Fredell Lack

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Fredell Lack (1922–) is an American violinist. Noted as a concert soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, and teacher, she is currently the C. W. Moores Distinguished Professor of Violin at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas.

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[edit] Early life and musical training

Fredell Lack was born February 19, 1922, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the oldest of three children of eastern European immigrants Abram I. Lack and Sarah Stillman (who was a sister of noted painter Ary Stillman). She began violin lessons at age six, studying with Tosca Berger. When Fredell was 8 or 10†, she moved with her family to Houston, Texas. There she studied with Josephine Boudreaux, the concertmaster of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. At age 11, she first soloed with orchestra, performing the Wieniawski Concerto No. 2 with the Tulsa Philharmonic. At 12, Lack was accepted into the New York City studio of the legendary violinist and pedagogue Louis Persinger, whose other students included such artists as Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, and Ruggiero Ricci. She moved to New York and completed her pre-college schooling at the Bentley School while continuing her violin lessons with Persinger. At 17, she made her professional solo debut, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the St. Louis Symphony. Subsequently she received a full scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York. She continued studying violin with Persinger there and also was deeply influenced by her study of chamber music with Felix Salmond. She received the Diploma from Juilliard at age 21.

† Sources differ on the chronology

[edit] Career

Fredell Lack has had a long-lasting career during which she has made dozens of concert tours worldwide, including more than twenty to Europe alone. She has soloed with the orchestras of New York, Pittsburgh, Stockholm, Houston, Baltimore, Rotterdam, San Antonio, Oslo, and Kansas City, and with the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Royal Philharmonic, RIAS of Berlin, the BBC Symphony, the Hallé Orchestra, and others. She has made a number of recordings (see "Selected discography" below).

Lack made her New York recital debut in 1943 at The Town Hall, performing concertos by Vivaldi and Dvořák, a sonata by Dohnányi, and pieces by Shostakovich, Poulenc, Ysaÿe, and Wieniawski. She commenced artistic study with Ivan Galamian, widely regarded among violinists as the greatest pedagogical influence of the latter half of the twentieth century. She performed frequently in master classes with the Romanian violinist George Enescu, and often traveled to Boston to play new works for the composition studio of Nadia Boulanger.

In 1947, Lack was selected to be the first female concertmaster of the prestigious Little Orchestra Society of New York. That year, Lack began performing solos weekly that were broadcast to a national audience over the Mutual radio network. In 1951 she entered the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels, Belgium. Despite the fact that both American finalists were given scores of 0 by the Soviet judge in the final round, Fredell Lack came away with a bronze medal and the Prize of Liège.

Also in 1951, Lack moved to Houston, Texas, where her husband had been offered a professorship. About a year later, she suffered what could have been a major setback to her career when a dog bit off the tip of the little finger of her left hand. However, following a year of focused rehabilitation and relearning of technique, she was able to continue performing.

Lack and three principal string players from the Houston Symphony formed the Lyric Art Quartet in 1955 and began several chamber music series around Houston. She began a highly successful Young Audiences program in Houston, which brings classical music to schoolchildren. In 1979, that organization gave to Lack its first in an annual series of awards, and the honor was thenceforth named the "Fredell Lack Award."

In 1959, Fredell Lack began teaching violin at the University of Houston, where she remains on the faculty as of 2006. She was the 1982–83 recipient of the Esther Farfel Award, given by colleagues to a single University of Houston faculty member each year. The Texas Music Teachers Association awarded her the Outstanding Teaching Achievement Award (Collegiate), a statewide distinction, in 1990. In 1997, the University of Houston Moores School of Music presented Lack with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Lack also maintains a private studio outside the school. A great many of her students have gone on to musical careers as professional performers and teachers, and a number have become successful solo concert artists. One of Lack's former students, Frank Huang, won the top prize at the highly prestigious Naumburg Competition in 2003 and has performed with major orchestras and made critically acclaimed major-label recordings. Lack students Pálína Árnadóttir, Joyce Hammann, Gloria Justen, Sharman Plesner, William Pu, Anabel Ramirez, Maurice Sklar, and Martin Valdeschack are among others who have had successful concert careers. Lack has also taught numerous sessions at the Meadowmount School of Music, an annual summer program in Upstate New York that was founded and for many years was directed by Lack's former mentor Ivan Galamian.

Fredell Lack plays the "Baron Deurbroucq" violin, made in 1727 by Antonio Stradivari. Her bow was crafted by François Tourte.

[edit] Personal

Fredell Lack has been married to Ralph Eichhorn, a gastroenterologist, since 1947. She does not use her married name, Eichhorn, professionally. The Eichhorns have a daughter, a son, and several grandchildren.

Lack and her husband are active advocates for animal welfare.

[edit] Selected discography

[edit] Sources

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