"STRINGS" THINGS

posted by James Reel

During my period of blogus interruptus, I lost several opportunities to point you toward material I publish hither and yon. Whatever did you do for entertainment and edification while the blog was gone? Well, you probably thought of something. But now I can gradually catch you up on some of my other efforts.

In the February issue of Strings, I asked violinist Anastasia Khitruk to dig into the solo scores of Ivan Yevstafyevich Khandoshkin, a Russian contemporary of Mozart. We play Khitruk’s Khandoshkin CD from time to time on KUAT-FM, so you might enjoy getting some background info here.

In the same issue, I have a feature on an up-and-coming fiddler, now in his 20s:

When Jason Roberts was an 11-year-old kid in Texas, he pulled a busted-up fiddle out of his late grandfather’s closet and let his mom casually talk him into taking a few lessons. Today, 20 years later, Roberts is a top western-swing fiddler and a veteran member of the Grammy-winning band Asleep at the Wheel. Bandleader Ray Benson says of Roberts, “He is the best musician I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve worked with the best.” Pretty high praise from the man behind a band that’s gone through nearly 100 musicians in its 30-year history.

You can find the full article here.