Yariv Aloni
MUSIC DIRECTOR
2010-2011
Celebrating 25 Years 1986-2011
Dedicated to the
memory of János Sándor
in
gratitude for 15 years of musical mentorship
Conductors
Yariv Aloni
Music Director (Appointed 2010)
Associate Music Director (2002-2010)
János Sándor
Music Director (1996-2010)
Stuart Knussen
Founding Music Director (1986-1990)
Yariv Aloni, Music Director
“When the musicians are playing this well, the critic can pay attention to the interpretation and here Aloni pierced unerringly to the heart of the music.”
Deryk Barker, “Youth Orchestra Performs Brahms with Mastery,”
Victoria Times Colonist, Feb.14, 2005
Yariv Aloni has conducted orchestras across western Canada and has received praise for his impassioned and inspiring interpretations of major orchestral and choral repertoire.
Born on a kibbutz in Israel, Yariv Aloni began violin lessons at age eight. He studied viola with David Chen, Daniel Benyamini and Michael Tree, and his chamber music teachers included members of the Amadeus and Guarneri String Quartets. His conducting studies were under the mentorship of the late János Sándor.
As violist of the Aviv and Penderecki Quartets, Mr. Aloni performed in concert halls worldwide, including Lincoln Centre, the Louvre, and Tonhalle. In 1985 he was invited to join Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman in a gala concert at Carnegie Hall. He has recorded for the United, Marquise, Tritonus, and CBC labels. He appears regularly with Vancouver’s Vetta Ensemble and in solo and chamber music recitals. A dedicated teacher, Mr. Aloni has given master classes at universities across Canada. For ten years he was Artistic Director of the Comox Valley Youth Music Centre. He currently serves on the faculty of the University of Victoria.
Yariv Aloni is Artistic Director of the Galiano Ensemble and the Victoria Chamber Orchestra. A longtime GVYO coach, clinician and guest conductor, he became Associate Music Director in 2002, and was appointed GVYO Music Director in July 2010.
János Sándor, Music Director 1996-2010
“Sándor summoned forth from his players pure magic, from the hushed openings to the glowing climax. I was not surprised to find tears running down my cheeks.”
Deryk Barker, Victoria Times Colonist, April 19, 2004
With much sadness we announce that our beloved Music Director, János Sándor, died on
Friday, May 14, 2010, in Victoria Hospice, with his family by his side. Our hearts are with
János's wife Mária, their son Zsolt and daughter Gabriella, and with our Associate
Music Director, Yariv Aloni, who has supported János and all of us involved with the GVYO
throughout this difficult time, and who will carry János's legacy forward.
We have lost a dear friend, companion and guide. He leaves an inestimable gift of mentorship, as a
musician and as a human being. We are so grateful to have known him and shared in a life so well and
fully lived, and we will do our best to honour him by following his example.
A Memorial in honour of János Sándor was held at the University Club, at the University
of Victoria, on Tuesday May 25, 2010. For those who were unable to attend, or who wish to reflect on
the life of this wonderful man, we reproduce here, Special Edition Society Newsletter - June 2010, the tributes paid to János
Sándor by his GVYO friends.
A short film excerpt produced by Asterisk Productions, showing János conducting his last
rehearsal with the GVYO, was presented at the memorial service. It can be seen here: János in Rehearsal. This
excerpt was taken from footage of Asterisk Productions' upcoming documentary film, commissioned by
the GVYO for our upcoming 25th Anniversary Season.
A tribute to János by music reviewer Deryk Barker (Music in Victoria) can be read here.
Donations in memory of János Sándor may be made to: Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra,
1611 Quadra Street, Victoria, BC V8W 2L5.
Born in Hungary in 1933, János Sándor began his professional career at the age of 18, as principal timpanist and youngest member of the Hungarian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra. He studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest, where he graduated with distinction, and in Siena (Italy) with renowned conductor Sergiu Celibidache. A prize-winner at the Besançon (France) International Conductors Competition, he conducted major orchestras across Europe and North America, making over 30 recordings. His recording for Hungaroton of Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin, Dance Suite and Hungarian Peasant Songs, qualified as one of "the best five recordings of the year" in Hi-Fi News, and was awarded the Arthur Honegger Prize of the Grand Prix Nationale du Disque. Possessor of an extraordinary gift for encouraging young people, he was a founder and regular conductor of Jeunesses Musicales in Hungary, and invited guest conductor at International Youth Orchestra Festivals in Switzerland, Scotland and Canada, where he conducted the Gala concert of the inaugural Festival of Canadian Youth Orchestras in Banff in 1974, returning frequently for 15 years.
