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Sheboygan Symphony's March 24th Concert has Ties to the Past

on 03/22/2007 10:37 AM

As Eric Hudak, violinist with the Sheboygan Symphony begins to play, the beautiful music will be produced on an instrument hand-made by Sheboygan craftsman, Alfred Smith, in the late 1940s.  Smith was the only violin - maker in the Sheboygan area; and one of the few in the entire U.S.  Hudak stated, “I have had a chance to play the instrument and have been impressed at how beautiful it sounds. It has a deep rich tone with a fairly centralized ‘heart’.”

The opportunity to play this vintage instrument resulted from a chat Hudak had with co-worker, Jenny Schmidt, the wife of Al Smith’s grandson, Jim. When discussing Hudak’s 8-year tenure with  the Sheboygan Symphony, Schmidt offered to let him play the violin that she had refurbished to its original finish by Dave Koebel, of Roots Music Store in Sheboygan Falls.

(Al) Smith was born on a farm near Comstock, WI. At twelve he wanted a violin; and since the family finances would not allow the purchase of an instrument, he built one. That experience was the start of something big; over the years Smith transformed rough wood into 117 violins over sixty years.

A talented craftsman, Smith produced two models patterned after the Le Messie Strad and the King Joseph violin made by Guarnieri. Meticulously he built the entire body, neck and scroll of the violins from rough wood. Carefully selected spruce and maple were chosen for superior tonal qualities and the attractive grain. After tedious planning, chiseling, scraping, sanding and measuring were completed; Smith painstakingly finished the masterpieces with a specialized varnish that provided each violin with their richness of tone.

The March 24th concert celebrates a variety of musical options from around the world. The first piece, Tyzen-Hsiao’s Cello Concerto in C reflects Taiwanese folk music that combines vernacular musical elements of Taiwan with Western compositional techniques. Ravel’s Rhapsody Espagnol and Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony#4 transport the listeners to yet another continent after the intermission.

Cello soloist, Yu-Hsien Wu, was born in Taichung, Taiwan. She began studying the cello at nine and won first prize at the National Youth Music Competition in Taiwan at the age of eleven. In 1999, she earned her Bachelor of Music Degree from Soochow University in Taipei with First Honors. Wu came to the United States and earned a Master’s Degree from the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College in New York.  She recently received her doctorate in cello performance with a minor in piano performance from UW - Madison in 2006.

Wu performs as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber player across the United States. She is on the faculty of Ripon College, Madison Country Day School, the Teaching Division in the School of Music at University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the chamber music program of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra.

 

Eighth Notes

1. Tickets are available for the March 24th concert. Ticket prices are $38, $33, $28 and $15 for students. Please call the Symphony Office at (920) 452-1985. Tickets are also available in the box office two hours prior to concert.
   

2.  The Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra’s guest artist for the March 24^th Concert, cellist, Yu-Hsien Wu, will lead a master class at Lakeland College Friday, March 23^rd at 3:00 p.m. in the Bradley Building Performance Hall.

3.  The March concert is sponsored by The Vollrath Company.