James Riccardo Conductor & Violin Ph: 805.400.7266 email: Bdwayricc@aol.com "Symphony of the Vines" Article Forty-one years ago, in the brace of an expectant autumn, a relatively clueless young violinist, fresh from a stint as a strolling violinist in the White House, wandered into Minneapolis with his young family and a contract to play with the Minnesota Orchestra. He wasn't quite sure of even what ensemble he had agreed to join. In his youth he had listened to the many Decca records of the famed Minneapolis Symphony, but this was called the Minnesota Orchestra. He had secured the position in a most unusual audition; alone with the maestro, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, in an empty Bell Auditorium on the campus of the University of Minnesota. James Riccardo had grown up on the east coast, in Norfolk, Virginia. He had trained with his father, Nicholas Riccardo, a violinist, who taught him the wiles of strolling as a fiddler and pocketing tips wile not losing a bow stroke. He had studied at the Eastman School of music, where he knew Hyacinthe Tlucek, subsequently a performer with the Minnesota Orchestra, who had not a little to do with securing him the private audition with maestro Skrowaczewski. Jim finished his formal training at the University of Michigan, working with Joseph Knitzer, once concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. His other mentors had been Joseph Gingold, Ivan Galamian and Berle Senofski. Jim's arrival in Minneapolis was greeted by an unusually early winter. Three inches of snow on October 3rd served as a warning as to what a Virginian might expect from Minnesota. Having brought all his winter wear from Norfolk, Jim was about as ill prepared for the upcoming months as he could have been. On one concert evening, with a temperature of 34 degrees below zero and a brisk wind blowing across his prematurely balding head, he set out, on a two-block trek, from his ancient Volkswagon toward sparkling, new O'Shaugnessy Auditorium. Jim had not brought to his new home a pair of gloves and about one block into the struggle it dawned upon him that this evening might, indeed be his last. Riccardo played for three years with the orchestra, but found something missing in the day-to-day life of a section violinist. He sought to enhance his artistic challenges by writing a column in the orchestra program called "Meet the Orchestra". His photo- portraits of the players were accompanied by little known facts of the musician's lives. Photography, painting and writing had always been Jim's hidden passions. Music had been given to him as sacred inheritance from his father. All the Riccardos had been musicians and young James wasn't able to break the chain. Jim left the orchestra in 1972 to join the Winnipeg Symphony as principal second violinist. He departed cold Minneapolis with his young family, his wife a fine cellist and two sons, and traveled north to the coldest inhabited place in North America. His stint there lasted less than one year. A separation from his wife and yet another disillusionment with orchestral life led him to audition for the young and vibrant Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The ensemble, under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies, seemed to offer the cutting edge artistic experience that he'd been seeking. Jim's first year with the SPCO felt like home to him. Even a season devoted to the music, or non- music, of John Cage was life enhancing. As he spent hour after hour with the intimate musical family that was the Chamber Orchestra he saw an outlet for one of his true passions. Jim began to draw cartoons depiction every aspect of life in the orchestra. He carried multiple drawing tablets on every tour and eventually a history of the orchestra was born. Jim published two volumes of the drawings. But, to this day he guards a secret cache of never-to-be-seen-by-the-public cartoons. As concert followed concert and tour followed tour, the siren of something better, something more dangerous, raised her voice. Jim left the orchestra after four years and considered putting music aside, risking the disapproval of the elder Riccardos. He eventually was forced to pick up the fiddle to feed himself but knew that the reason he played was, nothing more than that. One evening, while gazing upon a painting he had purchased during his last year with the SPCO, it dawned upon him that these passions he had harbored might serve as his work. What had he to lose? Another attempt at orchestral life seemed pointless. And so, with no idea how a business was run, Jim gathered his small collection of oil paintings and watercolors, rented a miniscule space near Loring park and opened the Loring Gallery. His time spent in the gallery was what he had always hoped life might offer. He could draw, make hand-colored greeting cards, construct exotic stuffed toys depicting tropical fish or just sit and chat with any art lover who might wander into the three hundred square foot art space. His openings were famous. Lavish feasts and concerts of song and poetry accompanied the showings of midwestern painters. Crowds spilled into the street. But Jim didn't notice that many in the crowd were merely people looking for something good and free to eat. He was feeding the homeless, most of whom were not terribly appreciative of modern art. After two years Jim saw the handwriting on the cramped walls of the gallery .He wasn't making a nickel. After losing about fifteen pounds Riccardo decided he had to pull the fiddle out and put it to use as a partner in the gallery. He began to give lessons in the cramped space and little by little the sounds of mildly out of tune scales and Kreutzer etudes replaced the art chat. The music wafting from the gallery was advertising enough to build a sizable class of students. Music began to have a different meaning to Jim. He loved the engagement with his students and soon found that teaching gave him a new view of music itself. He discovered that he was a born explainer and got as much reward from his students as he offered them. In 1978 Riccardo was offered a teaching position at Macalester College. This was the first of many positions he would hold in Twin Cities colleges. He felt at ease with the responsibilities of training young fiddlers. There was not the numbing demand of performing anonymously for guest conductors who would never know your name. He loved his students and felt that when they finished their four years with him, though they wouldn't write to tell him, they would remember his influence on them. During the second year of his tenure at Mac Jim was