October 2023 Newsletter 

October 2023   Our craft 

The wood and metal that vibrate in our hands and on our bodies. The resonance it creates in the air around us and its effect on our emotions; invisible and ephemeral.  We string music teachers bring something tangible and intangible at the same time to the next generation.

Do you have a poem or short creative writing about music that you would like to share? Submit it for our next newsletter under "articles."

Interim President

CalASTA SF

 Message from the Interim President 

  This first newsletter is dedicated to internationally renowned cello teacher Irene Sharp (1935-2023). Several of our members share with us here how she affected their lives.  Many thanks to those who contributed to this effort to commemorate her legacy.

     We are proud to present the Irene Sharp-CalASTA Scholarship which will begin in January 2024. Funds will be destined to students who need financial aid studying with teachers in the CalASTA San Francisco area. More information is below.

    Thank you also to those who decided to publish Classified Ads with us. We appreciate your support!

     Happy reading.

Kathleen Balfe took a personal trip to the Lost Coast and to Santa Cruz over the summer and met with members and organizations in those regions to ask how ASTA could better serve them and to discuss the state of music teaching and playing in their areas.

visit with cellist Marcia Sloane (above) and Joanie Packard, E.D. Symphony of the Redwoods (below)

visit with violinists Karen Davy and Cynthia Moyer (photo), conductor and cellist Carol Jacobsen (below), and Robin Hashem (right), E.D. Eureka Symphony

visit with conductor Phillip Lenberg, Ukiah Symphony and Mendocino College

     Cellist Irene Sharp was an internationally acclaimed teacher passionate about teaching students to express the beauty of music with ease through a healthy technique.   Having observed and collaborated with the great cellists of the world, including the great Margaret Rowell who was her mentor, Ms. Sharp bought a unique and valuable perspective to her cello class. 

      Ms. Sharp’s personal connections to colleagues such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Janos Starker, Leonard Rose, Pablo Casals, Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, and Natalia Gutman to name a few immensely benefitted her student’s knowledge of the cello and cello teaching.  Always learning, Ms. Sharp performed recitals, and also traveled to Europe to observe the great cello teachers and performers. Video footage is available of her historic performance in Pablo Casals’ master classes, which took place at UC Berkeley, California.

     Irene Sharp was on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Meadowmount School for Strings, Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, and Indiana University's String Academy. She maintained private studios in San Francisco, Palo Alto and New York City. Ms. Sharp worked with students in cities worldwide, including London, Salzburg, Hamburg, Tokyo, Taipei, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.

     Artistic Director and Founder of California Summer Music which lasted over twenty years, Ms. Sharp created a festival for string players and pianists focused equally on solo playing, chamber music, and composition.  This festival also encouraged the collaboration of young artists and composers, while actively promoting and performing new music.  

     She was an invited speaker at the national meetings of the Music Teachers' National Association and the Music Educators' National Conference, and gave numerous teacher workshops worldwide. In 1992, Ms. Sharp received an Outstanding Teacher award from the American String Teacher’s Association (ASTA).  Based in Northern California, Ms. Sharp taught and led teacher-training workshops in cities worldwide, and gave master classes for ASTA, the Australian String Teachers Association, and the Suzuki Association of America.  

     Ms. Sharp’s former students play in many major orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Showing the unique verstatility of her teaching, many of her students are soloists and chamber music artists that perform worldwide.

Taken from the webpages: Irene Sharp* • Music (berkeley.edu), Irene Sharp

We have decided to name our CalASTA SF scholarships in Irene Sharp's honor. When there are scholarship funds in the bank, a call for candidates will be made via email, Facebook, and our newsletter. Students will apply online and a small committee made of Irene Sharp's family members or designees if they so choose on their behalf and members of the Board will help decide who receives the scholarships. Scholarship money can help pay for private string instrument lessons, tuition for a summer camp, etc. 

Donations can be made via Paypal or Zelle to calastasf@gmail.com

 Please specify "Irene Sharp Scholarships" in the description. Donations are tax deductable.

Paypal QR code for donations

CalASTA San Francisco cellists write in loving memory of cello teacher Irene Sharp.

