Floridian: Everything in concert

Everything in concert

The Florida Orchestra's concertmaster juggles her role as "right-hand man'' in Tampa Bay with finishing a master's degree program in Cleveland.

By JOHN FLEMING

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Florida Orchestra is becoming known for its bright young concertmasters. First, there was Ellen dePasquale, who went from the first violin chair in the Tampa Bay area to associate concertmaster of the acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra.

Now the Florida concertmaster is Amy Schwartz, 25, who begins her second season when the orchestra starts rehearsals this week after being off for the summer.

"Now it's official," said Schwartz, who was acting concertmaster most of last season. DePasquale was technically on leave until resigning in the spring.

Top-level violinists tend to make it big when they're young, and being concertmaster here is Schwartz's first professional job. She was still a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music when she won the audition just over a year ago.

"I think the reason it was easier for me was I just felt there was not a whole lot of pressure on me," she said. "I was still in the middle of my master's degree. I just went into the audition with kind of a clear head, thinking it was going to be a really good experience for me."

Schwartz continues to work on her degree, studying under violinist Donald Weilerstein at the institute. Last week, she was practicing in her St. Petersburg apartment for a master's recital she was scheduled to play Saturday in Cleveland. The program included sonatas of Brahms, Faure and Ysaye. Once the recital is behind her, all that remains to be done are comprehensive exams.

"I'm a professional now, but I'd like to get my degree," she said. "I still have to take comprehensives on the pieces on this recital. I have to examine them and be ready to discuss the history and theory. I much prefer performing to analyzing, but it's important that you know the history behind the pieces."

Concertmaster is the most important post in an orchestra, since she is the leader of the string sections. It is especially important when the music director is not a string player. Florida Orchestra's music director, Jahja Ling, is a pianist.

"The job is definitely being the right-hand man to the conductor," Schwartz said. "It's also being a leader for the strings -- and for the entire orchestra -- but especially for the strings because I'm showing by example with my bow stylistically how the pieces should be played. And I think it's important for the concertmaster to set the mood, to be charismatic in terms of getting everybody excited about the music, to keep the morale up. I see that as a big role."

Concertmasters also play solos. In October, Schwartz will be the soloist in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto on a program led by guest conductor Joseph Silverstein, a onetime concertmaster himself with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In December, she and associate concertmaster Stewart Kitts will play Bach's Double Concerto in a coffee concert.

Schwartz plays a Vincenzo Sannino violin, an Italian instrument made in the early 20th century, she thinks. The quality of a violin matters a great deal.

"You want something that feels good in your hands," she said. "When you pick up a Strad and play on it, it almost plays itself. I like a darker sound, as opposed to a bright, tinny sound."

It's not unusual for a good violin, such as a Stradivarius, to cost millions of dollars.

"I was pleased to find mine because it's in a price range where it's somewhat affordable," Schwartz said, adding that the price was not in the six-figure range. "I have a huge loan that I'll be paying off for a long time. It's like putting a down payment on a house."

A concertmaster is one of the highest-paid members of an orchestra, traditionally earning double the minimum salary set by the musicians' contract. That would mean about $55,000 a season for Schwartz.

In addition to Schwartz's becoming concertmaster, the Florida Orchestra has a number of other musical changes. Auditions for principal flute will be held this fall to replace Catherine Wendtland Landmeyer, who was on leave last season and resigned over the summer.

But the biggest change is coming on the podium. Ling will step down after next season, and the search for his successor is under way.

"Hopefully we're going to take full advantage of Jahja while we still have him, because he's doing wonderful things now," Schwartz said. "I think everybody's excited about looking for someone new and just keeping the continuity of the orchestra and looking forward to the future."

Schwartz began playing violin at 4. She grew up in Greenville, N.C., where her father taught music appreciation at East Carolina University. She started out in a Suzuki violin program, which teaches children to play simple tunes by rote rather than having to learn musical notation at an early age. Suzuki was the thing to do in Greenville.

"All my friends played Suzuki violin," she said. "On Saturday night we'd get together for play-ins, where everybody plays by memory and they all play the same tunes. I never thought I was any different until I was 12 or 13 and won my first competition."

Because of its emphasis on playing by rote instead of reading music, Suzuki is controversial among purists, but it cuts down on the drudgery of conventional lessons. "I like the positivity of it," Schwartz said. "Basically, it's like teaching English. You can teach violin like kids learn to speak a language by listening. It's just a matter of getting the positive reinforcement and listening a lot."

As a high school junior, Schwartz moved to San Francisco to study with Zaven Melikian, former concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. She still has San Francisco ties, including her boyfriend, jazz drummer Steve Moretti, who plays with Michael Feinstein and Rosemary Clooney, among others.

Although Moretti is based in San Francisco, he and Schwartz met when he was playing in Toni Tennille's band on a Florida Orchestra pops program last season.

"I love listening to him play jazz gigs," she said. "My musical taste is very diverse. I listen to everything. I have Dave Matthews Band CDs. I turn on MTV and watch that. I listen to rock radio."