Does the origin of the word 'amateur' - from

amator, Latin for lover - explain why so many

non-professional musicians are so dedicated to
their art? Violinist ANNA JENKINSON reveals the
impressive achievements made by her feilow
amateurs in snapshots from across the globe
round the world, amateur string music-
is thriving. While professional musicians
have to do hours of daily practice, face
ever-tougher competition and can't always
ch(K)se what they play, amateur musicians
can decide for themselves whether to focus on chamber music
evenings with friends, join a local orchestra or prepare for a music
festival during their holidays. Amateurs can pursue their passion in
a serious and dedicated way. F-vcn amateurs who had considered
becoming professional seem to have no regrets about following a
non-musical career and striking a balance between work and music.
Amateurs come from all walks of life. An amateur musician
may work all day as a researcher or an engineer, or may ha\-e
young children to look after or older ones' exams to worry about,
but music is always there. It's not unusual that friendships formed
through musical networks help an amateur player settle into a new
home or become the focus of their social life.
Here, amateur players from Uis Angeles and Boston through
to I xmdon, Brussels and Stockholm, and on the either side ofthe
world in Singa(X)re and Seoul, share their experiences and explain
how their love for music has shaped their lives.
P laying music is my recreation,
my sociai iife, my k ick s, my iaughs,
my everything
B ILL SIM M ONS
DAVID WILLIAM-OLSSON
Based: Stock holm
Instrument; cello
Profession; retired radiologist
Duvid William-Olsson has been an organiser ofthe Mazer
String Quartet Society for more than two decades. As well
as weekly get-togethers, the st)ciety's 350 music lovers
can attend weekend courses, borrow music from the society's
library and, as William-Olsson puts it, 'meet new friends
and new music'.
When travelling overseas, William-isson prefers not to
take his own cello, an i Hth-century instrument made by the
Englishman Henr\' Jaye. Instead he simply takes the directory'
of international network Amateur Chamber Music Players
(ACMF), where he was a Ixiard member for three yeani. 'Wlien
goingabn)ad somewhere its usually |K)SsI)le to tlnd people to
play with and also someone I can borrow a cello from,' he says.
William-Olsson has never had a problem combining
music with work or study. In fact, he's convinced that
regularly playing chamber music 'makes you 30 per cent
more productive in se\'eral aspects of your life'.
He likes to have a numiter of music projects on the go at
one time, be it his annual summer trip to Norway for a week-
long course with the Maggini Quanet (see feature, page 44),
his aim to play a nonet every year, or his wish to promote
lesser-known chamber music, such as the Stenhammar
quanet he recently performed at the siK-iety's weekly soire.
THE SrRAD DECEMBER 2008
w ww.thest rad.com
PETER CRAIK
Based: London
Instrument: doubte bass
Profession: marketing and communications manager
Peter Craik recommends playing the double bass for many
reasons. It opens up for him the wfiHd of jazz, as well as that
ot"cla.ssicai music, his maip love. He jokes that there's always
room in an ensemble for a| bassist who can play in tune and in
time. .\nd he says it's fjreat tor matchmaking he met hi.s
wife in a double ba.ss section and knows two other couples
who met the same way. 'i^Iusic is a very important part of
who I am," Craik explains.
As marketing and com^nunications manager at the Royal
Academy of Music in London, he also finds that his playing
makes a real contribution to his working life. 'It helps me to
understand how musicians work."
He plays in the amateur London-basc-d ensemble the
Haydn Chamber Orchestra, and loves the excitement that
young professional conductors such as Robin Ticciatl and
Nicholas Colln generate when they work with the orchestra.
Craik has also been involved with young composers: he
helped to set up a comfxisers' orchestral project in which he
and other experienced amateur players rehearse intensively
frjr a day and then give new works their tlrst [>erformance.
Craik took up ihe double bass at the age of i ^ on a full-
size in.stnjment, and he finds his level has greatly improved
through experience. That said, he is considering taking up
lessons again to achieve a musical goal: performing Rossini's
Duo for cello and double bass with his wife.
HYERIM KIM
Based:Seoul
Instrument: ceilo
Profession: educational researcher
In Soutii Korea, many musicians find like-minded players of
a similar standard through Cywodd, the Korean equivalent
of Facebook, and other online immunities. That's how the
Seoul-based L'ni String Kn.sembie that Hyerim Kim plays in
g(n started four years ago, and how they keep in touch now.
The amateur ensemble, whose name comes from the idea
of being united, has a professional conductor, Ji Hoon Kim,
tor its weekly rehearsals and twice-yearly concerts. 'He likes
to teach us because we are very passionate and eager to study,'
says Kim. 'He conveys to us how to make a g(X)d sound and
what the meaning of an ensemble is, as well as teaching us
about the composers and the works. It's like a dream me
true to piay with friends who are as passionate as me.'
Kim was brought up in a musical family and she
remembers having a lot of house concens where solos, piano
trios, string quanets and (uintets would all be played. As a
child, she wanted to become a professional cellist, but she
later realised that there were other things, such as education,
that also interested her. Now an educational researcher, she
says that work and music are different parts of her life, but
that l)oth are equally important. 'Music is another life to me.'
she explains. 'There are two wheels on my bicycle one
wheel is my job and the other is my music.V
www, I he 5tfad.com
DECEMBER 3tWS THE STRHO
CHAN KIN YEO
Based: Singapore
Instrument: violin
Profession: architect
During his teenage years, Chan Kin Yeo pushed himself
hard to achieve musical excellence, taking masterclasses
with violinist Takako Nishi/aki, whom he recalls as "a strict
woman with vet^ high standards', and achieving distinctions
in his Grade 8 violin and associate performance diploma.