Warmth and Camaraderie 

by Marcia Sloane

Many decades ago I had the opportunity to spend the day at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music observing Irene Sharp teaching. I live in Mendocino County and didn’t know Irene, but a colleague who knew her suggested I make the trip down to San Francisco and made all the arrangements. I have since learned it was not uncommon for teachers to sit in on Irene’s lessons. Two lessons I remember from that day were one with a young girl about 10 and one with a young man about 19. I was impressed by how completely Irene had mapped out the fingerboard for this young gal, who wasn’t quite yet comfortable shifting through a 4-octave arpeggio, but understood exactly where she was headed up and down the fingerboard. I marveled at the complete inner picture Irene had given her to grow into. The young man was a fine cellist and I recall Irene worked to cut down on his involuntary physical movements that would be distracting to the audience during his upcoming concerto performance. It was a fruitful day for me observing Irene's teaching, and years later at the World Cello Congress in Tempe, Arizona, when I found myself seated next to her at one of the performances, I was touched by how she greeted me with warmth and camaraderie.

One of the Greats

by  Stephanie Chiao

Renie Sharp was one of the great female cello teachers of the Bay Area, who studied under Margaret Rowell. I am fortunate to have studied with Renie in the Conservatory prep program. Her demanding, firm yet informative style achieved results and further laid a solid foundation of technique to which I attribute to many of my abilities as a professional cellist. Renie was passionate about her cello studio and bringing her students together through music. I will never forget the monthly cello master classes which she held in her home and playing Ukrainian Bells with a dozen other cellists. Her unique talent to teach fundamental technique to young and older cellists alike will forever carve the memory of her as one of the great cello teachers between the 20th to 21st century. 

A Special Teacher

by  Andrew Luchansky

My first encounter with Renie Sharp was through watching and hearing a student of hers. This took place around 1980 when I was teaching cello and chamber music at The Meadowood summer music program in Marin. I was in my early 20s and one of the cellists, a teenager had an exquisitely organized set up in both the right and the left hands. His playing was fluid, easy and well balanced. I asked who his teacher was; this was the first time I heard of Renie.

That summer I also coached a pianist named Erica Zumsteg. During the next academic year, Erica, having never played cello before, began lessons with Renie. She was around 13 years old and by the next summer Erica, one year into playing cello, was already quite accomplished. Erica was talented and diligent, but I realized that a special teacher was part of the mix. And of course that teacher was Renie.

Years later I moved to Northern California for a  cello teaching/string quartet position at a university. Doris Fukawa and Susan Bates invited me to join them and Basil Vendreyes as the string chamber music faculty at the SF Conservatory Prep, as it was called in those days. In the ensuing years I had the great privilege of coaching many chamber groups in which the cellists were students of Renie’s. Year after year, accomplished young cellists who studied with Renie formed the backbone of superb chamber music groups at the Prep.  It was a coach's dream to work with with these young cellists; all you needed to do was suggest a a musical idea and they could do it.  All the technical components were in place. 

Renie had what Kim Kaskashian calls "the teaching gene," along with an unbending and a clear vision of what young people needed to do, step-by-step, to gain instrumental mastery.

I send my condolences to Renie’s family.

The Well-Paved Road

by  Kathleen Balfe

     Irene Sharp was my cello mama, and my mentor. She was a person who strengthened the character and integrity of those who learned from her. She believed anyone could learn the cello.

     I began studying with Renie when I was 8 years old and I stayed with her until I was 19. She offered a solid method which was like a well-paved road; she knew what I could do, what I still needed, and how to take me there through concepts and repertory. By the time I was 19, all it took was one well-thought-out word to help me play passages that were giving me difficulties. After eleven years of studying with Renie, I felt that I was technically ready to play anything. Already having played Strauss’s Don Quixote at 18, I was playing Sinfonia Concertante by Profiev and Kodaly’s Suite for Solo Cello when I was 19. You can read about Renie’s technique in her articles and watch her teaching in her myriad of videos. Each lesson of mine was videotaped, as were those of her other students. We were required to watch the video in between lessons in order to make the changes that she wished us to make. If we did not watch that video, she was onto us like a hawk!

     Monthly group classes gave her students short-term goals. There, in the comfort of her lovely living room with pristine white carpets, large windows overlooking a garden, and admirable paintings and photos on the wooden walls, each of her students would perform what we had ready for that month. There were two groups; one younger and one older. Group classes were a brilliant way to motivate and educate her students; through this peer-to-peer contact, we grew comfortable performing for others, giving constructive criticism reinforcing her technique and expressing our own musical ideas verbally, therefore applying our own knowledge. Afterwards we gorged ourselves on homemade brownies with chocolate chips and walnuts on top washed down with a delicious punch with raspberries floating in it, all prepared by her family the same recipe every time. Of course, this was quite a daring menu for her white carpets.  I miss those brownies and punch! Our bond as fellow cellists grew through these monthly experiences, which were scary and exciting at the same time. 

