A group of elite artists will soon convene on the Southern Methodist University campus for an inspiring event honoring Lev Aronson, the legendary Eastern European-American cellist, teacher, and former principal cellist for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Founded by Aronson?s former student Brian Thornton, the Lev Aronson Legacy Festival celebrates its fifth year of the seven-day festival.
The festivities feature a series of concerts with world-class musicians including former students. A series of master classes and presentations will honor the memory of this remarkable cello virtuoso and Holocaust survivor.
Lev Aronson was born February 7, 1912, in M?nchengladbach, Germany. About three weeks after his birth, the family returned to their home in Mitava in the Russian Empire. On April 18, 1915, the Russian government issued the ?Decree of Expulsion? and the Aronsons and multitudes of Jewish families were deported on cattle cars to Voronezh.
Aronson first heard the sounds of the cello played by a neighbor?s child in Veronezh. Soon after, Nikolai Arnoff, a family member who was also a professional cellist, taught Aronson how to hold the instrument and the bow. At seven years old Aronson?s father bought him a small cello and arranged his first cello lessons. In 1920, the family was allowed to leave Veronezh, and moved to Riga, Latvia. Aronson attended school in Riga and continued to study cello. At the age of thirteen, he occasionally performed with the orchestra at silent movies.
Upon graduation from high school at sixteen, Aronson moved to Berlin to study law but soon gave up law to focus on music. Aronson began playing with cellist Julius Klengel and studied with Alfred von Glehn at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin.
When Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933 and anti-Jewish violence throughout Europe rose, Aronson decided to change his name to Lev Arnoff, which sounded more Russian than Jewish in an attempt to continue performing. Aronson found a patroness, Mrs. Daliba Jones, and began to build a successful performing career throughout Europe as a soloist. In 1937, he became Principal Cellist for the Philharmonic Orchestra of Libau. During the late 1930s, Aronson taught cello in Riga, awakening a passion for education that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
The career he built for himself would come crashing down as German forces invaded and occupied Riga in June 1941. Aronson’s cellos were confiscated and the aspiring musician was forced to work as a slave for the Gestapo. In the winter of 1941, thousands of Jews living in the Riga Ghetto were taken to the Rumbula forest, shot, and buried in mass graves. Among the thousands were Aronson?s parents.
In the fall of 1944, the Germans fled Latvia ahead of the Russian advance. Aronson and a number of other Jews, including his sister, were deported to the Stutthof concentration camp. Aronson?s sister never made it further than Stutthof. In 1945, the Germans again moved prisoners ahead of the Ally advance. Aronson was among one of the many groups of Jews sent on death marches in the early months of 1945, but the Russians liberated his group on March 10, 1945.
However, his Russian rescuers took him into custody, fearing he was a German spy.?Aronson managed escape captivity and made his way to the American militarized zone in Germany. He spent nearly two years waiting to be allowed to immigrate to the United States. Aronson and the tenor Gregor Shelkan, who survived the war in the same Riga Ghetto, memorialized those who died in the war with several original compositions. A few of these compositions were published in the Displaced Persons camp Schlachtensee in the American zone of Berlin.
Aronson immigrated to the United States in 1948, accepting a contract with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Aronson served as Assistant Principal Cellist in the Dallas Symphony for the 1948-1949 season and then as principal until 1967. Aronson taught cello at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, from 1967 until 1980. In the 1970s, Aronson collaborated with Croatian cellist and composer, Rudolf Matz, producing the two volume work, The Complete Cellist. In 1980, Aronson began teaching at Southern Methodist University.
Lev Aronson died in Dallas on November 12, 1988. His students include Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirshbaum, Brian Thornton, John Sharp, Adron Ming, Brook Pearce, Christopher Adkins, Alicia Randisi-Hooker, Karen Terbeek, Carol haski, Philip Taggart, Kevin Dvorak, and Mitch Maxwell.?In 1990, he was posthumously awarded the Chevalier du Violoncelle by the Janzer Foundation.
The Lev Aronson Legacy Festival delivers a week of outstanding cello performances that honors the life and teachings of Lev Aronson: ?To never give up in the face of adversity.? Lev Aronson survived years of loss to become an incredible influence over hundreds of musicians. He brought his particular fiery teaching style to Dallas and created some of the greatest cellists that ever lived.
?To never give up in the face of adversity.?
The Festival is an?opportunity?for serious cellists to learn what it is like to study in the tradition of Lev Aronson. Players and teachers from across America will come to perform and to teach in the style?of one of the most brilliant teachers that ever lived. Come to this once in a lifetime event to experience the most vocal approach to cello playing.
Tickets are available online, ranging from complimentary to $35 per event. For more information on?events, Lev Aronson, and the fifth annual Lev Aronson Legacy Festival, visit: http://www.levaronsonlegacy.com/