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.

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.”

Read the rest of this entry »