The road was not always smooth; learning an instrument takes dedication and intent. Renie was 100% dedicated to her teaching, and expected the same level of dedication from her students. She would answer my phone calls after hours, travel to NYC once a month to teach her studio there while teaching them via videoconference (in the 1990s!) the rest of the month, spend her summers at music festivals, and give classes for free to those who were not able to pay. I benefitted from a free class or two upon graduating, and was so grateful. 

     When I was perhaps 10, Renie organized a big trip to NYC to listen to Rostropovich perform the complete Beethoven Sonatas. Organizing 50 students and their families to travel to New York required vision and organization. We did not only travel far to attend concerts. If a famous cellist came to the area, we would be there watching. In short, she lived and breathed cello teaching and music and transmitted this lifestyle to her students.

     Our lessons were often peppered with hearty laughter. I loved hearing Renie laugh! She remembered and repeatedly told funny stories about her students, with the same enthusiasm as if it were the first time. When I was older, I visited a monthly class and she pulled out of her pocket the story about how I mistook the word “Elegy” for “Allergy” as a child. That story will never be told again from her perspective.

     Renie did not only teach people the cello, she taught people about life. One summer she invited several of us out to dinner at her festival California Summer Music in Carmel. I had a cellphone and was visiting, and quickly answered a call during dinner at the table. Cellphones were relatively new then, and I had not learned any protocol. “How rude!” she commented to everyone. I felt angry at the time, and slightly humiliated, but she was right. Today many families prohibit cellphones at the dinner table. Renie also taught us that, when giving constructive criticism, that we should always give a positive observation before giving a suggestion for improvement. This is a great general rule for life, and would solve many relationship problems if it were widely applied.

     Renie loved music as much as she loved teaching it. When I asked as a young child which religion she practiced, she said “Music is my religion.” Her comment made me reevaluate the meaning of the word “religion.” 

       May she rest in peaceful music.

Appreciating Renie Sharp

by  Sigrid Anderson-Kwun

     A few weeks ago I was on a plane to Canada when I ran into a former cello student.  He was taking his son to college and, much to my delight, they had a cello buckled into the last row of the plane.  Catching up on the last decade, we talked about the father’s adventures in amateur orchestras and his son’s love of Baroque music.  We reflected on the richness that music had brought to our lives and I thought - this all comes back to Renie Sharp.  Music teachers have a transformational impact on people’s lives.  There is no better example of this than Renie.  The gifts that she gave her students have rippled their way across the globe. 

    Renie gave us the gift of camaraderie.  In her studio classes students were encouraged to offer each performer compliments and suggestions.  This tradition of inviting everyone to participate in teaching is one that I continue in my own workshops.  Renie gave us the gift of dedication.  At the Conservatory, she organized marathons where every student played their entire Bach Suite and concerto.  These could take entire weekends, often lasting ten hours a day.  Renie was there for every minute, sometimes even coming up from Palo Alto after her morning workshops for the younger children.  

     Renie was always trying new ideas.  I’ll never forget when someone gave her a decorative cello ornament and we all had to play concertos using its’ 8-inch “bow”.  I’m still not totally convinced by that particular method, but it is a great example of Renie’s curiosity and creativity.  Another gift that Renie gave us was ease of playing and real solutions to technical problems.  During my first lesson with her I breathed a sigh of relief.  Here, finally, was someone who could rescue me from the knots I had tied myself into while playing Popper.  And, what I loved about her marathon weekends was how differently each student played.  You might hear three Dvorak concertos but each one was unique.  Renie gave us the ability to express ourselves. 

    Renie launched hundreds of cellists into the world.  They, in turn, are creating the next generation of musicians and music-lovers.  Both of my children play the cello and I think of them as Renie’s cello-grandchildren (especially when I tell them to “scoop and cling”).  Most likely there are thousands of these cello-grandchildren now, learning bear-hugs, bird-wings, and a joyous love of music 

Appreciating Irene Sharp

by  Lucinda (Cindy Breed) Lenicheck

     I first met Renie in the D.C. area, when she and my violinist mother were members of the Friday Morning Music Club, where we heard her perform “The Swan” in an orchestral setting! When I was in high school, she loaned me a hard case with which I could travel over the summer, as my family returned to CA before 11th grade. She and Terry, with their tiny tots Wendy and LeeAnne (Renie was pregnant with Robin), were moving to CA at the same time!

