IDA KAVAFIAN: CELEBRATING 35 YEARS WITH MUSIC FROM ANGEL FIRE
IDA KAVAFIAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR of Music from Angel Fire, is celebrating her 35th-year anniversary with the world-class chamber music festival. Kavafian has been the life force and glue behind the festival’s success. She talked about her musical beginnings and what Music from Angel Fire has meant to her over the years. “My whole family is comprised of musicians – grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents, my sister,” said Kavafian.
“So, it was natural that I would become a musician.” Kavafian was born in 1952 in
Istanbul, Turkey, to Armenian parents. They met while playing professionally for the Istanbul State Symphony. “My father was principal violist, and my mother was in the first violin section,” Kavafian explained. “My mother gave up her career to raise her two girls.” Kavafian came to the U.S. in 1956. She grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Her older sister took violin lessons from a teacher who came to their home.
“I was always curious about what they were doing,” remembers Kavafian. “I was about 6 years old. Finally, the violin teacher gave me a pitch test and a rhythm test, and decided I had talent and he wanted to teach me violin.” The teacher told Kavafian he would bring her a little violin to play the next week and after some practicing in secret, she gave a presentation to her parents. Her father was delighted, but her mother thought her youngest daughter was too independent to want to practice. Soon, however, her mother warmed to the idea. A young Ida began her music lessons in earnest with that same teacher, Ara Zerounian. Years later, after Kavafian’s father passed away, Zerounian became her stepfather. Kavafian went on to attend Juilliard School in New York City where she studied with Oscar Shumsky. She became a superb professional musician, internationally acclaimed as both a violist and a violinist. Kavafian performs as a soloist, a chamber musician and is frequently in recital with her sister, violinist Ani Kavafian. The sisters have performed together with the symphonies of Detroit, Colorado, Tucson, San Antonio and Cincinnati. In 2008, they celebrated the 25th anniversary of their first Carnegie Hall performance together. The Kavafian sisters were joined by their students and colleagues at Lincoln Center for the anniversary performance. Ida Kavafian has served on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music since 1998, where she was recognized with the 2013 Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. Kavafian also serves on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and has taught with the Juilliard School for many years. “I’ve come to teaching later on in my life, and I’ve done a lot of performing and traveling before then,” Kavafian reflected. “I feel I had such amazing mentors and teachers myself, that I really want to pass down some of their principles and teachings so it will last for another generation.” She advises her students that it’s best not to have too many fixed ideas about how their career paths will develop. Her own career has unfolded in unexpected ways — it has been a fulfilling one. “I always tell my students to be open to what might come your way and not to have set career goals, because sometimes you can miss things that come while you’re looking for that. I think it’s best to go ahead and just take it all in, and then find your way,” said Kavafian. “We can have experiences that we might not be looking for, but are available to us.” Kavafian is a longtime member of the Lincoln Chamber Music Society, which she joined in 1972. She plays regularly with the piano quartet Opus One and the ensemble Trio Valtorna, both of which she co-founded. Kavafian also founded Tashi and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. She was a member of the Beaux Arts Trio for six years. Kavafian has toured and recorded with the Guarneri, Orion, Shanghai and American string quartets, as well as musicians Chick Corea, Mark O’connor and Wynton
Marsalis. Speaking about Music from Angel Fire, Kavafian said, “I would put this festival up against any other festival anywhere in the world. When you consider our home base is in a town of less than 1,000 year-round residents, that’s sort of amazing. The fact that this quality of music happens in this community is amazing and also the reason that it happens is because of the community.” A unique element of Music from Angel Fire is the festival’s Young Artists Program. Since 1988, pre-professional musicians from the Curtis Institute of Music have come to the festival to study and perform with some of the country’s most distinguished professional chamber musicians. Most years, Music from Angel Fire commissions both a professional American composer and a young composer from the Curtis Institute to create new works of music, which are premiered at the festival. The young artists also promote the art of music by engaging in schools and community outreach performances. This year, the 36th annual Music from Angel Fire presents the world premiere of Richard Danielpour’s “A Shattered Vessel” for string quartet on Friday, Aug. 16, at the Angel Fire Community Auditorium in Angel Fire. There is a repeat performance on Saturday, Aug. 17, at Old Martina’s Hall in Taos. The event runs from Aug. 16 to Sept. 1. For more information, visit musicfromangelfire.org or call (575) 377-3233.
SEE CALENDAR ON PG. 215 AND 216 FOR 2019 MUSIC FROM ANGEL FIRE EVENT LISTINGS.
One of the Music from Angel Fire's favorite ensembles, ‘Opus One’, opened the 2018 program with the dramatic Mozart G Minor Piano Quartet.