From Yuri Bashmet's Masterclass @ SOTA (26 May 2012)

YURI BASHMET Viola Masterclass

The School of the Arts

Saturday (26 March 2012)

A proud moment for the five young viola students who had 20 minutes with the world's greatest violist Yuri Bashmet. On the left are the two piano accompanists, Albert Lin and Bertrand Lee.

The first student to perform was Amy Tan from the School of the Arts, who played the first movement from Hindemith's concerto Der Schwanendreher. Yuri Bashmet, who arrived half an hour late, listens intently on the side. Once he got up to speak and demonstrate, he did not return to the seat again.

Bashmet uses quite a bit of analogies in describing
how he would like the music to be played. 

Thaddeus Chong gets first hand tips on
delivering the opening phrase in
Brahms's Sonata in F minor.

Bashmet spent the most time with
Wu Jingting who performed
Vieuxtemps's Elegie most beautifully.

The maestro demonstrates on how to
get a certain effect from the viola.

Melody Teoh played the first movement
of Walton's Viola Concerto, and Bashmet  makes
a point on  phrasing  by illustrating how a herd of
kangaroos skips, much to the amusement
of the audience.

Theodore Chung has some instruction in Bartok's Viola Concerto, from one of the greatest interpreters of this work.

A panoramic view of the masterclass
in its last minutes. Its nearly 4pm and its
time for the maestro to return.
He has a flight to catch this evening.