Emmy Verhey

Emmy Verhey is a Dutch violinist born (in Amsterdam) on March 13, 1949.  She is known for having placed very highly in the 1966 Tchaikovsky Competition.  She was only 17 years old.  Although she also began concertizing at a very young age, she kept studying with various teachers.  Her first teacher (at age 7) was her father (Gerard Verhey) but she soon (one year later) began her lessons with one of the top Hungarian violin pedagogues – Oskar Back.  She later studied with Herman Krebbers, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and David Oistrakh.  She made her debut on December 7, 1961, playing the Havanaise by Saint Saens.  She was 12 years old.  On September 3, 1962, she played the Tchaikovsky concerto.  She was 13 years old.  Her career has mostly been spent in Europe, particularly the Netherlands.  Verhey has an extensive discography (more than 55 CDs) and has collaborated with some of the world’s top artists; Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Mariss Jansons, Bernard Haitink, Neville Marriner, and Janos Starker are among them.  She began teaching at the Conservatory in Ultrecht in 1983 and retired from there in 2002.  According to one source, Verhey was also the concertmaster of the Ultrecht Symphony Orchestra for 8 years – possibly from 1977 to 1985.  (Ultrecht is about 20 miles southeast of Amsterdam.)  Verhey has also performed chamber music extensively with a variety of artists.  She has frequently brought attention to little-known composers such as Arthur Laurie, Othmar Schoek, Alphonse Diepenbrock, Charles Avison, Theo Loevendie, and Chris Duindam.  In 1991, she co-founded the Camerata Antonio Lucio with whom she made several recordings.   Among the violins she has played are the Earl Spencer Stradivarius from 1723 (or 1712 – accounts vary - now being played by Nicola Benedetti) and an Andrea Guarneri from 1676.  Verhey will play a final public concert (after which she is retiring from concertizing) on November 29, 2015.  The program includes Schubert’s Trout Quintet, Schubert’s String trio (the one in B flat), a violin sonata by Tristan Keuris, and another violin sonata by Theo Loevendie.  YouTube has many videos of her playing.  Here is one featuring the well-known Rondo Capriccioso.  

Simone Lamsma

Simone Lamsma is a Dutch violinist and teacher born (in Leeuwarden, Netherlands – about 70 miles northeast of Amsterdam) on October 5, 1985.  Opinions vary, of course, but I think it is no exaggeration to say she is among the top ten present-day violinists in the world.  As has been the case with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, there are few music critics who have resisted the temptation to refer to her striking beauty in their reviews of her performances.  From her photograph, you can see why.  Lamsma’s recordings have already garnered huge praise.  Her tours have included performances with chamber music ensembles around the world.  Needless to say, Lamsma has performed with all of the top orchestras in the Netherlands, including the best orchestra in the world – the Royal Concertgebouw.  She began her violin studies at age 5 at the Northern College of Music.  Soon thereafter, she enrolled at the Sweelink Conservatory in Amsterdam and studied for a while with well-known violin pedagogue Davina van Wely.  In 1997, at age 11, she enrolled at the Yehudi Menuhin School in London, England.  She also studied at the Royal Academy of Music until 2004, the year she graduated, with Hu Kun in the same city.  After that, she began studies with Maurice Hasson at the Royal Academy as well.  In addition, Lamsma also participated in master classes with Yehudi Menuhin, Zakhar Bron, Herman Krebbers, Julian Rachlin, and Zvi Zeitlin, among others.  By 2006, she had made her recording debut which immediately earned the award for Instrumental and Chamber Disc of the Month from Classic FM magazine.  She was 21 years old.  She was named an Associate at the Royal Academy of Music in 2011.  From various sources I checked, it is evident Lamsma loves violin competitions and has won a number of them beginning at a very young age.  Her tours have taken her to China, the U.S., South America, and, of course, throughout Europe.  She frequently collaborates with conductor and former concert violinist Jaap van Zweden, one of her many champions.  Her U.S. debut was in 2009 in Indianapolis with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.  Lamsma frequently collaborates with other major artists to perform chamber music.  A typical review reads something like this: "… a terrific account of Beethoven's Violin Concerto [was heard] with Simone Lamsma as the sensational and glamorous soloist.  Powerful in control, the young Dutch violinist drew silvery meticulousness and burnished tone out of the Stradivarius, but it was her sense of line and phrase that held her audience spellbound.”  Another one: “Lamsma’s mix of high ardor and collegial spirit is something to be treasured.”  And another: “Her sound is full of energy and refreshing.”  Here is a YouTube video of one performance and here is another.  Among other violins, she has played a (Ferdinand) Gagliano (1773), a Carlo Tononi (1709), and the Habeneck Strad from 1734, but her current violin is the Chanot Stradivarius (aka the Braga Stradivarius) of 1718 (or 1681 or 1726 – sources differ.)  It has been loaned to her by an anonymous benefactor.  The violin is reportedly protected by a (Dimitri) Musafia violin case, one of the best violin cases available.  The Chanot Stradivarius is rather unique in that it has no corners and has been described as guitar-shaped although it is definitely not guitar-shaped.  The Chanot was purchased by Joshua Bell in 1987 and subsequently sold.  It is said to have been featured in the 1998 movie The Red Violin.  

