William Fitzpatrick - violin expert

The Many Stories of Bill Fitzpatrick: Playing for Lillian Fuchs

How a young violinist can gain respect from older, acclaimed musicians

In this video, Prof. Fitzpatrick tells a story about how, as a young violinist, he gained respect from a famous, older violist.

Released on November 24, 2021

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DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this video are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Virtual Sheet Music and its employees.

Video Transcription

Back in the 70's at the Aspen Music Festival there were chamber music master classes given by the famous violist and pedagogue Lillian Fuchs. I and some friends decided to play the Mozart G-minor Quintet in her class so I went to one and was completely taken aback to hear her say to someone, "Now, BOY, do this ...". Considering her age I shouldn’t have been surprised as she must have been raised in that environment. So I decided that if she called me boy, I would just shut up and take it. So we played the next week and the most remarkable thing happened, she never once said, "Boy" to me! From that moment on I had a huge amount of respect for her, both as a violist, chamber-music coach and most importantly as a human being.
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Comments, Questions, Requests:

George Mahida * VSM MEMBER * on November 24, 2021 @8:39 am PST
Once again Professor Fitzpatrick your humility shows.
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