NEWSLETTER                            Winter/Spring 2022

Playing in the Atlanta Symphony for many of us is literally a lifetime of dedication and commitment. We hope you enjoy this interesting article about one of our longest term musicians, Marian Kent, who is celebrating her 50th season this year. Congratulations Marian! And a special thanks to violist Cathy Lynn for writing this highlight. 

Happy February,
The ATL Symphony Musicians

Upcoming Performances
 

From Mozart to Mahler to the Movies, we have all your family’s ear-bugs plugged in and ready to go this month!

Triple Threat Dmitry Sinkovsky conducts Mozart “Jupiter” Symphony, plays Vivaldi’s Violin Concert, and sings Countertenor arias of Mozart and Handel, this weekend, February 10, 12, and 13.

The Harry Potter Film Concert Series returns to Atlanta Symphony Hall with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™ in Concert, the fourth film in the Harry Potter series on February 18 and 19.

Pop Legend Rick Springfield will dazzle the crowds on February 16 with hits like “Jessie’s Girl” and “Don’t Talk to Strangers.”

Principal violist Zhenwei Shi takes the stage for his ASO debut with Walton’s Viola Concert, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles, on February 24 and 26. Also programmed is Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, “Scottish.”

For more concerts and the Full Season Events Calendar, 
CLICK HERE.

From Hungary to Atlanta
A Violist’s Journey

Kuti Marika was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1947. Fearful of persecution for their Jewish heritage, her family escaped to Austria in 1956 when the Hungarian Revolution broke out and subsequently lived in refugee camps for two years.

The family immigrated from Austria to the United States in 1958 with the assistance of an uncle living in America; flying first to New York, they then settled in Los Angeles. The family name Kuti - already changed once from Klein after WWII - was anglicized to Kent, and Marika to Marian.

The family had learned some English in the refugee camps in anticipation of immigration, but her father, an accountant in Hungary, never mastered the new language and worked instead as a cabinet maker. Marian’s mother was a homemaker and worked a variety of jobs in Los Angeles. “It was a lot of hassle to leave your country and go to speak another language in another country. Part of my family stayed behind, but lots of Jews left in 1956,” Marian says.

Marian’s father was a music lover, and from him the young Marian got her great love of music. Her mother insisted on music lessons, and she studied the piano as a girl in Hungary. Once in Los Angeles, however, enrolled in junior high, piano lessons were not offered at school. The principal enrolled her in string class, and the sudden decision between violin, viola, cello and bass was hers to make. “They gave me like two seconds to choose what instrument I wanted to play; everybody wanted to play the violin and cello and the bass was too big, so I chose the viola,” Marian says. “I got a late start to viola, 14 or 15...but I took to it right away; I had no idea that it would become my career.”

Marian soon was studying viola with Milton Thomas, a highly influential violinist and violist in Southern California who worked/recorded with many great artists of that time, including Jascha Heifetz. Thomas also played in the Cleveland Orchestra for several years in the 1940’s. Under his influence, Marian studied intensively and participated in development-building opportunities during the summers such as the Arrowbear Music Camp and then later, the Congress of Strings (an orchestral fellowship program started by the American Federation of Musicians in the 1950’s). It was during this time she developed a great love of orchestral playing. “I knew I was going to be in music, I just wasn’t sure specifically [what I wanted to do]...” Marian says. “As the years went on I realized ‘I want to be in an orchestra, I want to play orchestra music.’”

After high school, Marian attended the newly opened California Institute of the Arts for two years and quickly realized she was ready for a bigger challenge. She considered transferring to USC, but she was restless and wanted to leave California for a new perspective. She applied to Juilliard, auditioning on viola and piano, and was awarded a grant to study viola. She transferred to Juilliard in 1969.

The next years were ones of great learning. Marion studied with some of the biggest names in viola at that time: Walter Trampler (with whom she did not get along) and William Lincer (with whom she did). Trampler is legendary for his recordings and Lincer was principal viola of the New York Philharmonic but is equally well-remembered for his string quartet — the Lincer Quartet — prior to his orchestral work.

Marian played at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts during the summers, and after graduating from Juilliard she freelanced, notably playing in The American Symphony Orchestra (founded by the conductor Stokowski in the 1960’s with a mission to make music available to everyone), and took orchestra auditions. In 1971, she was offered a scholarship to the New England Conservatory and accepted, studying viola with Burton Fine, principal violist of the Boston Symphony. An amusing anecdote Marian relates: she was talking to Burton Fine and referred to herself as “Marian the Hungarian;” in later correspondence to her he signed his letters “Burton for Certain.”

Marian continued to take auditions and had advanced in those auditions but not won any permanent position. When the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra had a viola opening, the newly- appointed conductor Robert Shaw asked his contacts at the Cleveland Orchestra if they had any leads on good viola players. Marian had sent a resume to Cleveland for an audition that was cancelled; upon Shaw’s request, her resumé was sent to the ASO, she was contacted for the audition “and the rest,” says Marian, “is hysteria!”

Moving to Atlanta in January 1972, Marian initially did not think she would stay long, but the work was rewarding, the orchestra kept getting better and better, and the years flew by. The orchestra was not yet on a 52-week season at that time, and she continued playing at summer festivals when the scheduling worked out. She did other extracurricular activities such as playing chamber music with the newly formed Atlanta Chamber Players and teaching viola at Georgia State University.

When asked about how the orchestra has changed over the years, Marian ruminates on the increase in competition for positions and virtuosity of technique: “With new people it goes higher and higher with technique...it’s like the Olympics, breaking records every 4 years...many people are equally qualified [and the decision-making for hiring becomes harder]...and that is an important distinction between now and decades ago.” This can lead to an over-emphasis on virtuosity as the most important attribute of an orchestral musician, but learning to play as one in such a large body is equally important. “Experience,” Marian says, “makes a huge difference...there is no substitute for that.”

Marian has also seen much personnel change in the ASO over the decades. When asked about the latest new viola hire, section principal Zhenwei Shi, she responds enthusiastically, “I like him...I like his style and respect him.” She has also played with most of the ASO’s music directors: Shaw, Levi, Spano and the newly-minted Stutzmann. While Marian feels no one director can be a master of everything, they all have great strengths; a brief summary of her thoughts on the music directors: Shaw was wonderful with choral music...Levi was masterful in his precision...Spano’s heart is with contemporary music...and Stutzmann is incredibly imaginative.

No conversation is complete without extensive discussion of string soloists and orchestral music, and Marian has strong opinions on both: “It starts and ends with Heifetz,” but concedes there are many current fine players, and she enjoys those in particular who make a concerto their own - as Heifetz did. Marian relates a fangirl meeting of Heifetz as a teen in Los Angeles. “I was hiding behind my teacher and wanted to tell [Heifetz] he is the greatest, but I was too starstruck." As for orchestral music, her favorite composers are Dvorak, Sibelius, Rachmaninov and Bruckner. When asked what a really great day in Atlanta would be, Marian replies succinctly, “playing a Bruckner symphony.”

Marian plays a viola by the Hungarian luthier Otto Erdesz whom she met in New York while at Juilliard; he made this viola specifically for her around 1970. Other interesting tidbits about Marion are: she thinks restaurants are for friends more than food, she loves small dogs (especially Chihuahuas), and she enjoys reading true crime stories and watching gymnastics and diving.

The 2021-22 Season marks Marian Kent’s 50th year with the ASO.