(Photo courtesy Frost School of Music)
It became official on Friday, Apr. 12, at UM’s Gusman Hall, when Frost School of Music Professor Maestro Charles Castleman, one of the world’s most renowned performers and educators of the violin, donated his 1748 Joannes Baptista Guadagnini violin, with a scroll the work of Francesco Stradivari, circa 1735, to the Frost School of Music.
The violin, insured for one million dollars, was presented during Maestro Castleman’s Frost Music Live performance with the Frost School’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, conducted by Scott Flavin. The housing of this violin at Frost joins a previous donation of a rare, early 18th Century Guarneri violin valued at $1.1 million donated by the Miller family and named the Sue Miller violin.
“Housing two violins, with such value and quality, is a great asset to Frost School and our students, and I’m glad to be able to make that possible,” Maestro Castleman said
“We are very moved by this extraordinary gift to our school by Charlie, who is one of the world’s most renowned performers and teachers of the violin and a beloved member of our faculty,” said Dean Shelton G. Berg of the Frost School of Music stated. “While this extraordinary instrument is worth a great deal of money, its value cannot only be measured in dollars. It is an invaluable tool in our mission to provide an incomparable music education to aspiring young musicians today.”
Charles Castleman, perhaps the world’s most active performer/pedagogue on the violin, has been soloist with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Boston, Brisbane, Chicago, Hong Kong, Moscow, Mexico City, New York, San Francisco, Seoul and Shanghai. Medalist at Tchaikovsky and Brussels, his Jongen Concerto is included in a Cypres CD set of the 17 best prize-winning performances of the Brussels Concours’ history.
Castleman’s solo CDs include Ysaye’s six Solo Sonatas (made at the time of his unique performance at Tully Hall in NYC), eight Hubay Csardases for Violin and Orchestra, and 10 Sarasate virtuoso cameos on Music and Arts, Gershwin and Antheil on MusicMasters, and contemporary violin and harpsichord music for Albany. As one of 16 Ford Foundation Concert artists he commissioned the David Amram Concerto, premiering it with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony, recording it for Newport Classic. He is dedicatee of “Lares Hercii” by Pulitzer winner Christopher Rouse.
He has performed at such international festivals as Marlboro, Grant Park, Newport, Sarasota, AFCM (Australia), Akaroa (New Zealand), Ascoli Piceno (Italy), Budapest, Fuefukigawa, Montreux, Shanghai, Sheffield, and the Vienna Festwoche. His recitals have been broadcast on NPR, BBC, and Australia Broadcasting Company, in Berlin and in Paris.
Castleman earned degrees from Harvard, Curtis, and University of Pennsylvania. His teachers were Emanuel Ondricek (teaching assistant of Sevcik, Ysaye student) and Ivan Galamian, his most influential coaches David Oistrakh, Szeryng, and Gingold. He plays the “Marquis de Champeaux” Stradivarius violin from 1708, and chooses from more than 80 bows.
For more information, visit www.frost.miami.edu.
