Andre Laurent
ONeil
Submitted:
April 15, 2014
Rejected
: $
0
Contact Information:
Andre Laurent
ONeil
238 and one half Nelson Avenue
Saratoga Springs
NY
12866
USA
518-301-1010
Reference 1:
Martha Bishop
Reference 2:
Mary Lou Saetta
Summary of Submitted Materials:
A Word file which contains images of documents, with short explanations, verifying all expenditures noted in the budget submitted.
Submitted Documents:
Submitted Recordings:
Committee Notes:
The committee considered the proposal too diffuse and vague. He should have been more specific about which direction he wants to take: instrument or seminar.
Project Description:
I am planning to attend the summer festival sponsored by the Fondazione Italiana per la Musica Antica in Urbino, Italy, running from July 19 to 28, to study with Juan Manuel Quintana. More information can be found at the website www.fima-online.org. I am also looking to purchase an instrument from the Italian luthier Marco Salerno and plan to visit his workshop in Rome. His website is www.marcosalerno.it. Summer is always a difficult financial period when I earn little money from my main occupation of teaching and performing. As I am still paying for a major emergency expense incurred for a new flight case while traveling for work this past summer, I am seeking assistance with current travel costs, course fees, lodging, and an initial deposit for the instrument. To further save money, I plan to leave my apartment on June 1 and move back in with my parents for the summer. The expenses for which I am requesting help break down as follows. Airline fees for award ticket, 115d. or dollars. One way train travel from airport arrival city, 19E. or euros, or 26d. Course registration insurance, 70E. or 97d. Main course fee, 350E. or 486d. Lodging, 165E. or 229d. Instrument deposit based on 10 percent of value of instrument currently in stock, 680E. or 944d.
Request Amount:
$
1897
Total Project Cost:
$
Budget and Additional Funding:
Qualifications:
As an established professional baroque cellist and teacher, I took up the gamba in the fall of 2008, working largely on my own, and immediately began to use it in my professional concerts both as a continuo and as a solo instrument. This includes frequent work with Albany-based Capitol Chamber Artists and occasional work with Atlanta-based New Trinity Baroque, both of whom I have performing regularly with for the past eight seasons. Later I began to teach gamba, and I currently have three adult amateur students. To continue to advance my playing and teaching skills, every year I try to attend a workshop with a different major teacher. VdGSA helped sponsor my participation in the Wieland Kuijken workshop, Boston, 2011. Later that year I took part in Consort Cooperative at Conclave, Chicago. In subsequent years I have worked with Vittorio Ghielmi, Amherst Early Music, New London, 2012, and Sarah Cunningham, International Baroque Institute at Longy, Boston, 2013. I started on a VdGSA rental 6-string bass by George Kelischek in Sept. 2008, then purchased a 7-string Lu-Mi bass viol in April 2009. While working with Ghielmi I began to encounter various physical and expressive limitations to my instrument. I have since made several modifications, including moving the bridge and soundpost, and installing higher tension strings, to address them, and while these have helped, now I am ready to upgrade to another instrument.
Letter of Reference 1:
Reference from: MARTHA BISHOP
Marie Dalby Szuts
656 Capell Street
Oakland CA 94610
Marie.szuts@gmail.com
Dear Marie,
I am writing on behalf of Andre O’Neil who is seeking a Grant-in-aid to be able to
further his career as a professional viola da gamba player.
It’s hard to say enough good things about Andre! He is a superb musician. He plays
several instruments and composes music. His primary instrument is Baroque cello but he
has taken to the viol in an amazing way: playing concerts, making recordings,
teaching—all in a few short years as a basically self-taught gambist. You can see by his
letter that he is constantly striving to better his art, his instrument and equipment, but on
the meager salary of a professional musician.
As a performer he espouses the early gamba literature, but also, perhaps because he
composes (and has perfect pitch) he performs a good bit of modern music on both gamba
and cello. He has performed several concerti on cello, in a short time he will play the
most difficult literture on gamba, and very musically.
He has attended conclaves both as a student and as a visitor, and has studied both cello
and gamba abroad.
Moreover, you will not find a nicer person!
I have no reservations about recommending that the Society help out Andre. He is the
kind of person we want to have in the Society and spreading his talent and enthusiasm for
the viola da gamba wherever he is. I sincerely hope that we can help him do that.
Sincerely,
Martha Bishop
Letter of Reference 2:
Reference from: MARY LOU SAETTA
Mary Lou Saetta
President, Director and violinist/violist
Capitol Chamber Artists, Inc.
263 Manning Boulevard
Albany, N.Y. 12206
(518) 458-9231
Marie Dalby
President of the Viola da Gamba Society of America
Dear Ms. Dalby:
I am writing this letter of recommendation for gambist, Andre Laurent O'Neil. Andre has worked with Capitol Chamber Artists for seven years as our gambist, fortepianist and cellist. Andre possesses fine qualities which ensure his continued success in music making: excellent training, high intelligence, a desire to learn new techniques, an honest approach to accessing his individual performances with ongoing improvement the goal, a love of historical research, a fearless approach to learning a variety of instruments (gamba, cello, fortepiano) - playing them all at a high level, a sterling mastery of the required elements necessary for professional historical performance including perfect pitch, rhythmic accuracy, mastery of historical bowing and performance techniques. Some of the more noteworthy repertoire Andre has played with Capitol Chamber Artists on gamba as a basso continuo instrument includes all three of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre's highly virtuosic Trio Sonatas, and a few of her violin sonatas. As a solo instrument he has performed gamba with me in a half dozen of Buxtehude's trio sonatas for violin and gamba; and with harpsichord alone he has played Bach's first gamba sonata in G major, and three Telemann solo sonatas.
Andre works tirelessly to achieve near performance perfection regardless of the amount of time this work entails. He has a collegial personality and works well with other musicians. Andre loves to learn. Each year he travels to a festival to study with a different gamba master. He then returns to his ongoing performances and applies the newly acquired ideas and techniques to his music making. Andre's current viola da gamba is a factory made Chinese instrument. He desperately needs a fine instrument that matches his high performance level.
Andre is the consumate devoted musician. He performs for the reward of high level music making - with monetary concerns second. Summers are difficult financially for Andre because many of his young students are vacationing with their families and their lessons are suspended until fall. Thus his need for the Viola da Gamba Society of America grant is pressing.
In short, I recommend Andre Laurent O'Neil for the Viola da Gamba Society of America grant without reservation.
Sincerely,
Mary Lou Saetta
Capitol Chamber Artists, Inc.