Legacy of Viola

The faculty’s first musical leaders, Croatian- born Louis Svećenski and Louis Bailly from France, set this tone with incomparable artistry and prestige. Among his many accomplishments before arriving at Curtis, Svećenski had been a member of the Kneisel Quartet, which premiered Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 (“American”), one of the most popular chamber works in the repertoire, in 1894. In an equally important performance, Bailly premiered Ernest Bloch’s Suite for Viola and Orchestra in 1920. The prominence of these violists and their commitment to new music shone a spotlight on Curtis that would only grow brighter through the careers of its subsequent faculty.

Throughout Curtis’s history, members of its viola faculty have been interconnected with acclaimed composers, resulting in some of the most remarkable and enduring viola repertoire of the 20th century. Scottish violist William Primrose cultivated these relationships eagerly, commissioning new works from a variety of composers with a nearly unparalleled voracity. The Viola Concerto by Béla Bartók stands foremost among them. Primrose commissioned it in 1944, unaware that the composer was terminally ill. He had to wait to premiere the piece until 1949 after it had been completed by Hungarian violist and composer Tibor Serly in the wake of Bartók’s death. Primrose’s other artistic connections led to such works as Benjamin Britten’s Lachrymae, Darius Milhaud’s Viola Concerto No. 2, and George Rochberg’s Sonata for Viola and Piano. Rochberg’s Sonata held a personal significance for Primrose, as it was written in honor of his 75th birthday. Primrose was to premiere the piece himself at the Seventh Annual Viola Congress in 1979. Because he was in ill health, he asked his student Joseph de Pasquale (’42)—who had also been a student of Bailly and Max Aronoff (Viola and Chamber Music ’34)—to give the premiere, which he did to great acclaim.

Primrose also significantly influenced the revolutionary technique developed by his student, Karen Tuttle (’48). Originally a violinist, Tuttle was close to giving up music entirely due to chronic injuries when she witnessed Primrose in concert and was captivated by his relaxed approach to playing. Primrose convinced her to switch to the viola and move to Philadelphia to study with him. Tuttle’s experience under his tutelage greatly influenced the development of what would become known as the Karen Tuttle Coordination Technique. She designed her groundbreaking approach to address tension issues that uniquely plagued violists, in ways that would keep players injury-free and facilitate the production of a richer sound. Thousands of performers and pedagogues attend workshops dedicated to her technique every year so that they can pass her wisdom on to future generations of violists.

The Curtis viola legacy of tradition and innovation is perhaps most fully manifested in its current faculty. Husband-wife duo Misha Amory and Hsin-Yun Huang (’92) enjoy high-profile solo and chamber careers. Visiting faculty Edward Gazouleas (’84), who studied with Michael Tree (’55) and Tuttle, imparts his wide-ranging expertise in chamber and orchestral repertoire to students. Roberto Díaz (’84), the school’s president since 2006, hails from a rich Curtis lineage. He first studied viola with his father Manuel Díaz—who studied with Primrose, among other others—and Joseph de Pasquale—who studied with Primrose, Aronoff, and Bailly—and Burton Fine (’48), a student of Ivan Galamian.

Benefiting from the perspectives of four outstanding teachers, the thirteen current viola students at Curtis are poised to emerge from the school with the best tools to influence their field, discover new musical languages for their instrument, and carry forward the traditions of viola teaching that have stood the test of time since the school’s founding.