By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Ask any cellist, and they might have an interesting story about their instruments.
That’s the case anyway with two Sitka International Cello Seminar musicians who took a break from rehearsal this morning to talk about the seminar’s final performances this weekend.
Presented by the Sitka Music Festival, the three-week seminar ends with programs 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Miner Music Center at Stevenson Hall, and “Cellobration!” 5 p.m. Sunday at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
Ilya Finkelshteyn, principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, right, gives pointers to John-
Henry Crawford this afternoon in Stevenson Hall. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Cicely Parnas, in her third season as a cello seminar fellow, met Sitka Festival Artistic Director Zuill Bailey, an acclaimed cellist, more than a decade ago.
“It’s an interesting connection because Zuill, as everyone knows, has the rosette Goffriller, the special cello that has a rosette carved underneath the fingerboard,” Parnas said. “And my grandfather had the other rosette Goffriller.”
John-Henry Crawford, a first year fellow from Shreveport, Louisiana, also had a cellist grandfather, although not at the same professional level. But he’s always loved music.
“He was from Austria, and saw the writing on the wall in 1938, with the Nazi takeover, and decided to leave the country – about seven weeks before Kristallnacht, and actually smuggled out several instruments from the country before he left,” Crawford said. The cello and owner were reunited later.
After this year’s seminar, Crawford is headed for Mexico, so he left his treasured cello at home. As to whether it’s a sentimental possession or actually a good instrument, Crawford responded, “Very fortunately it’s both. It’s very sentimental - I feel that my grandfather speaks through it still to some degree, but it also sounds incredible.”
Now in its 9th year, the seminar brings together top recent music school graduates from around the world for an intensive course with Bailey and guest instructors. This year’s seminar includes nine fellows and four guest faculty members, plus Bailey.
Besides Shreveport (Crawford) and upstate New York (Parnas), the fellows are from the Republic of Moldova; New York City; Newport News, Virginia; Bahrain; Indiana; North Carolina; and South Africa.
Parnas attended Indiana University and Cleveland Institute of Music. She is moving to Berlin in August where she will study for another degree from Berklee College of Music; Crawford holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and The Juilliard School in New York.
Parnas, 29, traces her interest in cello to her grandfather - an internationally renowned cellist - and a generally musical family.
“My grandfather was a cellist, and my sister who is older is a violinist, and my mom taught piano when I was a kid,” she said. “So there was always music around and it seemed kind of obvious that I would play music – it was a sort of organic trajectory to go from taking lessons as a kid to getting more and more serious as the years went by.”
She doesn’t know why she picked cello but knows why she continues her interest today.
“It’s the physical pitch, the range of the instrument, in terms of pitch,” Parnas said. “They say it’s closest to the human voice because it covers that low bass end, and can also reach up to the soprano range as well. And I just think it’s one of the most expressive instruments that’s available to us.”
Over the years Parnas kept running into Bailey, and signed up for the cello seminar as soon as she heard about it.
“It’s the most transformational experience,” she said of her time in Sitka.
Bailey said he first heard her play when she was a kid, and has been pleased to see her progress and provide opportunities “to allow her to soar.”
It was a matter of chance that brought Crawford to the cello, at age 5. His mother is a violinist and runs a music program of about 150 students in violin, viola and cello.
“Being the fourth of four boys – we all played instruments and alternated, violin, cello and violin,” Crawford said. “Being the fourth, I got cello.”
His trajectory toward a career may have been set at age 12 when he attended a Shreveport symphony concert and heard one of his mother’s former students play “Rococo Variations” by Tchaikovsky.
“It really impacted me, the sounds I was hearing on the cello, not only the acrobatics but just the beautiful music,” he said. “It inspired me to start practicing more and to get serious. That was kind of the catalyst.”
To say the summer has gone well would be an understatement, Bailey said.
“Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it – sometimes dreams do come true and they did this summer,” he said today. “It was the perfect summer – we shot for the stars and we got them.”
The Friday and Saturday concerts are in the parlor of Stevenson Hall, the historic Sheldon Jackson campus building that houses the Miner Music Center. Friday’s concert is the last “Rising Stars” concert featuring several of the cello seminar fellows.
Saturday’s concert will feature guest faculty member Ilya Finkelshteyn, who is principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He will be accompanied by concert pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion.
“Cellobration!” at Centennial Hall Sunday is the culminating concert of the 2022 seminar and will feature fellows and faculty alike. The program will include a world premiere, cello ensemble works and pieces that also include oud and guitar.
Tickets for the concerts are at sitkamusicfestival.org.
