by Lisa Boghosian Papas
On a late August summer night at New York's Lincoln Center, a sold out hall of music enthusiasts awaits to hear the first sounds from the Mostly Mozart festival - an annual event at which the musicians of the Chamber Music Society (CMS) of Lincoln Center perform.
As the lights dim, the spotlight shines center stage on one of the soloists, Ani Kavafian. Already, she has performed the pre-concert show-playing the Mendelssohn Octet. Now, with her bow raised to her fiddle, she prepares herself for five solos in the complete Brandenburg Concerto (practically the whole thing). By the end of the evening, she has proven herself again to be one of the world's finest violinists.
In the pecking order of violinists, with soloists at the top, Kavafian, ranked amongst the top 20 violin players in the country, still questions whether she is big. Though her resume is impressive, playing with masters Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, as well as drawing crowds at the San Francisco Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall nearly a dozen times, Kavafian does not like to "toot her own horn." Despite the fact that her recordings can be found on RCA and Columbia labels, all she has to say on the subject is that she's busy playing concerts, and after 30 years, that is testament to some kind of success.
But longevity is not what has kept this artist on stage for so long. It's the combination of her "voice" and facility that continue to spark invitations from across the globe. Playing more than 90 concerts a year, Kavafian spends about 140 days traveling and is already booked throughout the year 2001. At the age of 52, Kavafian never tires of saying that she has "one of the greatest jobs of all time."
"From my early days studying at Juilliard, I would come to the concerts of the CMS and think this has got to be the best job in the whole world," says Kavafian. "I loved chamber music and I thought this would be so great if I could someday have this job. That was my ultimate goal. The fact that I am doing it now-making a living and being successful without feeling that it's work- is really great."
Born in Istanbul and raised in a family where her father played the viola and her mother the violin, the legacy of music was passed onto Kavafian, as well as her sister, Ida, with whom she performs today, at a very early age. Though she began playing piano first, when she was just nine and by then living in Highland Park, MI, the young Kavafian was offered a $15 scholarship toward music lessons if she'd agree to play a string instrument in the school orchestra. Choosing the violin, because her mother was very good at it and she liked it, Kavafian began lessons with Ara Zerounian-a man whom her parents had heard was an incredible teacher to young students.
"We didn't know this at the time," says Kavafian, "but Mr. "Z" was the foremost violin teacher in the area. He taught many people who have major music careers including the first violist of the Cleveland Symphony and the concertmaster of the Utah Symphony. He turned out to be such a great teacher for me. Subsequently, six years after my father died, he actually married my mother."
After her initial five lessons, Kavafian continued with Zerounian for many years until he felt he could no longer benefit the young student. Passing her on to Mischa Mischakoff, a renowned violinist and the concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony, Kavafian was driven further to excel. In the meantime, Kavafian, straddling piano and violin with schoolwork, was pushed to choose one instrument over the other. "There were many reasons why I picked violin," says Kavafian. "Not the least of which is that my hands are tiny. As a pianist, having small hands was much more of a handicap. I also enjoyed playing in an orchestra and sitting first chair. The violin was just a more social instrument."
As long as she recalls, music has been her path in life. So following high school graduation, it was no surprise that Kavafian continued at the Juilliard School of Music, where she was accepted to study under the most famous violin teacher in the country-Ivan Galamian. "When Mr. Galamian accepted me, I felt pretty confident about myself," remembers Kavafian. "After all Detroit wasn't a small town and I had won several awards and competitions there." But at a summer camp that Galamian requested her to attend prior to her entrance to the school, Kavafian remembers the feeling of being humbled. "There, I was put on scales and arpeggios, while I witnessed other students give full concerts. I mean we are talking about people like Pinchas Zukerman, Young Uck Kim and Kyung-Wha Chung. These are people who are famous now, but at that time they were his stars. After I heard them play, all I really wanted to do was pack up my violin and go right back to Detroit."
After eight years at Juilliard where Kavafian experienced playing chamber music, serving as concertmaster of the school orchestra, and winning the concerto competition, nothing influenced her musical life as much as studying under Felix Galamir. As one of the greatest coaches she ever had, Galamir taught Kavafian to search her soul when playing music. He trained her to not just play the notes, but to speak from her heart and think about the mood and genre the composers would want.
"Ultimately," says Kavafian, "he taught me that the way to be is to have your own voice and to know something about the composers. If you play Tchaikovsky the same way you play Bach, then you are really not doing the composers justice. The two are completely separate personalities who lived 120 years apart from each other. The best way to play is to have a recognizable style that adheres to the composer's wishes."
Upon graduating from Juilliard, Kavafian auditioned for a non-profit group called Young Concert Artists (YCA) which helps students ease their transition from music school to professional life. In the end, they help artists get concerts and exposure, as well as teach them the management side of their careers. In the case of Kavafian, her affiliation with YCA gave her the chance to play with the New York Philharmonic as well as other major orchestras, and earned her the Avery Fisher Prize-an award offered through nomination by various conductors, musicians, and officials. Around that same time, Kavafian was offered the chance to audition for the backup violin position with the CMS and was accepted. Shortly thereafter she was offered the real thing.
Starting with CMS in 1972, Kavafian reflects about her career today. "I feel satisfied that I've fulfilled my teacher Ivan Galamian's expectations anyway," she chuckles. "I'll never forget when I told him that I loved chamber music and that it was my favorite way of making music, he was so disappointed since, at Juilliard, Galamian was in the business of producing soloists. But he told me something that I never forgot. He said that if I could be the best chamber music player then he thought it was a great thing. He was so attuned to being the best that one could be. As it turned out, I have accomplished a career which combines both chamber music and solo."
Driven by ambition and a constant sense of how much better she can be, Kavafian calls her fiddle playing a "forever lesson." Her ongoing desire for improvement has shaped her career and is what has kept her going for so long. Though she reluctantly admits that feedback from the audience helps her along, she confesses her ultimate responsibility is to herself-that she does her best and that being a musician is a privilege.
Practicing at times up to eight hours a day, it is hard to believe that Kavafian can commit to anything else. But as a wife to Bernard Mindich, a multi-media artist, and mother to 14-year-old Matthew Aram Saul Mindich, juggling family roles is not only a pleasure but also something that brings her ultimate happiness. Included also is her dog, cooking, planting, and "doing things that makes her feel normal"-like chores.
With the genes, talent and training, Kavafian concludes that being an Armenian woman has primed her to give more than most women. "Being Armenian is an incredibly important part of me," she says. "And I believe that our background has prepared us for a much richer existence than normal. Knowing the struggle that others had before us, and seeing how many successful Armenians there are in the world today, lends a richness that when combined with belief in oneself can only yield the positive."
