Esther Gilbert

High Notes and Low: Recollections of a Musical Career (With Strings Attached) Esther Gilbert

When Esther Schure?s mother decided that her daughter would become a violinist, there was no stopping this determined woman. The immigrant family moved from Hamilton, Ontario, to Rochester, New York (Eastman School of Music), and then to New York City?all in the interest of furthering Esther?s musical education and subsequent career. From the beginning, as a four-year old, Esther developed her natural talent, and with the help of patrons and outstanding teachers she became a professional violinist. Her career spans most of the twentieth century, from the 1930?s to her retirement in 1994. She played under the batons of some of the most renowned conductors of the era, including Leonard Bernstein and Leopold Stokowski. Her memoirs are a rare view from the inside of many professional orchestras. She has a talent for reproducing the personae of players, conductors, and the whole backstage. She recounts studying at the Institute of Musical Art, New York, (which later would become a part of Juilliard School of Music), and with Leopold Auer, teacher of the most famous violinists, including Jascha Heifetz and Mischa Elman. She was concertmaster on tour with the American Ballet Theatre, the British Royal Ballet, the St. Louis Symphony, and finally a thirty-seven year stint as first violinist/assistant concertmaster with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. The characters she describes on her journey are funny, temperamental, and talented?but of all the musicians, Esther herself is the personification of a true violinist.