Joel Smirnoff

1. How would you describe your artistic journey?
“First of all, I was very lucky to have many positive and comprehensive influences when I was young. My parents were both musicians, so music was filled in my family. So the natural question is what sparked my interest in music? How did it develop exactly?
You cannot imagine New York in the 50s and 60s, simply by growing up here, and hearing what you can hear, is astonishing. I used to wait in a bookstore in front of Carnegie Hall, and snuck into the second half of the concert all the time! My family never knew where I was, but they didn't care; maybe that was a good thing, as it helped my musical curiosity and development. I heard so much music during that time - I listened Milstein and Bernstein a lot, heard the Julliard Quartet when I was 13, and experienced Heifetz when I was 14. We kind of took these for granted.

There are a bunch of other influences on me which contributed to how I was able to hear. When I was younger, I went to a very small music school run by a theory genius. She had a unique way of teaching ear training: we were required to identify whatever harmonic inversion was present at any time. She didn't even care about the chord or the key! This intense training drove us crazy, but later I realized it was a training for composers and it had a huge impact on my ear. I was lucky to be in this interesting studying group with two future doctoral candidates; one became a pretty well known harpsichord player, the other was a choral conductor. ”

2. How did you decide to be a professional musician?

The journey was neither straight forward nor well-planned, as I tried to get away from music all the time. I tried to dance; I tried writing history since I always had a passion for writing. At one point, I even thought that going to a university was more ideal than going to a conservatory!

What qualities are important for a musician?
When I was younger, I was just an orchestra player; I played in an opera orchestra in Chicago for 2 years. We had these great singers like Marilyn Horne visiting regularly, and that was a learning journey for me – violinists always want to replicate vocal lines, and hearing these great singers create such wonderful vocal shapes was an experience. I started to think, “what makes singing natural, and how does a great singer shape?”

The 2 most important things for a musician is how well you hear, and how focused you are willing to be when listening; because if you can hear extremely well and imagine the sound in your mind, you really can play it! You have to conceptualize the sound and see it in your mind. And that is how you make it happen. There are definitely more things to think about before we get to the physicality of playing the instrument, because we have to get a clear vision of what we want to hear.

3. You joined the Juilliard String Quartet in 1986 and played in the quartet for over 20 years. Could you share some memorable moments working with the quartet?

Everybody in the group grew up listening to Robert Mann, who was the first violinist and founder of the Juilliard String Quartet. All of us were deeply influenced by his sound and approach to quartet playing. When I sat down in the quartet first time and started working on Ravel String Quartet, it was the most amazing experience to hear the sound that I had heard all my life by my side. Robert Mann was a great artist with passion and warmth. We had an interesting relationship because we could understand each other fully, both in music and life. Interestingly, both of us received the French training, which means that the “Up” is stronger than the “Down” bow, it is like playing everything backwards.

Honestly I felt more powerful as a second violinist, who needs to provide at least three different types of sounds. Firstly, you need to duplicate the first violin so he sounds like a soprano; Secondly, you need to lead the bottom accompaniment which will require a darker sound; Lastly, you need your own personal sound during your solos. On top of switching constantly between these three roles, you have to control the pacing of the piece and adjust the intonation of the whole group.

Playing second violin really needs much commitment and focus.

4. You joined the Singapore Violin Festival in 2019, what is your experience here and why do you choose to participate again?

There were several reasons why I love this festival. Firstly, I enjoyed working with these talented young players in SVF a lot, since they were really eager and curious to learn. They came from different educational background and presented many interesting and different viewpoints for us. Moreover, it was thrilling to see a group of wonderful people gathered here, just for this particular event. They were great violinists, teachers, and performers. It was a great pleasure and privilege for me to be a part of it.

What impressed me most is the openness of the discussion happening in the festival. We had many great events such as masterclass, concerts and special events, it was really like a seminar where you could share your ideas, and really learn something from each other, no matter you are young or old. For example, as violin faculty, we learned from each other by observing daily teaching and attending concerts. It was a lovely group there and I am looking forward for more inspirations this year.

5. Other than performing and teaching, you took the administrative role and became the president of Cleveland Music Institute in 2008. What is your role there and what challenges have you faced?

You want to be a leader that listens. When I worked in Cleveland Music Institute, I was dealing with at least four groups of people: students, faculty, sponsors such as your board of directors and trustees, and staff and administrators. Therefore, you have to be strategic when dealing with each group of people by using different languages and approaches. Your goal is to connect them in some way so they feel supportive to cooperate like a family.

The mission of the school is to enable its students’ success. Through education, you want to make sure that people's lives are being broadened and inspired, so they could be introduced to new things and ideas. If students are pointed to the right path, they could be aware of the possibilities existed, whether in music or not. What I enjoyed most about that position was the engagement within the community. For example, we started building relationship with local arts organizations, such as the Natural History Museum or Art Institute. Many great moments happened since then; we had our composers writing for the planetarium for a fantastic presentation of the stars; students went to the public school community to play side by sides with African American kids.

6. Is there any difference between recordings vs. live performances? Why should people go to live concerts? 

For recordings, we really want to preserve the excitement of live performance. We are like actors, who need to be in the role all the time; the tension needs to be maintained, and the emotional attachment needs to be present from the very first to last note of the movement.

It is sad that people are not going to the concert halls. When I was a kid, everyone was searching for a fantastic stereo sound, which was something that we were obsessed with. During our time, figuring out how to make live music work, is what we focused on to build a career. “What could you do in the concert hall? How could you fill that space with sound? What was your sound like in Carnegie Hall? What was your message to deliver?”

Now, everything is well edited and presented with fancy images and angles. People care less about the sound quality, or the excitement of a live performance. I still think the essence of performance is to deliver personal message from one person to another in the room. That is something getting lost today.

7. You have a large range of repertoire and have performed with top musicians in jazz field. How would you describe the difference between classical music vs. jazz? Would you recommend young musicians to learn jazz?

Jazz is a language that you actually need to learn, and the ability to improvise is a very different learning process from what we do as classical musicians.

Once, I gathered my whole violin studio in a room and I played some of my favorite jazz songs. Then, I raised a few questions for them to think. “What does jazz sound like and how does it improvise the phrase? What is different when people are making up the notes or practice in advance? “

When we perform, we want to sound as natural as improvisation. We do not want to sound like our teacher tasked us to play a Mendelssohn concerto, or Mendelssohn tasked us to complete his piece. We want to sound like it just happened naturally; which is very much like acting - you want to believe that the actor is really the character in the story.

There was a time when most of the great players also composed their pieces, and many of them composed improvising. For me, playing jazz provides a very unique way of thinking and learning. I think it is wonderful for classical musicians to learn jazz, because you need to to hear harmony extremely well– only with the root, you can improvise. The improvisation couldbringmuch freedom and liveness to the piece you are playing.