Ex-Symphony Violist Faces Virgin Territory as Soloist

Violist Karen Elaine has discovered that there is life after the symphony. After a scant three-year career as a member of the San Diego Symphony’s viola section, Elaine resigned last spring to pursue a solo career. So far, so good.

This weekend the 25-year-old musician is performing with the Indiana University Symphony in the premiere of David Baker’s “Concert Piece for Viola,” which Baker wrote for Elaine after she won the 1988 Bruno Giuranna International Viola Competition. According to Elaine, winning the Giuranna event--which was held in Paraiba, Brazil, and netted her a $15,000 prize--started her thinking of a solo career.

“I went to Brazil for the experience of competing and to see another part of the world,” Elaine explained. “I didn’t expect to win first prize. When I finished college, I thought I would be an orchestra player, but after the competition I decided to set my ambitions on a solo career.”

Besides teaching viola students at San Diego State University, Elaine has made several recordings and performs by herself and with the Rinaldi String Quartet, of which she is a regular member.

“My last year in the symphony, I saw that my teaching and solo performances equaled my symphony salary. I decided there was no point killing myself doing two jobs. At least now I have time to practice my solo literature.”

Unlike a pianist or violinist, violists who chart a solo career have the additional challenge of proving their instrument’s right to the center spotlight. Music lovers have their favorite violin concertos and piano concertos, but many aficionados would be hard-pressed even to name a viola concerto. Elaine maintains that the viola music is there; it is just rarely performed. She explained that when she performs or records a viola work, she is almost always charting virgin territory.

“When a violinist plays the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, for example, the soloist can take liberties because the orchestra knows the piece so well--they have it securely in their ears. But when I recorded Ernest Bloch’s ‘Suite Hebraique’ with the London Symphony, for example, I had to play it straight because the orchestra was playing the piece for the first time. That’s the situation for violists, but I take pride in adding to the recorded repertory of the viola.”

Elaine recorded the Bartok Viola Concerto for Delos records after the Brazil competition and is waiting for the release of her recording of Dello Joio’s viola concerto “Lyric Fantasies.” She hopes to entice SDSU Symphony music director Donald Barra into programming the new Baker concerto, which she described as a jazz-inspired or third stream composition, next season.

“Slowly, the viola is coming out of the shadows.”

Reynolds on CD. The New World Records recording of Roger Reynolds’ 1989 Pulitzer Prize-winning composition “Whispers Out of Time” was released last month and is now available locally at Tower Records. Under the baton of Harvey Sollberger, members of the San Diego Symphony and UC San Diego’s contemporary music ensemble SONOR recorded the disc last year after the symphony’s concert devoted to Reynolds’ music.

The CD provides an excellent entree into Reynolds’ rich, complex idiom. The intricacy of Reynolds’ style can be daunting on the initial hearing, but with repeated exposure, “Whispers Out of Time” yields its sophisticated musical rewards. The performance is polished and cleanly recorded. “Transfigured Wind II,” a more extended, earlier Reynolds opus, completes the disc. This virtuoso work with solo flute, deftly performed by UCSD faculty member Jon Fonville, flaunts Reynolds’ compositional craft. But “Whispers” continues to invite the listener to return for more subtle revelations.

Mozart call-in. The Kingston Mainly Mozart Festival will take to the air waves Monday for a three-hour fund-raising radiothon on KFSD-FM (94.1). Hosted by ESPN sportscaster Phil Stone and local attorney Gary Laturno, the program will offer an impressive batch of premiums in exchange for pledges and the purchase of Mozart festival season tickets. Among the premiums are 200 dinners for two at a wide range of San Diego eateries from the plebeian Soup Exchange to the tony downtown Salvatore’s. A few luxury premiums--trips to Hong Kong, Munich, and Mexican cruises--will be auctioned off.

Sprucing up at State. San Diego State University’s overly utilitarian Smith Recital Hall has long been scheduled for a thorough redesign and refurbishing, but lean university budgets in recent years have regularly put this project on the back burner.

Now, however, the music department is taking matters into its own hands with a campaign to raise $300,000 from friends and alumni of the department to begin the refurbishing. Department chairman Martin Chambers will kick off this campaign tonight at 7 with a rededication of Smith Recital Hall.

Before the rededication concert given by music faculty members and alumni, Chambers will unveil a portrait of J. Dayton Smith, which will hang in the hall’s foyer. The recital hall was named for Smith in 1979, the year the late department chairman retired.