When it came to deciding what to study at university,
though, he considered the prospects of being a musician in
SingafX)re and opted for architecture. Now in his mid-thirties,
he's happy with his choice. 'Music is s(imcthing very
important in my life, hut i do it for enjoyment,' he explains.
He's principal second violinist in the amateur Braddell
Heights Symphony Orchestra in Singa|X)re and recently
started playing first violin in a string quartet with other
members ofthe orchestra. As well as performing at wedding
receptions and fund-raising events, his other musical outlet
is playing at church each week.
Chan would like to nd a go<xJ teacher and take up
lessons again. He also hopes his daughter will start to play
an instrument as soon as she reaches the age of four or five,
the very age he staned the violin.
EVE COHEN
Based: Los Angeles
Instrument: viola
Profession: mathematics and computer speciaiist
Eve Cohen is a violist with several fixtures in her annual
musical diar\': four week-long chamber music courses held
each summer in Bennington, Vermont; a New Year's Eve
party at her home in Los Angeles where music is played into
the small hours of the morning; and another annual musif
party where she arranges for about 80 musician friends to play
in most ofthe rooms of her house from mxin until midnight.
.'Vs for Bennington, or the Chamber Music Conference
and Composers' lH)rum ofthe East to give it its full title,
Cohen says, 'I wouldn't miss it for anything.' Admission is by
audition and it's a time tor serious study, working with a score,
being coached and ho[>efully reaching that 'exhilarating'
moment when you have an intimate knowledge of how your
part fits in with the whole, as happened this year forOihen
with Bartk's Third String Quanet.
When she switched fitim the violin to the viola at the age
of 15, she said she discovered 'the real me'. That love seems to
have rubiied off on her family: her husband and two daughters
all play the viola too, as well as either the violin or cello. 'Music
is a huge part of what we do as a family,' Cohen explains.
She has u.sed her professional background as a
mathematics and computer specialist to write scheduling
software that ensures musical events are well organised so
that no one player is cix]>caed, for example, to IK; in different
rfMims at the same lime. Her 2009 music party will be a
'T-party': all the music played will be by compisers
whose name starts with T.
THt STRAD DEMKR 2008
www.thestfad,corti
FRANZ MARCUS
Based. tSruisels
Instrument: cello
Profession; retired civil servant
The Brussels-based chamber niiLsic a.s.si;iati()n 1 Cambrisii
was the brainchild of Danish musician Franz Marcus. He
established ihe group in 2000 K make it easier tor musicians
to Und iikc-mindcd pei)ple ic play with. Since then, a sister
organisation has sprung up In Lille, dubbed Chti Cambristi
after the local French dialect. Marcas is also forging links
with players in other countries such as the Netherlands to
tr\' and set up similar orgabisations there.
.\t the age of 18, he played music with friends studying
at the Copenhagen conservatoire. WTiile he opted to study
engineering, he saw his friends 'take my teacher and become
very tamou.s' as the Copenhagen Quartet as he recalls with
a smile. For him, music has always been something to enjoy
outside of work, and he is tonvinced that it's more enjoyable
that way. When he u.sed to travel between the five Nordic
countries as a civil servant, he would have access to a cello
in every place so that he could always play. 'Chamber
music opens a d(x)r for you into people's homes and
the country,' Marcus explains.
Now that he is retired, ihis travels are often music-related.
He ha.s recently returned from an ACMP board meeting in
Texas, and in the summer he went to the Verbier Festival to
take part in the Amateur Chamlwr Music Week, tor which
he was also an adviser. Marcus is passionate aliout getting
more [x:ople, esfiecially younger players, involved in chamber
music playing. That's a key reason why he's so active in
amateur music on both locsal and international le\ els.
BILL SIMMONS
Based; Boston
Instrument; cello
Profession; retired oceanograpber
i t someone knwked on your d(K)r at 2am and said they
needed a fourth person to read through the Bartok quartets,
the only possible answer would be, "Sure, just let me fmd
my shirt,'" says Bill Simmons, explaining the le\'el of
commitment needed to join his annual chamber music
festival, kncjwn as Heaven.
Simmons, a cellist and recently retired oceanographer,
started the festival two decades ago because he found
that players' levels were too varied at most commercially
run festivals, with the result that many sessions weren't
satisfying, His initial target group was musicians in the
northeast ofthe I'S, but over the years the festival has
expaidcd to include string players from all over the world,
with ages ranging from 19 to 80. Participation is by
invitation and personal recommendation.
'It's like a special school for geeks. We s[K;nd our lives
searching for people who love amateur playing as much as
we do. We get to Heaven and suddenly everyone in the
world is just like us,' he explains.
Simmons, whose hobbies include instrument making,
classes himself as a serious amateur player. Kvery Fridav
evening his Boston home is filled with chamber music as he
and his violinist wife play with musical friends. He sums up
his love of amateur playing by exjilaining: 'It's my recreation,
my social life, my kicks, my laughs, my c\-<--rything.'
www.the5trad.com
DECEMBER 20CHf THE STRJU>