Violinist Found His Calling Via Family Plan

Some musicians are born into musical families. Violinist Haroutune Bedelian, who plays the Beethoven Concerto with the Mozart Camerata in two performances this weekend, was born into something more like a dynasty.

“The violin was the instrument, if you like, of the family,” Bedelian said by phone during a recent break from violin classes he teaches at UCI. “My eldest cousin, Manoug Parikian, was a pupil of my father and was the concertmaster of the famous Philharmonia Orchestra in London from 1948 to 1957.

“My father had students all over the world. He was extremely dedicated to music and its teaching. Music was a language in our family. I don’t know what it means not to be a musician. It goes with breathing, with living, everything.”

It was a bit of a miracle that his father, Vahan, actually lived long enough to have students, much less a son. An Armenian living in Turkey, the elder Bedelian barely escaped the Armenian genocidal massacre there during World War I, largely on the skill of his playing.

But he didn’t want to tempt fate a second time when the French left the country in 1921. He and his wife fled to Cypress. Haroutune was born there in 1945.

By age 15, he was good enough to win a scholarship to London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Music. He graduated at 18, then went to New York to study with pedagogue Ivan Galamian, whose roster of prize-winning students includes Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukermann, Kyung Wha Chung and a host of others.

“Up to that time, everything had been very instinctual for me and I had to relearn everything with the help of Mr. Galamian, to see how things work. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy teaching, because of seeing the way the whole thing works. That process is still going on.”

Another teacher, violinist Nathan Milstein, also had a great impact on him. “He was a dedicated musician, a very brilliant mind and, of course, a genius for music,” he said.

In the Beethoven Concerto this weekend, Bedelian will play Milstein’s cadenzas but not exactly in their familiar shape.

“Toward the end of his life, he made some changes,” Bedelian said. “I’ll be playing the final version.”

Milstein also influenced his overall interpretation of the work.

“He saw the Beethoven more as a brilliant work than a romantic one, with very free playing. He saw the opening cadenzas and said, ‘What about [Beethoven’s] “Emperor” Concerto? It’s exactly the same--a cadenza with arpeggios and scales. This is a brilliant work. Play it in that manner.’

“I can’t say that everyone will agree with that. My interpretation will be a little different. You can’t do what the great do. They have their mark, their stamp, on everything they do.”

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As a teacher, Bedelian tries to put his stamp on things by stressing a “whole musician” approach. From Bach’s time through the late 19th century, he explained, musicians routinely composed, played a number of instruments and conducted. In the 20 century, specialization set in, and musicians were trained in only one of these skills.

“I believe in the next century that will come back. It’s about music. Music is everything, not just one small area. It would be wonderful if all musicians would be trained as composers as well as to play other instruments. And, of course, to sing. Voice is the first instrument.”

Still, if Bedelian stresses going back to the past in one sense, he remains committed to the present.

“I have given premieres of a lot of 20th century works,” he said. These include the world premiere of Aroutiounian’s Violin Sonata, the Dutch premiere of Schnittke’s “Preludium in Memory of Dmitri Shostakovich,” the first British performance of Hovhaness’ Second Violin Concerto and the New York premiere of Thea Musgrave’s “Coloque.”

“I have played 20th century music quite a bit,” Bedelian said. “Here at UCI, there is a very strong stress on American music, and we want to encourage it as much as possible for the preservation of the culture of this country.”

In fact, Bedelian and his wife, pianist Lorna Griffitt, are planning a CD of American music by composers such as Amy Beach, Ives, Hovhaness, Hale Smith and UCI colleague Bernard Gilmore, who wrote a piece for them.

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He married Griffitt, a student of Menahem Pressler, nine years ago. They met while he was a teacher and she a student at London’s Royal Academy. She was an American, but their decision to come to UCI in 1988 wasn’t based on her homesickness.

“I wanted to make a change,” he said. “I was offered positions at different universities. I came to UCI. I was very impressed with it and impressed with its potential.”

They have two sons: Ara, 8, and Vahan, 6.

“My father and I were born on May 6, and my son Vahan was born on May 6. So we had to name him Vahan.”

He also found here a violin maker, Rena Weisshaar, skilled enough to have built him a violin modeled after his 1699 Rogeri. The process took nearly a year. Bedelian said, however, that it’s too soon to use the new instrument for the Camerata concerts.

“She has built a wonderful instrument for me, but a new instrument takes at least six months of playing before it begins to sound they way it should. It sounds excellent now. But I would like to wait. It’s a little bit early.”

* Haroutune Bedelian will be the soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Mozart Camerata led by Ami Porat at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine, and 4:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 600 St. Andrews Road, Newport Beach. $23-$29. (714) 250-3131.