[Note this was originally part of my “Life Tips” guide, but it didn’t really fit there so I’m pulling it out separately] 

I’ve always been an ensemble musician. I started on violin when I was three years old, and in private violin lessons you tend to work on “solo” repertoire, but solo is in quotes there because it’s usually only kind of solo. For most instruments, the bulk of the solo repertoire is accompanied, either by a keyboard of some kind (these days usually piano), or by orchestra. A few years ago, I got back into solo piano studies, and ran across several videos where some piano players tried to say that piano is “better” than other instruments (I think often tongue-in-cheek, but they still said it), because there is a vast amount of actual solo repertoire for piano with no additional accompaniment, in addition to piano itself accompanying most other instruments. But my answer to that has been “but that’s what I like about violin (viola, etc), is that it is an ensemble instrument and I get to do most of my playing with other people.”

The reason I made it through the first few years of violin lessons is because my teacher also played piano, and she would play piano with me while I played violin when I got to the point with a piece where she felt I was ready for that. I always loved those times, even as a four or five year old, and then a few things happened a few years in that hooked me fully forever. I don’t know if they were all actually the same year, but I put them roughly when I was 8. The first was taking a workshop in duet playing at an institute I attended every year (the Midwinter Suzuki Institute at the Music Institute of Chicago (MIC)). I didn’t play the melody for anything for about a month after that. The next thing was starting to learn Irish fiddle music from my main teacher’s summer substitute teacher (one of her older students). And then the big one that really got me was that fall (3rd grade) when I finally got to join the beginner string orchestra at the MIC, the Reading Orchestra. I still remember that first rehearsal. I finally found out why I had been practicing for about five years at that point, and I have not missed a single year playing in at least one orchestra concert since then - 27 years ago as I write this.

Solo pianists can have their “I can play entirely on my own” if they want to - so can I (on violin and viola as well as piano), and solo piano was a useful instrument to work on during the COVID-19 lockdown period because I could do more of it on my own. This is also why everyone started making youtube or facebook videos about the Bach Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas during that period. But I think that making music with other people should really be the point anyway, and I usually find it far more stimulating than playing alone, whether I’m playing violin or piano, or any of my other instruments. I don’t tend to play piano in group contexts very much personally, though I have before (particularly in improvisation contexts) and I play with other people playing piano a fair amount. But most of my playing these days, certainly my public performance practice, is with violin, viola, and sometimes tin whistle (with the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles). Most of it is actually viola now, so I get to play the inner lines and not just the melody. I used to actually get a little annoyed with playing 1st violin in “high school” style string orchestra music, because they usually give the melody to the 1st violins almost the whole time, and I liked a little variety. I really enjoyed it when I started doing symphonic music and even the 1st violins got to play other roles sometimes. One reason I like viola so much these days is because I get more variety - grooves, interesting counterlines, background textures, doubling the bass line, and yes, even the melody often enough to make it fun. I also tend to have a good time with my section as a violist. Other people have commented as well on how tight viola sections tend to be (as friends, not just musically 🙂), compared to violin sections. It may be anecdotal, but I do find that to be the case in my experience. I’ve had plenty of friends from my violin sections over the years, but the section as a unit didn’t tend to be friends the way my viola sections tend to.

I’ve also never particularly cared about being a featured soloist with an orchestra. I remember when people told me that many conservatory violinists in particular wanted solo careers, and sometimes felt that any time playing in an orchestra was at best a waste of their time, and maybe even “beneath” them and their station in life. This attitude never made much sense to me, as the thing I liked was playing in a group. I’ve had little featured moments over the years, as principal violist in a few orchestras where I get to play the principal solo line from time to time, though there aren’t that many viola solos in orchestral music. I got to play a featured tin whistle solo a couple of times, once with the Berklee Contemporary Fiddle Club in a show we did at Club Passim in Boston (really Cambridge) one year; and then again in 2023 with the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles, where I arranged a cinematic introduction to one of our sets with me playing a featured tin whistle solo. You can find the video for that one on the Videos page on my website. I’ve also been a featured musician with premieres of some of my compositions, but that’s a different sort of experience. But I genuinely like playing in a group with other players on equal footing, and that is what I find the most stimulating about musical performance.

If there’s a practical point to this extended “tip”, it would be go join a chamber or large ensemble and make music with others, it really is an exhilarating experience, and I think should be the primary point of music making. And it doesn’t matter what style or how big the group is - I have as much fun playing fiddle-related duets with someone playing guitar, piano, or even twin fiddles, as I do with larger activities, though my first love is still symphony (and sometimes string) orchestra.