Since moving to Canada in 1991, Mr. Sándor was guest conductor with the Victoria and Edmonton Symphonies, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, and the Sonor Ensemble of San Diego, and regularly returned to conduct in Europe. In 1995 he joined the University of Victoria as Artist-in-Residence, Music Director and Conductor of the UVic Orchestra and Chorus. Mr. Sándor was appointed Music Director of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra in 1996.
In his native Hungary János Sándor was awarded the "Franz Liszt" prize, the title "Merited Artist of the Hungarian Republic", and "Honorary Life Member" of the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra which he founded as a professional orchestra in 1968.
János Sándor died in Victoria Hospice May 14, 2010 after a battle with cancer fought with courage, dignity, and great humour. He is survived by his wife Mária, daughter Gabriella and son Zsolt.
Stuart Knussen, Founding Music Director (1986-1990)
Born in Manchester, UK, Stuart Knussen received his musical training in England, Hamburg, and Chicago. His career took him to every corner of the globe, as an orchestral player, solo performer, recording artist, conductor, and broadcaster. Mr. Knussen was a founding member of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the Fields, and was Principal Bass with the London Symphony Orchestra for nineteen years, including five years as Chairman of its Board of Directors. Following associations with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Canadian Association of Youth Orchestras at Banff, he moved to Victoria in 1983 where he taught at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and established the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra.
Stuart Knussen devoted his years in Victoria to young musicians, encouraging, challenging and counseling them in their musical development. He shared with them his own profound and passionate love of music, and his conviction of the whole-hearted commitment which music demands from those who would pursue the art. His vision for the GVYO continues to inspire the orchestra and its players to this day.
The players of the GVYO dedicated their concert on March 10, 1990 featuring Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony to Stuart – the man who brought them together and guided them in what for many of them was their first experience of symphonic music.
The following obituary, written by distinguished critic Edward Greenfield, appeared in the Manchester Guardian in January, 1990.
Player or composer: the bass line counts
Stuart Knussen was one of the characters among orchestral players, a laconic sharp-spoken northerner
who behind a rugged exterior was an original and sensitive musician. As principal double-bass and later
chairman of the London Symphony Orchestra at a key period, he helped to consolidate – along with
his friend the horn-player, Barry Tuckwell, and others – a new generation of players in London.
Tall and upstanding, with wavy red hair, he was a notable backrow forward of string players on a
concert platform. In 1965 a television film illustrated his life as an orchestral player. That
encouraged his son, Oliver, then a precocious 13, now celebrated both as a composer and conductor, to
write his First Symphony, and memorably at the age of 15 to conduct the LSO in its first performance.
Stuart Knussen was born in Manchester in December 1923. His father – also called Stuart –
was principal cello in the Hallé, his mother a professional singer. From an early age the boy
was able to attend Hallé rehearsals under Sir Hamilton Harty, and that nurtured his passion for
Berlioz.
Knussen’s parents did not want him to become a musician, but he insisted on teaching himself the
double-bass. He developed his own system of fingering based on that of the cello, a technique that has
influenced many players since. Latterly, rejecting orchestral routine, he turned to teaching, mainly
working in the United States and Canada.
He first joined the Hallé as a player in 1945 under Sir John Barbirolli. But then, never one to
settle for long, Knussen went off to America to study further, and to gain more playing experience
– and find his wife, Jane. He joined the LSO in 1958, but also worked with the English Chamber
Orchestra for Benjamin Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival. It was Knussen who first played the
double-bass part in Britten’s church-parable, Curlew River. Oliver Knussen remembers how through
the 1950s and 1960s the family was in regular contact both with Britten and with another hero of his
father’s, Leopold Stokowski. Knussen’s period with the LSO spanned the end of Pierre
Monteux’s conductorship, the brief reign of Istvan Kertesz and the first years of André
Previn as principal conductor. But then in 1972, with his son an established composer, Knussen decided
to go to America.
For a season he managed the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, but then concentrated on teaching and
encouraging what became a great enthusiasm with him, the development of community orchestras. In this
capacity he worked at the Conservatory in Victoria, British Columbia, where he died.
Vladimir Ashkenazy, in a recent letter to Olivier Knussen after conducting his Third Symphony in
Moscow, asked to be remembered to “the greatest double-bass player in the world”.
Edward Greenfield - Stuart Knussen born December 7, 1923; died January 1, 1990.