Copious Notes

Deborah Lander, the University of Kentucky’s first full-time viola faculty member, is trying to foster some unity in the Lexington-area viola community.

Deborah Lander. Photo by Rich Copley.

The Kentucky Viola Society held its first meeting over the weekend at Lander’s apartment and is aiming to meet further and plan events. Lander is serving as president of the club, Paul Engelbrecht is president elect (meaning he takes over in two years), and Melissa Gross is secretary treasurer.

Talking to the Herald-Leader earlier this year Lander noted that the viola is often marginalized as second banana to the higher, flashier violin. In her native Australia and here, she has been working to raise the profile of the deep, mellow instrument, including performing as a soloist on the Lexington Philharmonic’s January MasterClassics concert.

Lexington has a pretty active viola community including L.O.V.E. (Lexington’s Original Viola Ensemble), directed by Nancy Campbell and Joanna Binford, which performs at area events including a set prior to the January’s Philharmonic concert.

If you are interested in becoming involved with the viola group, contact Lander at debviola@gmail.com.

Morihiko Nakahara accepts a standing ovation following his concert conducting the Lexington Philharmonic. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Morihiko Nakahara has only been in Columbia, S.C., for half a season. But Friday night in Lexington, he showed he’s already getting the hang of SEC cities.

Complimenting the Lexington Philharmonic Orchesrtra, which he was in the middle of conducting, he said it was holding up well for being in the middle of a conductor search.

“Having a new conductor every cycle is like your basketball team having a new coach every game,” Nakahara said to the audience in the Singletary Center for the Arts. He also threw in a knock against Florida for good measure, assuring the audience he would be long gone by the time the UK Wildcats play the University of South Carolina Gamecocks next (Jan. 31).

Soloists Daniel Mason, violin, and Deborah Lander, viola.

Friday night though, he was the man in the hot seat, the eighth conductor to step onto the podium and audition to succeed George Zack as the Lexington Philharmonic’s music director.

Before the concert, the sign outside the President’s Room at the Singletary Center said “Concert Preview,” but it felt more like Nakahara and moderator Joe Tackett’s floor show.

Fielding Tackett’s regular question as to when the maestro might program a bass concerto, Nakahara said, “I have done a tap dance concerto . . . never going to do that again. I wasn’t planning on a bass concerto, but there’s always a price.”

He also had a little fun with LOVE, the name of the viola ensemble that played in the lobby before the concert. Told the name was an acronym for Lexington’s Original Viola Ensemble, Nakahara asked, “There are unoriginal viola ensembles? It sounds like there’s some competition in this town.” (LOVE, by the way, played an appropriately love-ly pre-show set.)

It was a night for the chocolate of instruments (Joe!) and Nakahara talked about how the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, played by concertmaster Daniel Mason and UK viola professor Deborah Lander, spotlighted the viola section in addition to the viola soloist. He also talked about an underlying theme of dance in the concert, which included Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6 and opened with Ballata Sinfonica by Japanese composer Akira Ifukube.

The Ifukube, by the way, seemed to be a big hit with the audience.

“That was awesome,” the woman sitting next to me said. “I was not prepared for how wonderful it was.”

Others, during intermission, commented on being pleasantly surprised by the piece by Ifukube, best known for scoring Godzilla movies.

On stage, Nakahara was the first of seven male conductor candidates thus far to break from the traditional white tie and tails ensemble. He opted for a tuxedo jacket and open-collar shirt, which made him look very comfortable.

Further reading:

~ Loren Tice’s review (including a Mamma Mia! reference.)

~ Our profile of Morihiko Nakahara, including audio of our interview.

~ Tell the Philharmonic what you thought of Nakahara.

As far as Deborah Lander is concerned, Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra fans are going to hear the chocolate of instruments Friday night.

“Anyone who plays the viola will tell you that the reason they take it up is because they’ve fallen in love with the sound,” Lander says. “It’s such a fantastic, dark sound, like chocolate - dark chocolate. It’s the best instrument, no question.”

There’s also no question that seeing a solo violist is a bit of a rarity.

The last time a violist stood in front of the Lexington orchestra was when Nokuthula Ngwenyama visited in March 1999. That doesn’t surprise Lander, who will break the instrument’s nearly decade-long drought when she and Philharmonic concertmaster Dan Mason play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola on Friday.

Lander wants to raise the status of the instrument, and she’s in a position to do it.

A native of Australia, she is the first full-time tenured professor to teach viola at the University of Kentucky.

If she has a predecessor, it is beyond the records or the memories of anyone in the UK School of Music.

Before Lander’s arrival, viola students studied with adjunct professor Margie Karp, who also had violin students in her studio.

“Though we’ve had success, there are students who would like a viola professor who is a ­violist,” says Mason, UK’s violin professor. “That’s an important asset in attracting the best students, and it gives us credibility, especially with Deborah’s résumé.”

Growing up in Sydney, Lander played violin until she was 11. That’s when she began studying with a teacher who played viola, and she picked up the instrument, which looks like a violin but is larger and has a deeper sound.

“When I was 13, I remember my father showed me a video of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and I said, ‘I’m going to play with them,’ and I did,” Lander says. “I was very focused.”

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