THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 21, 1995 TAG: 9507210635
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Friends of cellist Janet Kriner - and they are a multitude - say she is ever smiling, as she was Thursday when she disclosed a gift of $25,000 to the Virginia Symphony, for which she has played 30 years.
It's a hefty sum, a visitor said.
She laughed. ``It was a surprise to me, too, when Bob and I started talking about it. My mother died a year ago, and she loved music, so it was sort of in memory of her that we gave from her legacy to help the music of the community.
``We felt the symphony needed a little boost. It's always a battle to raise money, and Bob and I hope that people will add to their donations or contribute for the first time.
``The symphony is growing all the time, taking more challenging pieces, bringing in new people.''
Symphony Director JoAnn Faletta called it an ``extraordinary gift from a wonderful musician. What touches me is her belief in what the Virginia Symphony is doing, her approval of the direction it is taking, her wish to see it survive.''
A gift at that level from a musician is unprecedented, Falletta said. ``We are all overwhelmed at Janet's generosity.''
Kriner has lived amid music. Her mother played the piano, her father sang around the house, and Janet met the cello at age 3.
The Philadelphia family was vacationing in Atlantic City at the Hotel Blenheim where a trio played. ``The friendly cellist introduced me to the cello,'' Kriner said.
When she entered junior high, her parents agreed she could join the school orchestra if she continued taking piano lessons.
She kept the bargain but chose to play the cello in the orchestra.
While in the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, she won the Piatigorsky Award and studied at Tanglewood, where she was voted outstanding cellist in 1956.
Graduating from the conservatory in 1957, she played with any orchestra within a hundred-mile radius of Philadelphia. A vacationing I.E. Feldman heard her and hired her to play in Norfolk with his celebrated string quartet. She was with it for 30 years until it disbanded.
She and Bob Kriner, French horn player with the symphony, were brought together at a musical soiree by a matchmaking couple. They have two children: Karen, a singer of Top 40 songs, and Kevin, the drummer with the band Abandon Ship, aboard the Spirit of Norfolk.
``I enjoy playing the cello anywhere,'' she said, ``and I take it with me everywhere.'' And she still finds time to play the piano.
What is the lure of a cello?
``The mellow sounds in the middle range. I'm much happier with them as opposed to the high sounds,'' she said. ``Any time I dated anybody it was always a French horn player or a violist.''
Bob, mellow fellow.
Janet, merry cellist. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Janet Kriner has played for the Virginia Symphony for 30 years. She
comes from a music-loving family - her mother played the piano, her
father sang around the house. Her husband, Bob, plays the French
horn.
by CNB