offered the opportunity to conduct the orchestra. This dizzying prospect had not appeared on his radar. He accepted the interim position and began, from scratch, the study of what would be a new career. He soon discovered that conducting was nothing more than teaching on a grand and complicated scale. Whereas, in private teaching, a student demanded your complete attention, in conduction, everyone in the orchestra demanded your complete attention. It was multi-tasking in a most thoughtful and artistic way. In 1981 Riccardo was offered the directorship of the Kenwood Chamber Orchestra. For nine years he worked with the community ensemble. During that time he took on the direction of the Saint Paul Jewish Community Orchestra. In a whirlwind period of his life he would also began teaching at St. Olaf College and Augsburg College, where in addition to teaching he directed the orchestra. Instrumentalists who aspire to conducting sometime forget that conducting is not the same as performing on the instrument that has become such an intimate part of their being. Jim soon learned that, just as with the fiddle, it would take many, many years to become at ease with the baton. Not only was it a new challenge to read, spontaneously, the many lines of a score, a greater challenge was to connect, with eye contact and true empathy, with each of the forty or fifty members of the orchestra. Though never a great multi-tasker, Jim found these macro-connections a joyful opportunity. In 1994 a colleague and friend, Dr. Marvin Goldberg, a radiologist at the University of Minnesota medical school and a violinist with the Kenwood Chamber Orchestra, approached Jim with a proposal to began an orchestra at the medical center composed of personnel in the medical profession. There has always seemed to be a powerful connection between the practice of medicine and the performance of music. The decision as to which practice to pursue seems to often be made based on the financial rewards. But as they say, you can take the doctor out of music but you can't take the music out of the doctor. Dr Goldberg sent out an email asking if there were interest in the idea of a medical orchestra. He received over 60 replies, though the responses included half a dozen trombonists, more than a handful of flutists and three hammered dulcimer players. A tiny ensemble began its existence that fall and for several years struggled to develop its musical soul. With the generous support of Fairview-University auxiliary and the Academic Health Center, the orchestra was afforded the opportunity to perform a number of concerts at Ted Mann auditorium. However most of its playing was done in small performances before patients and medical staff, in accordance with its stated mission of presenting music for the sake of healing. It has long been believed that music creates a healing resonance that can be as valuable as medicine, surgery or physical therapy. And the orchestra soon learned that doctors and nurses, as well as patients, need care and healing. The Health Sciences Orchestra is completing its 16th season with a gala send- off of James Riccardo on Saturday, May 8th, at Ted Mann auditorium. The concert will be presented at 7:30 PM and will feature local piano virtuoso John Jensen, performing the 4th piano concerto of Beethoven. The program will begin with Mozart's overture to The Marriage of Figaro. The finale of the program will be a performance of Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony number one, in A flat major. The monumental work, which is rarely attempted, is both the orchestra's farewell to Riccardo and his farewell to the city that has been his home and to the students and musicians who have nurtured his talents. Jim will be moving, with his wife, Pat Crowns, to the central coast of California. Pat is a psychologist, specializing in forensic psychology, and will be working at a high security hospital near San Louis Obispo. Jim and Pat have been married for 20 years and this new adventure will test their collaborative skills. Riccardo trusts that art and music will find him as they always have. He welcomes the job of supporting a hard working wife with an unspoken passion of his. Jim loves to cook and when Pat returns from the battlefield of the California penal system, he plans to ease the end of a day with one culinary creation after another. Life begins now, as it does for everyone, at the beginning of every day. EDUCATION: 1961-1963 Attended Old Dominion College, Norfolk, Virginia 1963-1964 Attended Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York 1964-1966 Attended University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1966 Received Bachelor of Music degree from University of Michigan RESUME: 1957-1961 First professional engagement (age 14) with Norfolk Symphony. Norfolk, Virginia. 1961-1966 Educational Studies - Old Dominion University, Eastman School of Music and University of Michigan (Bachelor of Music - Performance) Instructors of violin: Ivan Galamian, Joseph Gingold, Berle Senofsky 1966-1969 - United States Army Strings, Washington, D.C. (Performing in the White House) 1969-1972 - Member of the Minnesota Orchestra 1972-1973 - Principal second violin with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra 1973-1977 - Principal second with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra 1976 - Concerto soloist with St. Paul Civic Orchestra 1978-1991 - Instructor of violin, viola and chamber music, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN 1979 - Concerto soloist with St. Paul Civic Orchestra. 1980-present - Performing artist, Minnesota Composer's forum. 1981-1990 - Music Director and Conductor, Kenwood Chamber Orchestra. 1981-present - Member, Minnesota Opera Orchestra. 1982-present - Member, Plymouth Music Series Orchestra. 1982-present - Member and frequent concertmaster, Lake Harriet Pops Orchestra 1984 - Guest conductor with Bloomington civic Symphony, Blmtn, MN. 1985-1993 - Music Director and Conductor, Saint Paul Jewish Community Center Symphony. 1985-1994 - Instructor of violin and viola, Saint Olaf College, Northfield, MN. 1987-1988 - Director of orchestra, string music and classroom instructor, Augsburg College, Mpls, MN. 1994 - Guest conductor with Minneapolis Civic Symphony. 1994-present - Concertmaster Historic State and Orpheum Broadway Show Orchestra. 1994-present - Principal violin, Prairie Home Companion, MPR. 1995-present - Music Director and Conductor, Health Sciences Orchestra, Fairview/University Hospital, Mpls, MN. 1995-present - Concertmaster, Plymoth Music Series. 1995 - Concerto soloist with Austin Symphony, Austin, MN.