Strings Attached | Violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley

Noah Bendix-Balgley is a revered violinist—concertmaster with the Berlin Philharmonic and a soloist who performs with orchestras internationally. He’s also a native of Asheville.

I talk with him about the details on his ambitious, weeklong residency with the Asheville Symphony, beginning March 11. We  talk about his training and career path and how his Jewish roots play into his music-making. We also talk about his long connection to ASO music director Darko Butorac and the personal significance he feels in showcasing a broad range of violin-centered works in his native city. 

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Transcript

Matt Peiken: I'm curious how important Asheville was in shaping, not the city itself, but you emerging as a violinist, in becoming the musician you became.

Noah Bendix Balgley: When I was a kid, I started playing violin and was taking early lessons in Asheville. I studied with a couple of local teachers named Paul Statsky and also Mary Daniels, who for a while was the concertmaster of the Asheville Symphony.

So of course that had an impact on my early development. And I was educated then elsewhere. In the end, who I am as a result of all those experiences I had growing up and I think, my childhood in Asheville being around the nature and the mountains, I don't know exactly how that affected me, but it definitely formed me a lot.

Matt Peiken: The Asheville symphony did you go to concerts often? 

Noah Bendix Balgley: Yeah, I think, when I was a kid, you, of course, Asheville is not a metropolis.

It's not a huge city. But I do remember going to Asheville symphony concerts, going to see visiting artists when they were in the area. I remember my parents took me to see Yitzhak Perlman, and the other thing that was very I think influential to me even being interested in music was that they always had the radio station on the local WCQS, the public radio station, exactly. I'm sure that had a huge impact on me and that's a reason why I became interested in music.

Matt Peiken: You became serious about the instrument at a relatively young age. If you're growing up near Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, you probably just have a lot more opportunity to study with fantastic people, have other peers, young peers who you're studying with, and I would imagine You would have to break out of Asheville in some ways to really become the musician you were to become.

Am I correct in that? 

Noah Bendix Balgley: Yeah, you end up having to go where the best Best opportunities are and that, that means in terms of, for example, summer camps, where do you go in the summers to get lessons or teachers?

And and of course, as you go along that expands, through high school and then going to study it at the university level or conservatory. I was lucky that my parents really made everything possible for me to pursue this passion of mine. Of course, now I look at it a little bit on the other end because I have a young Son, myself, and, thinking about the kind of decisions and possibilities that my parents made, opened up for my career everything that they made possible and, in some cases had to sacrifice their own needs to make it possible for me to, for example, go study with a particular teacher somewhere that was different. Sometimes we made family moves mostly because of that, even at an early age. So I was very lucky to have that. 

If you grow up in London or New York, of course, maybe the initial access to those kinds of institutions is easier, but that doesn't mean it's not possible to start in a smaller town community.

Matt Peiken: Brevard music center was in your backyard. 

Noah Bendix Balgley: Yeah, I do remember going to concerts there in the summers, violin soloists coming through town and I remember playing for some of them. And in the last decade, I have gone back a number of times to perform as a visiting artist, to play as guest concertmaster with the festival orchestra, and to teach there.

So it's nice to have that in Asheville's backyard. 

Matt Peiken: It seems a lot of musicians, particularly violinists have to choose a path if they're going to be pursuing this as a career, whether they're going to pursue a seat in an orchestra and have that guaranteed, good income. If you're in a union orchestra and you pass through and get tenured, you're set. Or if you're going to become a soloist that tours and hope to play with a number of different orchestras around the world.

Seems like you've done quite a bit of both. Talk about your choice, your path, because I haven't seen too many sitting concertmasters also getting a lot of opportunity and opening themselves up to doing a lot of solo work.

Noah Bendix Balgley: Yeah, I guess I wanted it all. When I was studying I was going definitely the route of violin soloists which is a very challenging route to go. There are very few people who were able to make that their career and to maintain it.

And I did a lot of big violin competitions, had relative success with that. But to make that a full-time profession is a very stressful endeavor. And on the long run, it can be risky as well and involves constant sort of travel and competition and things.

And I discovered that I love playing violin, playing music in all these different kinds of ways not just as a soloist which I love doing too, but also as particularly in ensembles where it's a joint communal kind of music making where you have to come together and agree on something and make music together.

I really love doing that. Both in smaller ensembles in chamber music, for example, string quartet but also in a great symphony orchestra. And that kind of fell into my paths by chance. And then I discovered that this job of being a concert master is something that I really love doing.

