Happy Birthday, Aaron Copland (1900-1990). Watch Orion Weiss perform Copland's seldom-heard Sentimental Melody and read more about Copland in an article by David Patrick Stearns.

Flutist John Thorne plays “Syrinx,” Geneva Lewis and Adam Neiman play the second and third movements of the Debussy Violin Sonata, plus Part 1 of Clarissa Bevilacqua’s rendering of Ysaÿe’s “Obsession."

Clarissa Bevilacqua plays Rush by Augusta Read Thomas, the Fischoff Competition-winning Risus Quartet’s performance of Schubert’s Quartettsatz, Geneva Lewis and Adam Neiman play the first movement of the Debussy Sonata, Playing with Viotti, a lighthearted film from NEXUS Chamber Music.

Congratulations to Guarneri Hall Affiliate Artist Sirena Huang, who has been named the gold medal winner of the 11th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (IVCI). Sirena takes home a cash prize of $75,000, a Carnegie Hall recital debut at Stern Auditorium, a recording contract, plus website development and maintenance until the next competition.

In the summer of 1983, I found myself playing a Mozart viola Quintet led by Jorja Fleezanis, then the much-admired Associate Concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony. Jorja's egalitarian leadership made me feel as welcome and as integral to the rehearsal process as the others.