Joshua
Keller
Submitted:
June 14, 2010
Awarded
: $
1225
Contact Information:
Joshua
Keller
Adelenstrasse 15
Bremen
Bremen
28239
Germany
004917652353231
Reference 1:
Hille Perl
Reference 2:
Kenneth Kreitner
Summary of Submitted Materials:
Submitted Documents:
Submitted Recordings:
Committee Notes:
Project Description:
It is my wish to not overstate my case or to get dramatic about my current situation but I have just fallen in love with a newly created bass viol by Henner Harders based on a model of M. Colichon. I have been looking recently for a new instrument and have tried many makers in Germany (my current location), Belgium and the Netherlands but haven't found much. I recently returned from a trip of concerts, and rehersals in Belgium and the Netherlands and heard that Henner Harders would be in Bremen (where I live) and would have a newly made gamba for sale to show. It was perfect. It was the right tone, right size, right everthing for me. It really was exactly what I was looking for exactly when I was looking.
However, it was not exactly the right price. It was just a small stretch over my maximal price (though I was getting very frustrated with instruments in that price range, which itself was not a low range to say the least.) The viol is roughly 12,000 Euros depending on taxes and I would like to request funds from the VDGSA for about 1200US$ or about 1000€. I have talked with the maker and have told him of my plans to buy the instrument on an extended plan (selling my current Pringle viol, though I HATE to see it go, and various other musical items I have wanted to sell for some time now, and basically every gig I get for the next two years will go to Henner). Henner was suprisingly ok with that plan. Though he stated he had never done such a thing, he said that we both looked happy with each other (viol and new owner).
I want to add into my request that any amount will be highly appreciated, high or low, and also that, as I am paying on an extended plan, any money from the Society doesn't have to come now, but can be given over the next year if that is more convenient.
Request Amount:
$
1225
Total Project Cost:
$
Budget and Additional Funding:
Qualifications:
After recieving first contact with early music and historical performance practices in college at the University of Memphis, where I played cello, baroque cello and baroque basson in the Collegium Musicum, I quickly realized the importance of the gamba in my life. I auditioned to study at the Indiana University Early Music Institute where I recieved my first real lessons from Wendy Gillespie, me also becoming her assistant. After graduate studies, I decided on a European education as well. I am now at the top of my class here in Bremen, Germany under the wing of Hille Perl. While here I have also met such gambists as Wieland Kuijken, Paolo Pandolfo, Pere Ros, Marianne Müller, Jose Vasquez, and Petr Wagner. I have played already, after just two years here, for the Brugge Festival, Rotterdam Opera Festival, Utrecht Early Music Festival Fringe and will this year again apear at Utrecht Fringe with two concerts and also in the Thüringen Early Music Festival. I have also established myself within the Bremen area as a competent performer from Bach Passions to Schütz ensemble music. As a student I have worked to better my technique (and finally do what my teachers tell me to, even if its hard!) and challenge my knowlege of music and performance practice. My most cherished accomplishments in life are my wide activities with improvisation and becoming better known for my unique skill. Here in Bremen, I have furthered my accademic studies of the subject with the cornetto player and teacher William Dongois.
Letter of Reference 1:
Here is the recommendation from Kenneth Kreitner, received today (14 June)
Dear Wendy,
It was great meeting you—at last!—at the Isaac conference. And honored, of course, to be your Facebook Friend now. But that’s not what I’m writing about: I’m here on behalf of Joshua Keller, our mutual former student, who is applying for a VDGSA grant to help finance his purchase of a new instrument.
This I am, of course, very happy to do. Now that I set pen to paper (or maybe I should say fingers to keyboard), however, I find it hard to think of anything to say that you don’t already know, and know better than I can probably explain. Josh is probably the number one most talented undergraduate I have known in my twenty years at the University of Memphis. The day he was dragged into a collegium rehearsal and discovered, I think it was the bass recorder?, was one of the great days in my career, and I am proud to say it seems to have been a turning point in his life. You know, we talk, in the teaching game, about how we just have to stand back and not inhibit our students’ sense of discovery. Maybe you have that experience a lot; not me.
But as I say, all that you know, as I’m sure you know the importance of getting the right instrument at the right time in your life, and can imagine his current straitened circumstances. I hope this is the sort of thing the society’s grants are for? It would, in any case, be a lovely thing to do for a deserving and promising young artist, and may prove to make a big difference in our world in the years to come.
Yr faithful
Ken
Kenneth Kreitner, Ph.D.
Benjamin Rawlins Professor of Musicology
Assistant Director for Graduate Curriculum and Advising
Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music
The University of Memphis
Memphis, TN 38152
901-678-3785
kkreitnr@memphis.edu
(NB from WG: It is certainly fortunate that we do not base these awards on the writing prowess of the applicants!)
Letter of Reference 2:
And here is Hille's:
To whom it may concern,
It is my pleasure to recomend Joshua Keller for the Grants-in-Aid by the Viola da Gamba Society of America. Joshua has been in my class for two years now, has worked very hard, and has grown a lot. Josh was already a promising student when he arrived here from the US and now holds the keys to making a promising career. I have no doubt that he is an asset to the American gamba community as well as world wide, and for this, the Society would want to give its support and nourish him for a promising future.
I would also like to state something about the new viol that Joshua has the opportunity to purchase. It is a fine and fitting instrument for him, made by the well-known gamba-maker Henner Harders. Joshua was badly in need of a new instrument and it seems that this viol was almost created for him. The viol will help him on his way to a bright and rewarding career. As many of you may know, it is a challenging world for gambists as of late and I would like to request that if you have the means to help out this creative musician, it would be money well spent.
I send with this all my regards and well-wishes
Hille Perl
Hille Perl
hille@hillenet.net
Love, W