ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090037
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: ROANOKE
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
For Ming-Feng Hsin, what looked like a tragedy may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to him.
The latest candidate to try out for the job of music director and conductor of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, the Taiwanese native was on the way to what looked like superstardom as a violin soloist when a stage accident simultaneously put an end to his solo career and opened the door to conducting.
Hsin (pronounced SHIN) will conduct the Roanoke symphony in performance in Burruss Hall at Virginia Tech the night after his initial performance with the symphony in Roanoke.
It would be hard to invent a better start if you could write the story yourself. At 13, Hsin was heard by the legendary Yehudi Menuhin, who took him to London for four years of study at the prestigious Menuhin School.
From his base at the exclusive private school in the London suburbs, the teen-ager performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish National Orchestra and other world-class ensembles.
After his four charmed years with Menuhin, Hsin continued his schooling in America at the Curtis Institute, studying under Ivan Galamian, the teacher of such performers as Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.
"Then came the accident," says Hsin. "I was jumping onto a stage and I landed badly." So badly that his left hand sustained serious injury. It was painful to play or to practice. Doctors were unable to offer relief.
"It was a traumatic experience. Since the age of 6 I had wanted to be a violin soloist. I was doing so well and I loved to communicate with an audience - it was almost as if I'd lost my voice.
"I had hopes of coming back for eight or nine years, and to tell the truth I still have hopes. For the first two years I was running around seeing doctors - this from a life of being a busy soloist. I wasn't getting too far, and I even considered surgery, but I canceled it the day before it was to happen because the doctor sounded to me as if he wasn't sure what he was going to do."
A lifetime's dedication and work had apparently gone for nothing. But there was music inside Hsin that had to come out, and it finally occurred to the musician to give conducting a shot.
"I went into conducting, and it was a revelation. I studied with Otto Werner Mueller at Juilliard, and it was as if I had been given a new-found voice."
From considering conducting the "next best thing" to performing, Hsin began to realize that he still could make music on the podium even if he never made a sound. He is now conductor of the South Shore Symphony in Long Island, N.Y., and has conducted many other orchestras around the world.
The average music lover may be forgiven for thinking that Hsin may have exaggerated the damage he sustained onstage that fateful day, given that he still performs on his violin. In fact, he beat out a thousand other candidates to gain a position as first violin with the Met Opera orchestra in New York City. Hsin will both conduct and solo in Beethoven's "Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2" when he visits Roanoke and Blacksburg.
Many violinists would regard a slot as first violin with the Met as the culmination of a career. So, was his solo career ruined or not?
"I wouldn't like to boast, but the fact is that basically I'm solo material but I can't withstand the rigors of a solo career, the pressures of having to play back-to-back concerts. Although my hand has gotten better and continues to get better," Hsin said. The musician says his time in the pit at the Met has given him an advantage over many who conduct orchestras today.
Unlike some young artists who go directly from studying conducting to a podium, Hsin has seen it all from both sides of the baton.
"The playing I now understand from the point of view of a conductor and the point of view of a player in one of the best orchestras in the world. I can see whether or not what a conductor does works. As a conductor I understand how the instruments sound. I can kinesthetically relate to them.
"String players especially respond to me in a good way.
"Some conductors, never having played in an orchestra, will get up there and not be willing to listen to feedback. They'll say, 'I'm doing this very clearly, why don't you guys respond?' A conductor must be very humble and open to his players. That's when great things happen."
In addition to Hsin's solo turn with the Beethoven Romance," the program Monday and Tuesday nights will include Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" overture and Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations." Daniel Silver will solo in the "Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra" by RSO composer-in-residence Margaret Brouwer.
Curtain time in both Roanoke and Blacksburg is 8 p.m., and tickets remain for both performances.
The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Ming-Feng Hsin, will perform Tuesday at 8 p.m.in Burruss Hall on the Virginia Tech campus. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for senior citizens and $5 for children 12 and under. Tickets are still available at Squires Student Center and other locations around the valley. Call 231-5685 for information.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra will play in concertby CNBTuesday at Virginia Tech's Burruss Hall. color.