Big music machine

The USC Symphony Orchestra is teaming up with internationally renowned violinist Vadim Gluzman for an evening of classical music at the Koger Center for the Arts. Timothy McDonnell, Kirsten Cassel, Abigail McKee and Zhou Jin are Young Artists Award winners selected to perform solos Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Conductor Donald Portnoy will lead the baton while Vadim Gluzman performs the "Korngold Concerto." Gluzman will play the concerto on the 1690 ex-Leopold Auer Stradivarius violin. The instrument is on extended loan from the Stradivari Society of Chicago, which connects great young talent with the greatest instruments ever made.

The ex-Leopold Auer takes its name from one of its former owners. Constructed in 1690, the violin "has a beautiful noble voice," according to Gluzman's Web site.

"Its luscious low register, penetrating E-string, immensely wide color palette and power of projection have mesmerized audiences everywhere it has been heard," he said.

In The Chicago Tribune Magazine Gluzman said: "Words cannot describe how wonderful this instrument is. It makes me run 15 times faster, dive 15 times deeper. When I first picked up this violin and notes emanated from my bow, I knew my life had changed."

McDonnel will conduct McKee in a performance of the first movement in Mozart's "Flute Concerto." McDonnel, a second-year doctoral candidate studying conducting at the School of Music, has a Bachelor of Arts in music from Immaculate College and a Master of Music in choral conducting from Yale University. McDonnel is a composer whose work is performed around the world.

McKee, a third-year music performance student, is principal flute in the USC Symphony Orchestra and the Symphonic Band. She is an accomplished vocalist and a member of the West African Drumming and Dance Ensemble. McKee performed with the Blue Lake International Youth Symphony Orchestra in the summer of 1997 and has played throughout the United States and Europe.

McKee thinks the piece will be accessible to people who don't know a lot about symphonic music. "I love this piece. It's a standard for all flutists, and I think, after hearing it, everyone will understand why. The piece itself is very crystalline, very pure," she said. "As far as my interpretation goes, I'm really just trying to play it in a way that doesn't interfere with the innate beauty of the piece."

Cassel, playing cello under Jin's conduction, will perform the first movement from the Dvorak Cello Concerto. She is a native of Nashville, Tenn., and began learning the violin at age 2 at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. At age 6, she took up the cello. Cassel spent seven years with the Nashville Youth Symphony and was one of three cellists in the Southeast to play for Lynn Harrell, a famous cellist, conductor and teacher, at Spivey Hall in 1997. In 2001, she was invited to play at the Aspen Music Festival. She is a senior performance major at USC studying with Robert Jesselson.

Jin is completing his doctoral degree in opera and conducting at USC after receiving a Bachelor of Musical Arts from China's Wuhan Conservatory of Music. He earned his master's degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. At Wuhan, he served as the orchestra's music director.

Gluzman has many credits to his name. The 29-year-old started studying the violin at age 7 and comes from a family of professional musicians in Zhitomir, Ukraine. Gluzman's studies include stays at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv and at The Juilliard School in New York City. He has played at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Paris' Theatre du Chatelet, as well as with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. The Washington Post describes Gluzman's performance as having "a commanding technique, spontaneity and visionary breadth ... capable of both delicate nuances and incendiary passion."

Gluzman has released two albums under the label Koch International. His first CD includes music by Beethoven and Brahms, as well as the rarely recorded "Sonata in E" by Paul Hindemith. His second album is a recording of the world premiere of the "Violin Concerto" by Richard Rodney Bennett with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra.

There will be a concert preview at 6:45 p.m. in the large rehearsal hall in the Koger Center, where USC Symphony Assistant Conductor Neil Casey will lead a discussion. Tickets for the performance are available at the Coliseum Box Office, at all Capitol Tickets outlets and in the Koger Center lobby before the concert's start. Tickets are $15, $12 and $7.