THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five
PROFILE
Makarskt'
dedica ted
An
in tense
and
young
viollnis t
By MARY LONG
BEHIND MICHAEL Bistrit-
sky's thick black fifocals, his
eyes shine with warmth. He has
played violin with the great or-
chestras of Europe, and now
teaches intensive music theory
classes in Detroit.
On this day, a couple of years
back, he is staring as a promo-
tional piece for an upcoming
chamber music concert, featuring
distinguished virtuosos, members
of the Detroit Symphony, and a
girl of 16 - a girl with enor-
mous round, dark eyes and a
poised, inteligent expression.
"Ah, Makarski!", he whsp-
ers. "She was a student of mine
long ago. Such a violinist! To
hear her play - this girl is so)
extraordinary . .
Michelle Markarski, currently
a School of Music sophomore, has
performed as a soloist with the
World Youth Symphony, the In-
ternational Youth Symphony and
served as concertmaster for the
renowned Interlochen Arts Aca-
demy Orchestra throughout high
school. A participating irtist in
the Marlboro Music Festival, she
toured the country, the youngest
of a highly exclusive and distin-
guished group. She has engaged
in a paper wad battle with Ru-
dolph Serkin and chatted with a
t-shirted Leonard Bernstein.
EN MICHELLE learned of
Bistritsky's comment recent-
ly, her response was characteris-
tically warm, "I love that man,"
she said. "I was playing in the
All-City Orchestra at that time.
He was our conducter and would
say to me, "Michelle, Moart
must be"played like pearls - like
pearls!"'r
The life, however, isn't always
easy.
"You see"' she says, speak-
ing slowly, "Musicians have such
a problem just being human.
They get so wrapped up in them-
selves and then, whenever they
find they need someone else to
turn to, there's no one there.
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"There's a period of time when
you feel you have only acquaint-
ances and no friends at all. And
these acquaintances" sh, sighed,
"they fall all over you . a n d
claim friendship . . bW: when
it comes down to it, they're un-
willing or even afraid."
She pulls a short brown braid
of hair over one shoulder for
a moment. "I suppose it' be-
cause of the lack of time we
spend in social situations" s h e
decided. "You're so busy work-
ing, discipling yourself . .
But then, brightening, s h e
smiled. "That's why chamber
music is so wonderful! You can
play with people you really love.
Its not the 'big anonymous mass
of a symphony orches ra. It's so
intimate. Gustave Rousseels, one
of the Music School p'rofessors,
says that playing in a quartet
with someone is like being mar-
ried to them."
the time. I've always had the
inclination. What I may lack
theoretically, I try to make up
in curiosity.
BUT NOT all her interests
could share priority, a n d
early on Michelle's focus became
clear. She credits her father, a
conservationist and string teach-
er in the Detroit public s.hoof
system, with being "the deciding
influence in my becoming a
musician". He was her f i r s t
teacher and made certain that
her musical education w a s
thorough, insisting on supplemen-
tal piano lessons and regiilor
practice.
"It's pretty common that most
musicians have a fairly abnorni-
al childhood. If they are at all
successful during their youti,
that is. You just don't toddle off
and play a lot. I can remember
children calling for me and my
"You see, musicians have such a
problem just being human. They get so
wrapped up in themselves and then,
whenever they find they need some-
one else to tourn to, there's no one
there."
als and young people. Groups se-
lect their own music. One veter-
an is assigned to each gro-Ip and
he helps us along as a leader
of sorts. It's a learning exper-
ience for all of us though -the
pro benefits from our fresh ideas
as well."
Rudolph Serkin was named ar-
tistic director of Marlboro after
the death of Pablo Casals.
"And that man is so - sly!"
she exclaimed. "At dinner one
of my first niglhts there, I saw
him look carefully around,
scratch his neck so as not to
apear obvious, and then fling a
paper wad at Ron Copes, a xio-
linist from Oberlin who sat next
to me at table. I was no:rified
when I saw Ron wadding up pap-
er to fling back at him. I al-
most shouted at Ron I didn't
know there is a virtual initiation
of paper wads at Marlboro"..
"My life has been filled with
all these older people who have
had tremendous influences ar oth-
er types who were very serious
individuals. I've never been in
contact much with people my
own age until now.
