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.  

Neville Marriner

Neville Marriner is an English violinist and conductor born on April 15, 1924 (Heifetz was 23 years old.) Marriner studied at the Royal College of Music and at the Paris Conservatory, though he was never a concert violinist. He had no famous violin teachers either. In 1949, he played violin in the Virtuoso String Trio and in the Martin String Quartet (second violin.) By 1952, he had become a member of the London Philharmonic. From 1956 to 1968, he was principal second violin with the London Symphony Orchestra. While he held that post, he founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (1959). The Academy is an English chamber orchestra which began life without a conductor in the style of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Marriner led from the concertmaster’s chair) – this orchestra later made him famous. Simultaneously, he was also associated with the Jacobean Ensemble. In 1959, he studied conducting (during summers in the U.S.) with Pierre Monteux (as did David Zinman.) He was also a violin instructor at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1949 until 1959 (some sources say until 1950.) After gradually assuming the conductor’s post with the Academy, he was the first music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (1969-1978.) From 1979 to 1986, he was music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. Subsequently, he was principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony (1986-1989.) Should you ever want to listen to Marriner’s violin playing, you can buy his recording of the concerto for four violins by Vivaldi. Though Marriner has well over 200 recordings to his credit, he is best known for his connection to the soundtrack for the Mozart movie – Amadeus.