DATE: Saturday, October 18, 1997            TAG: 9710180302

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   95 lines

VIOLIN VIRTUOSO TAKES THE TIME TO TEACH YOUNGSTERS AT ODU

The first lesson pre-eminent violinist Isaac Stern taught at his master class Friday afternoon dismissed any pretension.

``Let me explain what this is not,'' a slightly stooped Stern said after he entered stage left. ``It's not a master class.''

The 77-year-old showman quickly explained that the afternoon student session in Old Dominion University's Wilson G. Chandler Recital Hall would ``break down bad habits and build good ones . . . to try to help each other learn how to look at the music and listen to how one plays.''

A master class, the classical virtuoso declared, is a six-month process, not a half-hour musical snippet from the repertoires of three Hampton Roads teens.

Officials from the Virginia Symphony - which will perform with Stern at a concert tonight - Young Audiences of Virginia Inc., the Governor's School for the Arts and ODU - collaborated to sponsor Friday's superstar event.

Stern, his eyes searching, his hands rubbing his chin contemplatively, called forth his first victim, 16-year-old Zachary Casebolt.

Casebolt, in a white shirt and striped tie, dove immediately into the allegro movement from Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, not a trembling hand in sight. His blond sideburns, stretching down as if to touch his violin's chin rest, betrayed his youth and his love for what his mother called ``alternative music.''

Stern perched himself on a bar stool not four feet away.

Just above Stern's shock of receding white hair, his trademark black plastic glasses sat. Dressed in a sea-green V-neck sweater, white shirt and black sneakers with Velcro straps, the mentor who had encouraged classical music giants from Itzhak Perlman to Yo-Yo Ma began to listen to the Chesapeake youngster and his piano accompanist.

He waited five minutes.

``OK, move to the cadenza,'' Stern commanded.

And Casebolt moved.

Stern, his face in a scowl, stood up and paced behind Casebolt.

At the end of the solo, Stern clapped impatiently, saying, ``Very good!''

``Now . . . what do you feel is your greatest weakness?''

Casebolt's feet shifted: ``Becoming the music?''

Very good.

``What's your basic musical attitude about this piece?'' he asked.

``It starts out comedic . . . and then it's like Shakespeare. One second you are having a blast, then the whole world falls apart,'' Casebolt offered.

``Yes,'' Stern said. ``But joyful might be better than `having a blast,' '' Stern said, as the audience of more than 100 laughed along.

Then Stern focused on the fundamentals: ``You're playing like you're dancing with a girl who's four feet away; your fiddle has to be part of your body.''

Then he removed a bridge-like device on the back of Casebolt's violin and showed off his own secret: a foam pad under his sweater to allow the ``fiddle'' to nuzzle against his shoulder.

``Do you hear the difference?'' Stern asked Casebolt, as the Indian River High School junior grinned and nodded his head to watch a master at work.

After Casebolt, Thomas Brown, a Maury High School senior, strode on stage to grasp Stern's hand.

After a shaky beginning, Brown, 17, completed the solo Bach Partita No. 3 to ``good job'' from the Russian-born violinist. Both Brown and Casebolt are studying at the Governor's School and were selected by its faculty to perform.

While these teen-age musicians still need to practice, practice, practice their way to Carnegie Hall, Stern stands as a titan who helped save that venue from the wrecking ball.

And Brown, with a bow, a smile and a quick wipe to his brow, waited for Stern's comments in awe.

``Don't get so nervous,'' Stern said.

Music is written vertically, he said, ``and it's your responsibility to learn what that harmony is.'' After fidgeting with Brown's fingers, Stern let him off the hook with: ``When you learn to hear what is written, you'll be on your way to learning how to play.''

Stern's final student, 18-year-old ODU freshman Rosemarie Liu, skated through the third movement of Khachaturian's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.

``What for you is the character of this piece?'' Stern asked.

``Folk dancing?'' a reserved Liu said.

``Don't you hear laughing? Ha, ha, HA!'' Stern cheered. ``Da, da, daaah. .

Then Stern made Liu play the piece, lifting the end of his violin every time he wanted to hear laughter from her bow - and the audience.

To close the day, Stern took questions, dispensing advice to the students and teachers who packed Chandler Hall.

``There is too much teaching on how to play and not enough on why do you play,'' he said. ``If you want to be a musician, you have to have something to say.''

And Stern, who dazzled the ODU audience for almost two hours and has entranced the world for more than 60 years, gets his chance to speak with the Virginia Symphony tonight. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

Isaac Stern, one of the world's most celebrated violinists, conducts

a special master class Friday. He'll perform with the Virginia

Symphony tonight.

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