"A MUSICIAN knows so much
earlier what they wan: to
do withdtheir life" Micheile em-
phasized. "They know far a-
head of everyone. You attach
yourself to an instrument and
its forever, a lifelong thing. No
one takes a fifth grader w h o
wants to be a lawyer too ser-
iously, but if a child is a tal-
ented musician, people say, "Yes
-go! Go practice!".
"The student-teacher .elation-
ship makes us quite comfortable
around older people and profes-
sionals. We get used to tyrants.
It must be faced for what it is,
and the music world is a mon-
archy. It's a dictatorship."
Michelle admits Leonard Bern-
stein was "a childhod heio ,
but it was the gen e ce&ist
EASTERN MICHIGAN
UNIVERSITY
MAJOR EVENTS COMMITTEE
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BLACK
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WITH
BEDLAM
SAT., Feb. 23-8 p.m.
Pablo Casals wno mspirea ner
most of all.
"Casals was both a numanitar-
ian and a musician - but a hu-
manitarian foremost. He was
peace loving when all the other
music people were still only con-
cerned with making as much
money as possible, from concert
performances."
Michelle currently itudies with
Professor Paul Makanowitsky.
She leaves her campus apart-
ment before eightin the marn-
mng and stays at the Music
School until "whenever", often
taking yogurt for sue .'
"[HAT I'D like to do is be
able to play in a really
fine chamber music ensemble"
she said. "I want to have enough
of a reputation to give recitals
and. be lucky enough to play con-
certos with orchestras occasion-
ally."
Michelle is charming and mo-
dest in talking about her work.
There is no apparent sense of
hungry, ugly ambition.
"You know, I used to oe pow-
er-hungry once" she said. Tier
face rested in her sleader cup-
per hand. "I would think _- 11
be like Heifetz, I'll be in the
limelight. People everywhere
will hold receptions for me.
"I had this image of myself
in my 20's, flouncing into re-
hearsal". She gestured grandly
about her. "My Mercedes would
be parked at the curb, I'd be
wearing an exquisite Sals gown,
with two Afghan hounds beside
me and a Stradivarius under
my arm".
"Now, I could care less about
the clothes, the Mercedes. All
I could possibly still want from
that vision are the wo ddogs.
What I want is an old house,
someplace where it would be
dead quiet . . . a hausa I could
"It's pretty common that most musicians have a fairly abnormal
childhood. If they are at all successful during their youth, that is. I can
remember children calling for me and my parents telling them I was
practicing and couldn't go outside."
do absolutely anything I wanted
with".
"AND WHEN I think to my-
self: "Michelle, you're in
music, you're going to be in
poverty all your life', somehow
it doesn't bother me anymore".
Mary Long is a staff
for The Daily.
writer
SDT SPAGHETTI DINNER
FEB. 17
5:00-8:00
MICHELLE MISSED the begin-
ning of winter semester
term because of the tour with
the Marlboro Music Festival. "I
have asked myself about dis-
rupting. the flow of my education
like that" she admitted. "I de-
cided that this tour was as im-
portant - or more important-
than day-to-day class work. This
is, after' all, the performance
experience. You have to be on
your toes - there's no choice.
And there is a tremendous chal-
lenge to keep the music from go-
ing stale on you".
Nonetheless -she doesn't fol-
low the pattern of many artists
who know their craft and not
much else.
"I'm not willing to slough off
my studies and be only a violia-
ist" she says emphatically. "I
can't see excluding anything.
love literature. I love animals -
if I weren't a musician; I more
than likely would have become
a veterinarian. And, for exam-
ple, if I were a vet, I'd try to
be as well-versed in the arts as
possible.
"I refused to go to JulLard,
Curtis or to any conservatory for
my undergraduate work. I End
then stagnant environments.'
"Musicians seem to be either
math-science or arts-humanttie3
oriented. Rarely are they both.
I'm art-humanities, I thiak. I
have a lacking in math. The
problem is that I've never had
parents telling them that I was
practicing and couldn't go out-
side."
She' went through the sequence
of Detroilt's finest string teach-
ers and by the age of 12 was
performing with such lo .al or-
chestras as the International
Youth Symphony. She was nam-
ed concertmaster of the Inter-
lochen Arts Academy Orchestra
in her' sophomore year of higi
school.
More recently, Michelle per-
formed in the Marlboro Music
Festival, which, according to one
critic, "has the highest concen-
tration of artistic activity in tne
United States .and possibly the
world."
"YOU PRACTICE in four sep-
arate two hour periods
every day" Michelle explains.
"Intensely, to say the lean.
There's a mixture of profes sion-
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