This leading from within, being a leader among equals, facilitating communication between a conductor and orchestra. Everything to make a performance and interpretation come to life and function. You know, Orchestra is a very big organism, you got 80, 90, a hundred people on stage, all at the very top level, all having their own opinions and approaches to things.

And you have to put together in a limited amount of time these performances and make everything work. And so that, that be, that, that leadership is something that I really relish getting involved in and taking that position. And because of the visibility of the position, first I had a position in Pittsburgh as concert master there of the symphony which is a great American orchestra.

And then when I moved to Berlin because of the visibility of that position, then that led to opportunities to still and often play as a soloist. Both with my own orchestra, but also on the road.

Matt Peiken: I noticed the Berlin schedule itself is really busy. Five days outta the week, you're performing concerts. At least this month.

Track 1: Not all of those are full orchestra concerts, but generally when we're in Berlin, we play three concerts a week in the Berlin Philharmonie in the big hall. And then there are a lot of other activities always going on on the side of that, which are like chamber music groups made up of members of the orchestra.

And then, sometimes the whole orchestra goes on the tour for two or three weeks. And one of the unique things about this orchestra in Berlin is that there's a lot of flexibility with the schedule as well. For example, I'm one of three concertmasters. About a little over half the time I'm playing here as concert master, but the rest of my schedule there's flexibility and freedom to do other things and without that flexibility, I wouldn't be able to be as active as a soloist or as a chamber musician.

For example, like right now this week I'm playing here as concert master. Next week we have some concerts in Vienna and Hamburg. And then after that I come to America for a couple weeks with a string quartet that I play with my wife Shanshan, who will also be coming to Asheville.

And then of course we have the residency in Asheville in March. And so, my orchestra is still playing here in Berlin, but I just happen to have those weeks free to do other projects. 

Matt Peiken: I wanna get into what you're going to be doing in Asheville and how this residency even came about. But first, let's talk about the other groups you have. You're involved in chamber music in Berlin and other ventures. Talk about the kinds of music you're most keen and interested to play, any particular composers or eras, any styles of music that you're looking to really bring out in your playing outside of the Berlin Philharmonic?

Noah Bendix Balgley: That's a great question and it really resonates with how I feel. I guess the typical thing would be to play in the orchestra and play just what the composers are that come up on the orchestra schedule, mainly the classical standards.

And of course orchestras now become more curious and adventurous, which is I think is great, bringing in different kinds of music and composers and styles, but for me that's always been the case. I've always loved folk music. I grew up around a lot of Eastern European folk music. 

My dad is a dance teacher and specializes in Eastern European folk dancing. So since I played the violin, I was already hearing that kind of music. At his workshops and learning it as well. Particularly, klezmer music has been something that's been a part of my life from an early age and I've always been passionate about. 

Matt Peiken: Is your family Jewish?

Noah Bendix Balgley: Yeah. Yeah. They're Jewish and my dad, he's really an expert in the dance traditions and has really researched that dance traditions. And so I was around it. I loved the music. I started to learn that kind of music as well and have tried to keep doing that. And so that's been a really important counterweight to the very classical playing is the freedom and expression that you get when you're playing klezmer music or Hungarian gypsy music or Romanian music. The freedom to improvise a bit, try things out differently, to really find different kind of grooves. And that's something that I really like. 

And I have a group here in Europe called Philharmonix with an X at the end, a Septet, which is mostly made out of some members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. And basically our credo is to play all the music that we would never get to play in our orchestras. And especially composed and arranged for our ensemble. 

Matt Peiken: Have you composed music yourself or had music commissioned for you?

Noah Bendix Balgley: You set me up very well for that question. I have, and the inspiration be behind that was this love of klezmer music. When I was in Pittsburgh I had the idea, I wanted to have a violin concerto with orchestra for me to play in the klezmer style that brings that style to the concert stage.

And in the end, I ended up composing that myself and I premiered it in Pittsburgh in 2016. I worked together with a a great American composer Samuel Adler, who orchestrated it. So yeah, we did that in Pittsburgh. And since then I've done it many times in America, in Germany, even in Asia.

It's it's become a bit of a signature that I'm able to bring to the classical concert stage with full orchestra. 

Matt Peiken: Wow. So this is the first artist residency in Asheville that I'm aware of at least. Certainly under Darko Butorac. How did this come about?

Noah Bendix Balgley: Darko's an old friend. We went to Indiana University of Bloomington at the same time together and when I was a student there, I played under his direction in a few projects. So I knew him from then. And when he got the job in Asheville, I was very excited to see that. And then yeah, we started talking about doing something together. I remember he came over to my parents' place and we were taking a walk in the woods there, a little hike. And Darko has a great folk music background too, from Serbia and loves that type of music too. And we were thinking about something really interesting and fun to do together, and we came up with this idea of celebrating the violin, and really exploring how many different violin traditions there are, and could we try to put that all in a festival in Asheville of the Asheville Symphony and in different constellations with the whole orchestra and smaller groups.

