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 Staff photo/Katie Yantis: A truck dumps dirt along the Miami and Erie Canal towpath where it crosses Ohio 66. The project will make it easier for those using the towpath to cross Ohio 66.
By KATIE YANTIS
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — Hiker, bikers and walkers in the region will notice a
difference in a few sections of the Miami and Erie Canal towpath trail
starting this week.
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Musician To Teach Locally |
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Thursday, 24 December 2009 |
By ANGELA WEAVER
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — A professionally trained strings instructor will be
traveling to the St. Marys area next month as part of a collaborative
effort between two organizations.
Ben Leybovich, of the Lima Symphony Orchestra, will travel to Wright State University-Lake Campus once a week to teach students as part of the addition of violin instruction to the MusicWorks program at the Arts Place Collective Center.
“I’ve been director of The Music Factory for seven years since its inception,” he said. “This was a new proposition to come help them out and set up a strings studio.”
Leybovich’s concentration is in the violin.
“I play a little piano, but only enough to go along with the kids,” he said.
Leybovich described the collaboration with The Music Factory and the Collective Center as “intriguing” for both sides of what can exist.
“The project is very interesting because there are off-ramps like in any project,” he said. “We don’t know where it will lead, and that’s what makes any project interesting.”
Leybovich began playing violin at age four at The Alexander Glazunov Music School for Children in Leningrad, USSR, now known as St. Petersburg, Russia. The school specialized in accelerated music study for gifted children, and Leybovich graduated from the studio of Valeria Sergeevna Petrova at age 12.
“A musician is not what I am, it’s who I am,” he said. “My experiences have been those of a professional musician for many years.”
After his graduation, Leybovich and his family embarked on a 12-month journey to the United States, where he continued his training with David Shmookler, principal violinist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Columbus. After training with Shmookler, Leybovich pursued his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) in the joint studio of Professors Masao Kawasaki and Catharine Carroll from 1994 to 2002.
In 1998, Leybovich began his professional teaching career as an assistant to Dr. Carroll in the Starling String Project at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, while serving on the faculty at the Northern Kentucky University Preparatory Department at the same time.
“You impact a student’s life in a profound way,” Leybovich said of his music teaching. “It has less to do with teaching than with the discovery of learning the processes. It’s not so much about the actual discovery — not that many people will become professional musicians — the value is in the quest of learning a skill that impacts life in the later years.”
In 2002, he moved to Lima with his wife, violist Patrisha Leybovich, to start The Music Factory, where he serves as executive director and a violin pedagogue.
“It’s not a question of liking or loving it, it just is,” Leybovich said of his violin playing. “I do a lot of other things. I run several businesses that have nothing to do with music, but it’s ultimately what I boil down to.”
Leybovich’s solo performances include appearances with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in 1994, the CCM Chamber Ensemble in 1995 and frequent guest appearances with the Classical Touch Series from 1990-02 and various other public recitals and performances in Columbus and Cincinnati.
As a Chamber musician, Leybovich has also played with the Primavera String Quartet from 1996-98. Since 2003, Leybovich can be frequently heard as the violinist of Bellissimo String Duo, in which is wife is the violist.
Leybovich’s past orchestral engagements have included positions as assistant principal second violin with the Lima Symphony Orchestra, principal violist with the CCM Philharmonia Orchestra, principal violist with the Sorg Opera Company, section violist with the Aspen Festival Orchestra, substitute section violist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra with the Dayton Philharmonic.
He has learned from prolific pedagogues such as Dorothy Delay, Kawasaki, Shmookler, Henry Meyer, Peter Oundijian, Michael Copelman, the Tokyo String Quartet, James Tocco, Mark Gibson, Carroll, Yitshak Schotten, Michael Tree, Daniel Avshalomov, Rami Solomanow, Paul Katz, Victoria Chiang and Paul Frankenfield.
Leybovich as also won the 1998 and 1995 Geraldine b. Gee International Competition for Vola, was a 1995 scholarship recipient of the HIAS Scholarship Award, was a 1994 fellowship recipient of the Aspen Music Festival and a 1993 winner of the Columbus Symphony Competition.
Leybovich’s class is for students ages four and older, and the funding for the classes was made possible through a grant by the College Community Arts Council. He said the class is scheduled to start in January.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 January 2010 )
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