     My mother made a plan with Renie to teach me when we all arrived in Palo Alto, and Renie tried very hard to help me become a better cellist, with just two years of high school left. Renie was so earnest in wanting me to study with the teacher she so deeply appreciated, Margaret Rowell; she accompanied me, of course, in my audition recordings for college with her great piano skill.Her belief in me and her encouragement were life-changing…and continuous in all the decades to come.

   Years later I attended Paul Rolland String Workshops, where Renie was at Margaret’s side, helping her contribute her ideas effectively. Likewise, the two taught in tandem at Rick Mooney’s “National Cello Institute” for years at the CalTech and Pomona College campuses.

     I witnessed Renie’s rise to her entire stunning teaching career, hearing beautiful accomplished cellists (from age 5 on!) perform and triumph in their major careers, absorbing her wisdom in countless workshops, and enjoying her own performances in recital at these events. I feel so privileged to have known Renie, and know countless others feel the same.

     In gratitude and admiration, with much love.

Irene Sharp: Paths are Many

by  Garth Cummings

     Irene Sharp helped so many students along the cello path. Many started with her at the tender age of four, five, or six. Others encountered her in the conservatory or university setting. Known to all as Renie, we all feel a deep loss after her passing in July.

     In my case, I came to her in middle age. One of those “you’re not getting any younger” moments back in 2005 led me to plan a challenging recital featuring the Bach 6th Suite, the Schubert Arpeggione sonata, and Brahms’s F major sonata. I knew that I’d benefit from some coaching on this repertoire, and I knew of Renie’s excellent reputation. It so happened that Renie was going to hold one of her seminars at Stanford, so I jumped at the chance to attend. That week made such an impression on me that I mustered up the courage to ask to study with her privately. I don’t know why I was so nervous as she agreed to take me on right away. That was the start of a wonderful working relationship that only ended when the COVID pandemic forced everyone into isolation in 2020.

     A bit about my own background–I started cello in a public school string program and got off to a great start, winning a scholarship for private lessons my first year. But just a few months later I fractured my right elbow in a playground accident. Compensating for this injury led to extreme stiffness in my right arm and shoulder which held back my technical development. My early teachers weren’t equipped to help me rediscover the mobility I needed to play easily. But I did manage to progress enough to earn Master’s degrees in cello and music theory. I taught cello for four years during and after graduate school. One of my students is now the professor of cello at Lawrence University Conservatory.

      After graduate school, it became clear that I had too many gaps in my technique to go into a full time music career. So my computer programming hobby became my profession with Apple being my last employer.

     Renie was the most thoughtful teacher I have ever encountered. Inspired by her teacher Margaret Rowell and over 30 years experience with the Alexander Technique, she was always looking for ways to make cello playing easier. So many times I heard “Don’t work so hard! You have to be lazy to play the cello!”

     Over the years, Renie worked out a clear process to introduce and develop every facet of cello playing. This made her the perfect teacher to help me build my physical and technical skills. She was immensely patient so long as the student made an honest effort to learn. She never tired of saying the same thing many times and many ways to bring a student along. Watching her work with other teachers in her teacher training seminars was always gratifying as I could see the light bulbs turn on as they learned how to cling to the inside of the string with the left hand or scoop the sound with the right. 

     Her approach was so successful with me and others with whom I watched her work, that I was inspired to start teaching again with the goal of passing along what I had absorbed. I wanted to do my best to give my students the solid grounding that I missed when I started playing. That’s what I’m doing now in my studio in San Jose.

     One of my pandemic projects was being asked by noted Suzuki teacher trainer Andrea Yun to discuss Renie’s pedagogy. That resulted in two hour plus-long videos on YouTube that summarized just about everything I could remember learning. Those videos are available at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTQLNr2kTrNsknt2cI5iitLpHIpA-yEy6.

