Duo For Strings

Local sister and brother find success in the musical world.

BY DIANA LIEBER1VIAN

hen Miriam Bolkosky
was not quite 4 years
old, a family friend
made her a miniature viola.
"She can use it as a cello," the
friend told Miriam's father and
mother, Sidney and Lori Bolkosky
of Oak Park.
This was the start of not one
but two musical careers.
Miriam, now
34, is a cellist
with the Boston
Pops, the
National Lyric
Opera and other
ensembles. In
March, she was
in town as cello
soloist for the
Detroit-area
premiere of
Holocaust
Cantata: Songs
Gabe and
from the Camps
Miriam
Bolkosky
by Donald
McCullough.
Gabriel
Bolkosky, 31, is
a violinist, teacher and founder
of the Phoenix Ensemble in
Ann Arbor, which offers coach-
ing and performing experi-
ences for musicians at many
levels of expertise.
"I would never have dreamed
— music took over the whole
family," says Sidney Bolkosky.
But he's not complaining.
"I can't remember ever hear-
ing a squeak or a scratch when
they played," he says. "They
would sometimes argue about
music, but they always got
along. It was a pleasure to have
them in the house."
Miriam. Bolkosky played her
first Carnegie Hall performance

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6 • JUNE 2005 • JNPLATINUM

at age 7, with a small group of
young cellists trained in the
Suzuki method. "I think I caught
the performing bug somewhere
on that trip," she says.
The concert was part of a
national tour designed to intro-
duce the American public to the
method, which begins teaching
stringed instruments to children
while they are still

toddlers, while their brains are
open to learning many new
things and they have few inhibi-
tions about what is and is not
difficult.
A few years later, Gabe
Bolkosky began Suzuki violin
lessons.
"My parents listened to classi-
cal music along with jazz, Beatles,
Simon & Garfunkel, Jewish

music, and lots of other things,"
Gabe Bolkosky says. "I was
trained as a classical violinist, but
over the last 10 years, I've broad-
ened my interests."
In addition to the Phoenix
Ensemble, he has played with a
contemporary music group called
"Nori-Sequitor," a tango ensem-
ble known as Oblivion and a
klezmer group called Into the
Freilach. He recently performed
in a double quartet for combined
classical and jazz quartets by Ann
Arbor Composer Jeff Haas. His
first CD, This and That, includes
music from many of these genres.
"What I'm trying to create for
myself is to be a well-rounded
musician, to learn and grow and
accept who I am," Gabe Bolkosky
says. "And hopefully, I am able to
pass that philosophy on to my
students."
Growing up in Metro Detroit,
both Miriam and Gabe won
numerous competitions and
played in the Detroit Civic
Orchestra and other other ensem-
bles while playing their share of
solo gigs. Both began their post-
high school careers at the
University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor and continued at the
Cleveland Institute of Music.
"I love meeting people for the
first time and having them refer
to me as 'Gabe's sister,"' Miriam
says. "Gabe and I love working
together. Memorial Day weekend,
when the Phoenix Ensemble does
their annual chamber music semi-
nar, is the highlight of my year
because we get to play together.
"He also involves former
teachers and colleagues from
around the country so it's like a
reunion for all of us." ❑