Just after lunch last Tuesday, a group of five advanced violin students filled the Sebring-Lewis Concert Hall with the beautiful sounds of composers from the Baroque to the twentieth century.

Albert Liu ’13 began the recital with a solo piece by J.S. Bach for violin, and was followed by Georgia Bock ’13 and Qimeng Gao’13, who played Jules Massenet and Jean-Baptiste Accolay respectively. Sami Rebein ’14 then dedicated her piece, Szymanowski’s “Chant de Roxanne”, to her mother of the same name, who was in the audience. Finally, Leah Meyer ’15 concluded the recital with a piece by Austro-Hungarian composer Erich Korngold. Lecturer Melinda Westphalen, Music, accompanied the last four performances on piano.
The five performers take lessons in advanced violin under Nancy Gaub, who studied at both Juilliard and Chicago College of Performing Arts.

“I love teaching violin at Grinnell because the students are enthusiastic and very smart,” Gaub said. “At the conservatories I studied at, there are students who are terrific players, but have little curiosity about anything else. I always find my students here very stimulating.”

Students study violin with Gaub for various reasons, whether they are continuing to pursue an instrument they have played since they were three or four years old, or whether they have never played before in their life and just find the instrument appealing.
Gaub’s students receive guidance in “the basics of tone production, intonation, dynamics, as well as musicianship,” she said. She tries to push her advanced students to the extremes of expression and technique.

“Since I have students at so many different levels, they each play different pieces,” Gaub said.

She emphasizes that all of her students are worth hearing.

“So many of [my students] comment that they love hearing our semester-end recitals,” Gaub said, “The beginners all the way to the most advanced, as they hear different repertoire they might like to play themselves, and hear things to which they can aspire.”