So yeah, then we started brainstorming and come up with a crazy week of violin.

Matt Peiken: So tell me about this crazy week. It's really unusual. Usually when a soloist comes in for a program, they have their piece that they perform, and you know, there are almost never are workshops and community efforts. This is much more involved. Talk about how you co-curated with Darko, what this week will be and the span of music and the span of activities that go beyond just mere concerts.

Noah Bendix Balgley: We have a bunch of concerts in different locations that are also in different constellations, different ensembles. And we wanted it to really show all these different aspects of what the violin can do. So with the big concert with the Asheville Symphony, which, it is an all concerto concert. And my wife Shanshan, who's a wonderful violinist, she used to play in a Pittsburgh Symphony and New York Philharmonic as well. And we play a lot together, chamber music. So she's gonna join as well. And we're gonna play the Bach double Concerto for two violin, which is a classic work.

And then she's gonna play a Chinese work. She was born in China. She grew up there before going to conservatory in America. But she's gonna play a wonderful Chinese work called the Butterfly Lovers Concerto. And then in the second half of that concert, I'm gonna play the Brahms Violin Concerto. 

So that's where the full orchestra. We have a program with chamber orchestra with a smaller portion of ASO musicians which I think it might already be sold out actually. We're gonna go a little crazy with the styles. We're gonna go from classical to bluegrass, jazz, klezmer music, some Serbian folk music. Some of Darko's arrangements, a klezmer arrangement of mine. So that's the runs the gamut of styles. And then I have a solo violin sonata, a recital where I'm gonna play some different sonatas. And that's a real challenge. That's a, my personal sort of I threw down the gauntlet for myself to play for just first violin alone solo Bach because the solo Bach sonata and petitas are such an important part of the repertoire.

And then it was really important for me to tackle the Bela Bartok solo violin sonata because there's some important musical history in Asheville that I don't know if that many people know about, which is that Bartok at the end of his life had immigrated to America. He had been living in New York, but then was in bad health and his doctors suggested that he needed for the winter, a milder climate with better air. And they suggested he come down to Asheville and he spent about a half a year in Asheville, and during that time, he had gotten a commission from the great violinist, Yehudi Menuhin to compose a solo violin sonata. And he did that there, he finished it in Asheville.

Matt Peiken: When was that? 

Noah Bendix Balgley: March 14th, 1944. And so as luck would have it, my recital is 80 years to the day afterwards. And this is a really challenging work for the violin. It's one of the hardest things I've ever played. He really throws everything at the violinists. And his music also is challenging to listen to. But it's great music. Really elements of Hungarian folk music there and frequent references to Bach and what came before him. So that was important for me to tackle that.

Matt Peiken: What an amazingly challenging week that you've put together for yourself and really diverse. I know how difficult it is for musicians to prepare just for one program and the kind of rehearsals that you have to undertake just on your own. All musicians do on their own to rehearse and prepare for a program. You've taken on a real variety of work here to do this. What's the significance for you personally of doing this in Asheville?

Noah Bendix Balgley: I wanted it to be as you said, a great challenge. But I also felt it's really for me, a personal thing to take a break from running around my usual life and devote a little bit to this project to bring back to my hometown and to put in this work. And it means a lot to do it at home, where my parents live, to come to town with my family, with my wife, who's also gonna be playing and doing workshops with the youth orchestra. And of course, a lot of the time as a performer, as when I'm going about my orchestra as a soloist, a lot of the times I'll come to a city, one day we have a rehearsal, the next day we have a concert, and then we're back on the road again. And that's part of the profession, but it means a lot more to be able to stay a little longer and to get a little more deeply involved with the community and get to meet people from the audience, talk to them, have workshops with young musicians.

I'm going to be playing with the youth orchestra. A couple pieces on their concert, I think it's on March 18th as a soloist, but also we came up with the idea that one of the pieces, I'm gonna sit as concert master and lead from there. And, that's for me, I remember as a kid that those experiences were so important to be able to sit next to people who were really performers and professionals and learning by actually playing together was so meaningful for me. So I hope that I can maybe offer that to some folks who are just starting out like I did back in Asheville. 

For me it's like a huge project but something that I've been looking forward to as soon as we came up with it with Darko and we were talking and it's just felt oh, I don't know who's tried to do this before, let's do it in Asheville.