56 | NOVEMBER 17 • 2022 

C

arnegie Hall in New 
York City was the 
first of five stops for 
this season’s American per-
formance tour by the Berlin 
Philharmonic, which moves 
on to Ann Arbor appearances 
Friday-Saturday evenings, Nov. 
18-19. 
The Michigan visit is host-
ed by the University Musical 
Society and features first con-
certmaster and klezmer com-
poser Noah Bendix-Balgley.
The concertmaster, who grew 
up in North Carolina and has 
been noted for his solo and 
chamber music concerts, is 
enthusiastic that each Michigan 
evening is offering a different 
program. Friday has Andrew 
Norman’s Unstuck, Mozart’s 
Violin Concerto No. 1 and 
Erich Korngold’s Symphony 
in F-Sharp Major. Saturday is 
devoted to Gustav Mahler’s 
Symphony No. 7.
“These programs are a real 
mix,
” said the violinist, who 
tours internationally before 
numerous audiences, from 
France to China, throughout 

Europe and Asia. “Norman is 
a young American composer, 
and his piece is a nice opener, 
an exciting work that takes 
everything apart and puts it 
together. It is a showpiece for 
the orchestra. 
“I’m playing the Mozart con-
certo, which is not played very 
often. It’s an early work, written 
when Mozart was 17. You can 
sense all the Mozart trademarks 
— beautiful melodies, charac-
ter, operatic contrasts — and it’s 
a joy for me to play this. 
“The second half of that pro-
gram is the symphony by Erich 
Korngold, which is a very chal-
lenging, big piece. Korngold 
was an Austrian composer 
who immigrated into America 
when the Nazis came to power. 
He settled in Hollywood and 
established movie music, but 
his symphony is a very serious, 
classical work.
”
On the second evening, 
there is only one piece, and it 
is described by Bendix-Balgley 
as chosen by conductor Kirill 
Petrenko, who likes to bring 
challenging works to life and 

be a champion for them. Every 
Mahler symphony, the concert-
master said, is a world of itself 
with a pool of orchestral sounds 
from humor to tragedy. 
The orchestra’s previous 
appearance in Ann Arbor was 
in 2016, when the musicians 
set aside time to work with 
University of Michigan instru-
mental students. 
“Many of us are doing master 
classes,
” Bendix-Balgley said. 
“I’ll be doing a master class, 
and at least 10 of my colleagues 
are doing the same thing. It’s 
always nice to have a presence 
rather than just playing a con-
cert and leaving the next day. 
Last time we were there, we 
did the same thing, and we’re 
making that more of our tours 
moving forward.
”
Looking back at his career, 
Bendix-Balgley recalled study-
ing the violin as a 4-year-old 
and then dreaming of a per-
formance career by the time he 
turned 8. His undergraduate 
college studies were at Indiana 
University before entering 
graduate studies at a Munich 

conservatory.
When expressing an inter-
est in joining the Berlin 
Philharmonic, he was con-
certmaster for the Pittsburgh 
Symphony Orchestra. 
“I joined the Berlin 
Philharmonic in 2014,
” he 
said. “For me, this was a 
dream job. I always looked at 
the Philharmonic as my ideal 
orchestra. When I saw the 
chance to audition for concert-
master, I was excited and want-
ed to try. 
“Earlier, I spent five years 
in Munich. I had the language 
and enjoyed the musical life in 
Germany. At the time, I was 30 
years old and thought why not 
give it a shot. It worked out. 
“I live in Berlin, but I come 
back to the U.S. often. I have 
family there.
”
Bendix-Balgley, married to 
violinist Shanshan Yao and 
the father of a young son, was 
introduced to klezmer by his 
father, Erik Bendix, a profes-
sional folk dance teacher. The 
violinist has gone on to per-
form with klezmer bands and 

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

NIKOLAJ LUND

University Musical Society 
welcomes the Berlin 
Philharmonic, featuring 
Noah Bendix-Balgley.

Concertmaster 
 and Klezmer 
 Composer

SUZANNE CHESSLER 
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