Marcia Sloane has enjoyed a career as a chamber and orchestral player, and as a composer, arranger, and improviser in collaboration with musicians, dancers,  poets, visual artists, actors, and storytellers. She was one of the founding members of Symphony of the Redwoods on the Mendocino Coast, and for fourteen years co-directed Navarro River String Camp for adult string players. Marcia has made several CDs of her own work, including Cello Drones for Tuning and Improvisation, used by musicians throughout the world (NavarroRiverMusic.com). 

Andrew Luchansky is Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the California State University Sacramento School of
Music. He earned a B.M. from the New England Conservatory and an M.M. from the State University of New York-Stony Brook, studying cello with Laurence Lesser and Timothy Eddy. Mr. Luchansky has appeared as an orchestral
and chamber musician at Avery Fisher and Carnegie Hall and throughout the United States.  As a soloist, he has
performed at the Deià International Music Festival in Spain, and as a member of Camerata Deia in Italy and Denmark. Mr. Luchansky teaches String Pedagogy at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and coaches chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory Pre-College. He has been heard on National Public Radio's Performance Today and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon. Mr. Luchansky is the founder of the CSUS String Project and the Artistic Director of the New Millennium Chamber Music Series.

Reserve your spot here

Madeline Prager has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in the Bay Area and Germany where she lived for 25 years.

Principal viola positions include the Wuerttemberg Chamber and Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestras.
She has taught in music Conservatories in Stuttgart and Trossingen, Germany, followed by 10 years as Professor of Viola at the Music Conservatory in Karlsruhe. Currently she holds a Viola faculty position at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Since her return from Germany to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2000, Ms Prager has taught at the University of the Pacific, The Crowden School, in the Berkeley Unified
School District, and has appeared as principal violist with local orchestras including the Berkeley Symphony, Stockton Symphony, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, she has appeared with the Sacramento Chamber Society, Trio Concertino, Temescal Trio, Sierra Chamber Society, New Pacific Trio, Gold Coast Chamber Ensemble, New Century Chamber Orchestra, and has recorded chamber music, most notably that of Max Bruch with the Ulf Hoelscher Ensemble on the CPO label. In 2007 she premiered “White Boy, Man Invisible”, a Viola Concerto by renowned Bay Area composer Kurt Rohde, with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. Madeline holds degrees from U.C. Berkeley and the Northwest German Music Conservatory, where she studied with Bruno Giuranna.

     Her students enjoy professions in top German orchestras, as chamber musicians, and as teachers worldwide.

     A recipient of Artist Teacher Awards from the American String Teachers Association of California, the Romero Guitar Institute, and the Sierra Nevada Guitar Festival, Scott Cmiel is widely acclaimed as an inspirational instructor of students with exceptional artistic achievements. 

     His students have won top awards in national and international competitions including the American String Teachers Association National Soloist Competition, the Guitar Foundation of America International Youth Competition, the Christopher Parkening International Youth Competition, the James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition and the YoungArts Competition. They have often been featured on radio and television including the national public radio showcase From the Top, the GRAMMY Awards and the Omni Foundation Live From St. Mark’s YouTube series. He he was also featured in the Academy Award nominated film Jules at Eight, a profile of jazz master Julian Lage.

     Scott’s students are regularly accepted for further study at prestigious institutions and his teaching has been praised by the guitar world's most distinguished artists including Sergio Assad, Manuel Barrueco, Eliot Fisk, Antigoni Goni, William Kanengiser, Meng Su, David Tanenbaum, Scott Tennant, Benjamin Verdery, Jason Vieaux, and Andrew York.

The deadlines for the 2023 Solo Competition have been extended.

Preliminary Video Round: October 1-14, 2023 (Extended to November 17, 2023)

Results Preliminary Round: October 16, 2023 (December 4, 2023)

Final Round: October 21, 2023* New Date to December 17, 2023

Purpose

To provide string instrument students of all levels opportunities for performance, evaluation, and recognition.

Procedure and Awards

The Solo Competition will be held in two rounds. Interested candidates will apply via google forms, submitting videos for the first round, and those that are advanced to the finals will have a live round December 17th at the Diablo Valley College Music Building Room 101 in Pleasant Hill, CA. All applicants will receive written comments from our judges via email. Teachers will have access to those comments through their students. Judges can award up to $300 in cash prizes to winners and there are potential concert opportunities.

Please link for the guidelines to the competition

Please see the link the competition entry form

Copyright Company 2021-2024 © all rights reserved

VIEW EMAIL ON BROWSER   |   UNSUBSCRIBE

FIND US ON SOCIAL