A Tribute To Orlando Cole

Orlando Cole

Today, my great mentor, teacher, and colleague, Orlando Cole died peacefully after saying to his nurse, “Well, I’m ready.” “God will come for you in His time,” said his nurse to whom Landy softly replied, “Well, tell Him to hurry.”

Lucid to the end with family by his side they listened to Schubert’s Cello Quintet. He was, even in the end, an inspiration to us all; as human beings, as musicians, and as vibrant spirits.

In my own life, I never met anyone so understanding, generous, and vitally connected to his love of music, family, friends, and his students. I am deeply indebted to his quality as an artist as well as his awe of the great works that we are privileged to play and hear. He was one of a kind and over the course of his wonderfully long and full life; he witnessed so much change since starting out as a young cellist in the late 1920’s. (more…)

A Whirlwind Weekend In Chicago

What fun it was to spend the last few days in Chicago and I wanted to take a quick moment to post some photos from the trip.

WFMT, Guest Host
Friday, 1/8/2010

That's WFMT announcer Kerry Frumkin on the left. He did an outstanding job and was a wonderful host.

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Appearing today on WFMT at 1:00pm CT

I am so happy to be appearing on WFMT today as a guest host alongside Kerry Frumkin. For those in the Chicago area, you can listen on 98.7FM and for everyone else, you can tune in online or even through your smartphone! WFMT has instructions here. If possible, I’ll see about posting an archived copy of the show once it is available.

Why Art Matters

A colleague sent me the “Welcome Address to Freshman Parents” delivered by Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of music division at Boston Conservatory. I found Mr. Paulnack’s words to be quite inspiring and wanted to share them with everyone here.

~ Lynn (more…)

Now With Video!

Just a quick post to point out that I have added a video page to the website. This is an ongoing project to post as much video from performances, masterclasses, and more that I can. Once each new offering is uploaded, I’ll post the video here.

If you have any suggestions or requests, please leave them as a comment.

Go to the new video page.

Dealers And Stealers

There are violin dealers out there who scour the schools and prestigious music festivals in search of innocent young very promising string players for the purpose of cultivating a prospective sale of one of their fine instruments that they may own or have “on consignment.” This I have no problems with since, as a string player, one of the great joys of a life in classical music is to own a great instrument from one of the masters of the Cremonese or Venetian or Brescian periods.

What I take issue with is the implied necessity of one of these priceless masterpieces in making a career. So a young player before he/she is near full potential musically or technically or earning power is led to believe that without that Stradivari or Guarneri they will not be able to compete and their very career will be in jeopardy. Throughout the entirety of my more than 50 year playing career I have yet to encounter a string player under the age of 20 with enough knowledge, musicality, and technique to bring everything out of a master instrument. (more…)