David takeno violin biography of albert

Laurie Niles

May 7, 2015, 3:14 PM · Violinist Rachel Podger, one of today's most-respected period performers, once had to hide her Baroque life from her modern-violin teachers and colleagues.

"I had to keep those worlds completely separate," she said, speaking to me in March while in California to play several concerts. This June she will return to the U.S. for all-Bach concerts with Masaaki Suzuki and Juilliard415 in Boston and New York.

David takeno violin biography of albert

"I just remember this attitude from the other violinists, that if you played Baroque violin, it was actually an admission that you couldn't play properly on your modern," Rachel said. "I remember walking through the school with these two cases, and people saying, 'Why have you got two?' and I could not bring myself to say, 'I've got a Baroque violin in there that I'm playing.' I'd just say, 'Oh, I'm trying out another violin.' I was ashamed.

It was partly just me, but it was also the mentality