Symphony Treated To Two Talented Guests
Most young classical musicians find themselves pursuing awards by entering one competition after another. Anne Akiko Meyers calmly pursued her career until an award found her.
“Competition players work a completely different circuit, which I could never feel comfortable in,” Meyers says. “My teacher, Dorothy Delay, advised me not to enter competitions.”
In 1993, Meyers was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Unlike winning a competition with a single performance, the Fisher Grant is based on nominations of young performers who have shown steady achievement in their careers.
The 25-year-old Meyers will continue that developing career by performing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 twice this week with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra, first when the orchestra opens the Coeur d’Alene Performing Arts Alliance’s season tonight at North Idaho College and again Friday when the orchestra returns to the Spokane Opera House. Both performances will be led by guest conductor Patricia Handy.
In addition to the Prokofiev Concerto, the program for both performances also includes Wagner’s Overture to “The Flying Dutchman” and Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 (“Spring”).
Handy, who conducted the Spokane Symphony at The Met two seasons ago, is returning to conduct the orchestra in four performances this season. Handy, like Meyers a graduate of the Juilliard School, is currently artistic director of the Goliard Chorale and Chamber Orchestra and is associate conductor of the Greenwich (Conn.) Symphony. She has appeared as guest conductor with the Utah Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony Chamber Orchestra and the Kiel Philharmonic in Germany.
Meyers began studying the violin when she was 4. “My father got his bachelor’s degree in clarinet and my mother used to play piano as a little girl, but neither is a professional musician. They just wanted me to have an appreciation for music and art and beauty. But I realized that I wanted to be a professional musician when I was 7 and played my first concert as a soloist in Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor.”
When she was 14, she moved to New York from her native San Diego to study at the Juilliard School with Delay and Maseo Kawasaki. By the time she was 16, she was on the road much of the time giving concerts.
“It was very difficult balancing classes with the road life. When I graduated five years ago, I felt that it was a real turning point in my life.”
Now she plays about 60 concerts a year. Staying fresh in a career that involves constant travel is a problem. Meyers solves the burnout risk by taking time to do other things and by simply taking time off.
“I find it very important for my creativity to refuel the brain by going to films, by going antique shopping, being with friends and eating and reading and listening to all kinds of music,” Meyers says. “This year, for the first time, I took the summer off. Usually I play chamber music in various music festivals, but the only date I had this summer was in the Hollywood Bowl. That’s scarcely chamber music … with only 50,000 people!”
Meyers enjoys listening to the work of violinists of the past and present. “All violinists have their own interpretation of a piece of music, and that interpretation is an interpretation of their soul. What I look for, what I’m curious about, is, ‘What does this player have to bring the music to a great level.”’
Violinists who interest Meyers include Mischa Elman, with his mellow, supple playing, and the risk-taking Gidon Kramer. “Kramer likes to challenge himself,” Meyers says admiringly. “He can be inconsistent at times, but his willingness to take risks is why he’s such a great artist. Another young artist named Maxim Vengerov I find absolutely fascinating to listen to and watch. He has an incredible sound.”
Playing music in many different places with different orchestras also has a strengthening effect on her playing, Meyers says. “You feel a freshness in what you’re doing by drawing strength from the ensemble you’re playing with, from the conductor you’re working with and just pushing yourself to the utmost.
“When you’re playing even the simplest melody line, there are 12 other players fortifying that line. If you can hear all those voices, then something fresh is always made from that.
“Even after playing a piece a hundred times, you can always discover great things in the substance of great music.”
xxxx The symphony will perform the same program Friday at 8 p.m. in the Spokane Opera House; tickets are $12 to $27, available at the Spokane box office and through G&B Select-a-Seat outlets, or by calling 325-SEAT or (800) 325-SEAT (credit cards only).