In our country, talented young pianists outnumber talented young violinists. In any case, music lovers have encountered, of late, four violin prodigies.
At the Meralco concert of tenor Sal Malaki and soprano Rachel Gerodias, violinist Joseph Cruz Valdez did not perform owing to inevitable circumstances. His credentials, nevertheless, are impressive. He started playing the violin at nine and in 2002, began training intensely under virtuoso and Juilliard graduate Alfonso “Coke” Bolipata.
Soon, Joseph was interpreting Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, Bach’s Partita and Kreisler’s Praeludium. In 2005, at his first solo recital at 14, he rendered all seven movements of Bach’s Partita No. 3 and the Op. 10 Suite of Christian Sinding.
At a second solo recital he rendered Bach’s Solo Sonata in G Major, Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 30, Paganini’s Caprice No. 5, Tartini’s Devil’s Trill and A. Bazzini’s Dance of the Goblins.
At a recent concert of Coke Bolipata and American violinist William Harvey, seven-year old Julian Duque, son of a fisherman, and a student of Coke, performed the first movement of Vivaldi’s Concerto in A Minor without missing a note or a beat, his bowing firm, sharp and unerring. Poised and assured, Julian stole the limelight again in the encore piece, Bohm’s Moto Perpetuo.
(Coke seems to be a moulder of would-be virtuosos like himself.)
At Sunday’s concert in St. Cecilia’s Hall, the New York-based Saraza brothers — 16-year old Diomedes, Jr. and 24-year old Maurice Ivan — demonstrated strikingly uncommon talent.
Diomedes’ romance with the violin began at five. Years later, he won first prize at NY’s Woodmere Music Young Artist Competition with Katchaturian’s Violin Concerto, a piece he played again in Vermont’s 2006 Mountain Chamber Music Festival.
Currently he is at Mannes College of Music. He takes master classes under top professors.
A first-prize NAMCYA winner in 2002, he gave a debut recital which received the concert of the year award.
Maurice Ivan played with the Asian Youth Orchestra under conductors Sergio Comissona and Richard Pontius. He recently performed at the NY Public Library in remembrance of 9/11, and with the Nyack Chorale in Pennsylvania.
Currently studying at New York’s Nyack College, Ivan attended master classes under prestigious professors including Juilliard’s dean of music. Ivan was with Impulse in 2005, our country’s first Asia-Europe music camp, and with Indiana's 2006 MasterWorks Festival’s Orchestra Program.
Elielle Viaje, the brilliant 15-year old pianist, is here on a brief vacation from studies at the Prayner Conservatory in Vienna. She just finished high school, having admirably learned German so quickly. She is preparing to audition for entrance to Vienna U. under Christoph Egner.
On Sept. 29 she will have the rare honor of performing “Joy of Europe International Children’s Cultural Festival” in Belgrade, Serbia. Meanwhile, Elielle’s funds are fast dwindling. Prof. Egner charges 70 Euros per session; 100 Euros go to board and lodging each month. There are expenses for commuting daily, for music and other materials.
Family funds are almost nil; Elielle’s father earns a modest salary in the army. Can the Friends for Cultural Concerns, and the Foundation for the Development of Culture and the Arts under Chito M. Collantes help? Affluent personalities like Mellie Ablaza, Fortune Ledesma, Evie Costa and Letty Syquia may wish to extend assistance. Any response will be duly acknowledged in this column by Wina Viaje, Elielle’s mother, whose address is Rm. 18, TOQ, Camacho St. Camp Aguinaldo, QC.