Photo is courtesy of Denis Ryan Kelly, Jr 

Oskar Back

Oskar Back was a Hungarian (some would say Dutch) violinist and teacher born (in Vienna) on June 9, 1879, (Brahms was 46 years old.)  He first began lessons with his father then continued with Jacob Grun (teacher of Oskar Morini, Erica Morini's father.)  At age 17 he travelled to Belgium.  There, at the Brussels Conservatory, his main teacher was Eugene Ysaye.  Although his achievements as a violin virtuoso earned him the respect of many outstanding musicians, he eventually became an important violin pedagogue because, just as Ivan Galamian did, Back suffered from debilitating stage fright.  He taught for many years at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.  Among his famous students are Theo Olof (concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for many years), Herman Krebbers (teacher of conductor Andre Rieu), Davina Van Wely (teacher of violinist-conductor Jaap Van Zweden – the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Concertgebouw), and Alma Moodie (Carl Flesch’s favorite pupil.)  A Stradivarius violin built in 1666 is known as the Back Stradivarius, even though he only owned it for one year (1957), and a well-known violin competition in Amsterdam, begun in 1967, is named after him – this year, it runs from April 22 to April 28.  Back died on January 3, 1963, after an unsuccessful surgery (just as Camilla Urso also died), at age 83.  As far as I know, he never recorded anything, although that seems very unlikely.

Emmy Storms

Emmy Storms is a Dutch violinist born on December 22, 1988 (Perlman was 42 years old.)  She began violin lessons at age five.  She has been studying at the Royal School of Music in The Hague since age 8, where her principal teacher is Koosje van Haerlingen.  In 2005, at age 16, she took first prize at the Davina van Wely Competition and in 2009 a third prize at the National Oskar Back Violin Competition, playing the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the Orchestra of the Conservatory in The Hague.  Many in attendance felt she deserved the first prize at that competition.  Since 2006 she has taught at the Conservatory in The Hague.  It is just a matter of time before she is discovered as a world-class talent, justifiably belonging in the top ranks of violinists – alongside Hilary Hahn, Leonidas Kavakos, Leila Josefowicz, Gil Shaham, Maxim Vengerov, and Pinchas Zukerman. 

Jaap van Zweden

Jaap van Zweden is a Dutch violinist and conductor born on December 12, 1960 (Perlman was 14 years old.) His father was one of his first teachers in Amsterdam. In the U.S., while still a teenager, he studied with Dorothy Delay at Juilliard. In 1979 (at age 19), he was appointed concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the youngest to ever hold that position. He left the Concertgebouw in 1995 and gradually moved toward a conducting career - Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Eugene Ormandy, Theodore Thomas, Alan Gilbert, and David Zinman were also highly accomplished violinists who became conductors. Van Zweden became a full-time conductor in 1997, his post with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra being one of his first (1997-2000.) In 2005, he became the chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and will also lead the Dallas Symphony (from 2008) until 2012. In addition, he will simultaneously lead the Royal Flemish Orchestra (Belgium.) I do not know if he even still plays the violin. However, here is proof that he was indeed a virtuoso violinist at one time. 

