genealogy. During my university years, there were two primary schools of cello pedagogy. One embodied the teaching of Janos Starker, the other school was that of Leonard Rose. My two most influential teachers came from both camps, and if there are any of my colleagues reading this now, they might very well be thinking, ‘That explains a lot!’

My professor at the University of Western Ontario was the legendary Japanese cellist, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, a protegé of János Starker. The Hungarian-American cellist, Starker, attended the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest and stated he was most influenced by Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók and Ernö Dohnányi. After immigrating to the United States, János Starker became the Principal Cellist of the Dallas Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony before becoming the cello professor at Indiana University. Starker was taught by Adolf Schiffer, who was a pupil of David Popper. As I mentioned earlier, David Popper, Jenö Hubay and Johannes Brahms formed a piano trio, premiering Brahm’s Piano Trio No. 3 in 1886. Both Julie Savard and I share common musical DNA tracing back to Brahms.

The other major cello influence in my life was Ron Leonard, a respected pedagogue at the Eastman School of Music, the Aspen Festival and the Festival Casals, among others. He became, for 25 years, Principal Cello in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ron Leonard was a protegé of Leonard Rose. After graduating from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Rose joined the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, and eventually became the cello professor at the Juilliard School. Rose was taught by Felix Salmond, an English cellist and friend of Edward Elgar. Salmond was known for his chamber music performances, and ultimately became the cello instructor at the Curtis Institute. Salmond’s cello teacher was fellow Englishman, William Whitehouse, who was taught by Alfredo Piatti, the Italian cellist, teacher and composer.

Piatti was a friend and musical collaborator of Franz Liszt. Like Flesch and Rode’s violin methods, Piatti’s cello concertos, sonatas and his method book are standard fare for cello students.

Laszlo Baroczi is currently a violist with the WSO, MusicBarock Ensemble and Azure String Quartet.

And finally, one of the longest musical genealogy charts was submitted by Laszlo Baroczi. Laszlo, the extremely talented violinist was born in Hungary and his musical timeline reads like the Who’s Who of string pedagogy.

Laszlo studied with Gertrude Rossbacher, the second woman to break the male barrier in the Berlin Philharmonic. Rossbacher studied with Max Rostal, a child prodigy who performed for Emperor Franz Josef I, and later taught at the Berlin Hochschule, the Guildhall School of Music, and the Conservatory in Bern. Rostal’s teacher was Carl Flesch whose ‘Scale System’ compendium is a staple of violin pedagogy. Flesch studied with Jacob Grün, pupil of Joseph Böhm. Böhm was the director of the Vienna Conservatory in the nineteenth century who counted Ludwig van Beethoven among his friends. Böhm’s string quartet premiered Beethoven’s String Quartet #12 and he performed in the orchestra, which played the first performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, led by the composer himself.

Böhm’s teacher was Pierre Rode, who served as violin soloist to Napoleon. Beethoven wrote his last violin sonata (op. 96) for him. Rode was a composer as well and his 24 Caprices are well-known to violinists. Rode studied with Giovanni Battista Viotti, the Italian violin virtuoso who personally knew Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Like Carl Flesch and Pierre Rode before him, Viotti’s compositions are part of every violinist’s study. Viotti was a pupil of Gaetano Pugnani, the eighteenth-century Italian violinist and friend of Mozart. Pugnani studied with Arcangelo Corelli, the Italian Baroque violinist and composer. Corelli is credited with developing the ‘sonata’ and ‘concerto’ genres, which, in turn, influenced the evolution of the traditional orchestra. What an astounding genealogy!

How can one fail to be impressed by the enormous body of knowledge that has been transmitted over the years to our orchestra musicians? Every artist in the Winnipeg Symphony carries the musical DNA of their mentors. When your children and grandchildren take music lessons with WSO musicians and other teachers in our community, they are being granted at least a passing, if not direct, link to the very composers they are learning.

When you, our audiences, attend a symphony concert, contemplate the centuries of musical knowledge embedded in each musician on stage.

The Winnipeg Symphony is wealthier for the knowledge and wisdom of the musicians within it and Winnipeg is wealthier for the dedication and professionalism every musician brings to the musical life of our city.