Judith Davidoff

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Judith Davidoff
Background information
Born	(1927-10-21) 21 October 1927 (age 93) Boston, United States
Genres	Early Music
Occupation(s)	Musician and teacher
Instruments	viols, baroque cello, medieval bowed instruments, Erhu
Years active	1939-present

Judith Davidoff is an American viol player, cellist, and performer on the medieval bowed instruments.^[1] Her recorded performances reflect her wide range of repertoire and styles, including such works as Schoenberg's Verklaerte Nacht and 13th-century monody.^[2] She is responsible for the catalog of 20th- and 21st-century viol music.^[3]

Musical education[]

Judith Davidoff began musical studies at age 7 and made her public debut at 12. A native of Boston, she is a graduate of Radcliffe College and the Longy School of Music, where she received a soloist diploma in cello. Long interested in folk music, she studied the Black Sea kemence and the saz in Turkey, and the erhu in Taiwan.^[4] In the fifties she took up the viol,^[5] which she studied privately with Alison Fowle.

Ensembles[]

Davidoff participated in a number of ensembles, performing viols, early strings (vielle, rebec, kemence), the baryton, and the baroque, classical and modern cello.

She has been a member of American early music ensembles, starting in the fifties with New York Pro Musica,^[6] which she joined as a viol and early strings player at the invitation of Noah Greenberg – which caused her to move from Boston to New York City.^[5][7]

At the request of the then director of New York Pro Musica, Noah Greenberg, she created a viol consort, which became an independent ensemble in 1972, under the name of New York Consort of Viols, and performed uninterruptedly until 2015, during more than four decades. Under the artistic direction of Davidoff, that ensemble presented concerts both in the United States and abroad, as well as offering workshops and outreach activities.^[8] The Consort commissioned new works for viols and produced numerous recordings, in its mission to familiarize audiences with the sound and repertoire of the viol. It also collaborated with early music ensembles such as Pomerium, Zephyrus, the Boston Viol Consort, the Yukimi Kambe Viol Consort, the Waverly Consort, the Ensemble for Early Music and Music For A While and Ensemble PHOENIX, Israel (2013).

She performed also with the Boston Camerata (founding member – viols, early fiddles, baryton, tromba marina),^[9] the Waverly Consort viols, early fiddles, baroque cello),^[10][11] Music for a While (viols, early fiddles),^[12][13] and the Agassiz Trio (classical cello).^[14]

As a modern cellist, she participated in the Helikon String Quartet (founding member), in the Brandeis University Resident Quartet and the Arioso Trio.

Recordings[]

• Verklaerte Nacht, Music from Marlboro, Columbia Records^[15]
• Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, Waverly Consort, Vanguard^[16]
• Trio by Eleanore Corey, CRI Records
• The King's Musicke, New York Pro Musica, Decca Gold Label^[17]
• The Play of Herod, New York Pro Musica, Decca Gold Label^[17]
• The Renaissance Band, New York Pro Musica, Decca Gold Label^[17]
• La Fontaine Amoureuse, Music For A While, 1750 Arch Records^[18]
• Cantatas and Arias of Alessandro Stradella with Pilgrim and E. Smith, MHS (Musical Heritage Society) 3242 (viol continuo)^[19]
• J.S. Bach, Six Sonatas For Violin And Harpsichord, Two Sonatas For Violin and Bass Continuo. Sonya Monosoff, James Weaver, Judith Davidoff. Cambridge Records CRS B 2822^[20]
• Dietrich Buxtehude, Sonatas, op. 1 for violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord. Robert Brink, Judith Davidoff, Daniel Pinkham. Music Guild^[21]
• Music of William Byrd, New York Consort of Viols, Lyrichord LEMS-8015^[22]
• Dances and Canzonas of Holberne and Brade, The New York Consort of Viols: Viola Da Gamba Society of America Project Recording Volume II (CD) Classic masters CMCD-1014,1989^[23]
• Illicita Cosa – - The Forbidden Thing, New York Consort of Viols, Musical Heritage Society MHS 3235M^[24]
• The Sweet Power of Musicke, New York Consort of Viols, Musical Heritage Society MHS 4123,1979^[23]
• Fantasias and Consort Songs by Orlando Gibbons, New York Consort of Viols, MHS^[25]
• English Consort Music, New York Consort of Viols, Music Minus One MMO3359^[26]
• The Road From Valencia, New York Consort of Viols^[27]

Teaching[]

She taught at the New England Conservatory and the Longy School of Music while she was a Boston resident. As a New Yorker, she has been a member of the music faculties at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY (viol, Collegium Musicum) and Columbia Teachers College, New York, NY (viol). She has taught also at Columbia University, Extension Division, at SUNY Purchase, Purchase, NY (Music History through Performance), at the Queens College School of Education, Queens, NY, and at Soochow University, Taipei, R.O.C.^[4]

She been in the faculty in a number of workshops throughout North America, organized by the Viola da Gamba Society of America, the American Recorder Society, and has been the heart of the New York Consort of Viols one-day and weekend workshops and Children's Outreach workshops at the Riccardo O’Gorman Garden and Library, Harlem. She has also given workshops and masterclasses in Australia, Brazil, Israel, Sweden, Taiwan and Turkey.^[28]

Articles and reviews[]

Davidoff contributed two articles for the Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society of America: “Ann Ford: An Eighteenth-century Portrait” (vol. 30, 1993 p. 51) and “The New York Pro Musica and the Soviet Union: Personal Observations of a Viol Player” (vol. 2, 1965 p.30).

Her Ph.D. Dissertation, The Waning and Waxing of the Viol: A Historical Survey and Twentieth-century Catalogue is available online at the Viola da Gamba Society of America site.^[29]

References[]