William DeFesch

William DeFesch (Willem de Fesch) was a Dutch violinist, cellist, organist, composer, and teacher born on August 26, 1687 (JS Bach was 2 years old.) Little is known of him other than that he composed Oratorios for the London public at the same time as Handel. At age 21 (1708), he was concertmaster of the civic theatre orchestra in Amsterdam. He was choirmaster in Antwerp from 1725 to 1731. He then went to England in 1732. Handel was already there. In fact, DeFesch was Handel’s concertmaster. DeFesch composed lots of chamber music, concertos, and two Oratorios (one of which is lost.) You can hear some of his music on YouTube. According to some sources, DeFesch died on January 3, 1761, at age 73. According to others, he died four years earlier, in 1757. 

Anton Kersjes

Anton Kersjes was a Dutch violinist and conductor born on August 17, 1923 (Heifetz was 22 years old.) After World War Two, he began his career as a violinist with the Tuschinski Theatre Orchestra in Amsterdam. He later established his reputation as a conductor of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra - not to be confused with the Royal Concertgebouw. The Amsterdam Phil started its life in 1953 as the Kunstmaand Orchestra and adopted its new name (Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra) in 1969. It then became - after a merger with two other Dutch orchestras - the Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985. In addition to conducting a huge number of concert, opera, and ballet performances, he was Assistant Director of the Maastrich Conservatory. He also recorded a few albums, a few of which are still available. As far as I know, Anton Kersjes never conducted in the U.S. Outside of Holland, his name is almost never mentioned. He died on December 2, 2004, at age 81.

Louis Zimmermann

Louis Zimmermann (Louis Johann Heinrich Zimmermann) was a Dutch concert violinist, composer, and teacher born on July 19, 1873 (Brahms was 40 years old.) His first lessons were with his father. As a teenager, in Leipzig (1890), he studied with Hans Sitt. Later on, he studied with Eugene Ysaye in Brussels. In the late 1890s, he played in some Royal Court Orchestra in Germany. He then played first chair (in the first violin section) of the Royal Concertgebouw (Orchestra) from 1899 to 1904. He had the distinction of playing the violin solos at the English premiere of Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben in 1902, with the composer on the podium. From 1904 he was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Amsterdam and then Concertmaster of the Concertgebouw from January, 1911 to January, 1940. He was a regular soloist with the orchestra, as when he played the Beethoven violin concerto with them on November 29, 1931, and again on January 10, 1937. A live recording of his rendering of the Beethoven is still available. Here is a rare YouTube audio file of one of his recordings.  Zimmermann’s compositions include chamber music, a violin concerto (premiered in 1921), and cadenzas for the Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart violin concertos. Louis Zimmermann died on March 6, 1954, at age 80.  

Theo Olof

Theo Olof is a Dutch violinist born on May 5, 1924. He spent his early years in Germany, where he was born. One of his principal teachers was Oskar Back. He gave his first concert at age eleven with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. For many years, Olof was concertmaster of the Hague Philharmonic (Residentie Orchestra). He was also concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from 1974 until 1985. Until 1982, Olof taught at the Royal Conservatory (The Hague).

Nico Richter

Nico Richter was a Dutch violinist, composer, and conductor born on this day (December 2) in 1915. He began his violin studies at age 5, though I’m not sure about that – it could have been age 4. He entered medical school in Amsterdam and graduated in 1941, though he always worked hard at composition and violin. He was 26 years old.  Fritz Kreisler was another violinist who studied Medicine. Between 1929 and 1934, Richter composed many works – most of them short – including a violin concerto (1933) and four symphonies. He studied conducting with Herman Scherchen in Belgium and wrote an award winning cello concerto (1935) which was premiered in Brussels’ Palace of Fine Arts with Emanuel Feuermann as soloist. Richter died at age 29 (August 16, 1945) as a result of frail health. Some of his chamber music has been recorded.