| Jonas Starker: King of Cellists Joyce Geeting |
Music CDs from Cellist Joyce Geeting
Part Two of Joyce Geeting, author of the just released Janos Starker: King of Cellists,
performing the piece which made Janos Starker, at age 15, a worldwide sensation.
Kodaly's Solo Sonata is considered one of the hardest cello pieces to learn and play.
performing the piece which made Janos Starker, at age 15, a worldwide sensation.
Kodaly's Solo Sonata is considered one of the hardest cello pieces to learn and play.
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| "János Starker, King of Cellists would well serve as a template for similar biographies of other outstanding musicians." Midwest Book Review |
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About Joyce Geeting
Cellist Joyce Geeting has performed many concerts throughout the United States and Europe as soloist and chamber
musician, often featured on radio or television. Most recently she performed in Salzburg, Austria in the new concert
hall of the Mozarteum, which overlooks the Mirabel Gardens.
The work performed, "Body Notes", is newly composed complete with video by pianist Dr. Hector Rasgado Flores,
physiologist and professor at the Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago. The work is a fascinating visual and aural
description of human physiology and the life experience. This cello-piano duo looks forward to performances in Japan,
Germany, Mexico, Venezuela, in Chicago and Minneapolis and Los Angeles in the United States.
Ms. Geeting has served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin, Cornell College and the University of Redlands
and currently teaches at California Lutheran University Conservatory. In addition to her performances, she aids young
cellists in their musical development. She has many award-winning students as well as former students who are
professionals on three continents.
Although a protégé of the great cellist János Starker, who calls her his colleague, she holds a doctorate degree from the
University of Oregon in cello pedagogy and performance. She met him when she was researching for her dissertation.
Joyce plays a 220-year-old cello made by John Edward Betts, Royal London Exchange, "with an extraordinarily exquisite
tone." (Oregon Statesman) "Exquisite tone also describes Joyce's playing, which is dynamic, sensitive and emotionally
powerful." (Carol Worthey)
Cellist Joyce Geeting has performed many concerts throughout the United States and Europe as soloist and chamber
musician, often featured on radio or television. Most recently she performed in Salzburg, Austria in the new concert
hall of the Mozarteum, which overlooks the Mirabel Gardens.
The work performed, "Body Notes", is newly composed complete with video by pianist Dr. Hector Rasgado Flores,
physiologist and professor at the Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago. The work is a fascinating visual and aural
description of human physiology and the life experience. This cello-piano duo looks forward to performances in Japan,
Germany, Mexico, Venezuela, in Chicago and Minneapolis and Los Angeles in the United States.
Ms. Geeting has served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin, Cornell College and the University of Redlands
and currently teaches at California Lutheran University Conservatory. In addition to her performances, she aids young
cellists in their musical development. She has many award-winning students as well as former students who are
professionals on three continents.
Although a protégé of the great cellist János Starker, who calls her his colleague, she holds a doctorate degree from the
University of Oregon in cello pedagogy and performance. She met him when she was researching for her dissertation.
Joyce plays a 220-year-old cello made by John Edward Betts, Royal London Exchange, "with an extraordinarily exquisite
tone." (Oregon Statesman) "Exquisite tone also describes Joyce's playing, which is dynamic, sensitive and emotionally
powerful." (Carol Worthey)
The Kodály Concept from International Kodaly Society
"If I am asked in which works is the Hungarian soul the most beautifully shown, I have to
answer: in Kodály's works. These works are the 'ars poetica' of the Hungarian soul. Its
explanation is, that Kodály's composing activity has its roots in the soil of the Hungarian folk
music. Its internal reason is Kodály's firm belief and confidence in the force and future of his
folk."
The composer, musicologist, ethnomusicologist and humanist Zoltán Kodály, about whom his
true friend Béla Bartók wrote these words, was born in Kecskemét on December 16th 1882.
He was only a few months old when the family - because of his father's duties as a railway
clerk- had to move to Szob and afterwards to Galánta, where they lived for many years.
The impressions of childhood are very strong, and remain forever in the human memory. Kodály
kept mentioning this fact, making it a fundamental thought of his concept of music education.
From personal experience he knew how important it was to be surrounded by music: at home,
where chamber music was played with the family and with friends; the music in the church; the
orchestra at his school.... In his childhood music was as central as it was in the ancient Greek
civilization, for which Kodály had great admiration.
After finishing the grammar school - where he also studied Greek and Latin - Kodály, because of
his eminent results, was accepted at the renowned Eötvös College, being the most prestigious
university college in Hungary, to be compared with the 'Ecole Normale Supérieure' in Paris.
Simultaneously he was accepted as a composition student at the Liszt Academy of Music.
Almost immediately after his graduation he became a Professor at the Liszt Academy. At first
teaching Music Theory, he was concerned about the weak reading skills of his pupils and helped
them to improve that strongly. Later he became a Professor of Composition forming a
remarkable school of Hungarian composers.
Kodály's folk music research extends over a period of almost 60 years, ranging from his early
collection of Mátyusföld in 1905 till the melodies of the laments volume. Thousands of songs
were recorded in writing in a form and style that made it possible 'to perform' them again.
Today, the world knows him as one of the great composers of the 20th century, who wrote
masterpieces as the Psalmus Hungaricus, the solo cello sonata and many more, but who also
wrote simple choral pieces for little children. He, himself said it so clearly: 'We must try to teach
youth a good music, as early as possible. Besides good teachers, we need good literature, for
beginners and children. I have spent a lot of time writing choir pieces and music schoolbooks for
children. I will never regret the time that I have been doing this, instead of writing greater works'.
The main characteristics of Zoltán Kodály's pedagogical lifework are the never-ending force to
begin new and new things and the fully democratic principle that music belongs to everybody.
The most intensive realization of his pedagogical concept began in 1950 when the first music
primary school was founded in Kecskemét, the (at that time) little town where he was born,
soon followed by others in Budapest and country towns.
There Kodály's belief, that music, with singing in the focus, would have a liberating effect on the
mind and increase the child's ability to deal better with all the other subjects of the school
curriculum, was proven.
14 years later, the international music society, gathering in Budapest for the world congress of
ISME in 1964, would witness with growing astonishment the incredible results of Kodály's
concept. From then on it became an example for the rest of the world. Over the years many
thousands have gone to Hungary to study the Kodály concept of music education which
nowadays is applied in the five continents.
"If I am asked in which works is the Hungarian soul the most beautifully shown, I have to
answer: in Kodály's works. These works are the 'ars poetica' of the Hungarian soul. Its
explanation is, that Kodály's composing activity has its roots in the soil of the Hungarian folk
music. Its internal reason is Kodály's firm belief and confidence in the force and future of his
folk."
The composer, musicologist, ethnomusicologist and humanist Zoltán Kodály, about whom his
true friend Béla Bartók wrote these words, was born in Kecskemét on December 16th 1882.
He was only a few months old when the family - because of his father's duties as a railway
clerk- had to move to Szob and afterwards to Galánta, where they lived for many years.
The impressions of childhood are very strong, and remain forever in the human memory. Kodály
kept mentioning this fact, making it a fundamental thought of his concept of music education.
From personal experience he knew how important it was to be surrounded by music: at home,
where chamber music was played with the family and with friends; the music in the church; the
orchestra at his school.... In his childhood music was as central as it was in the ancient Greek
civilization, for which Kodály had great admiration.
After finishing the grammar school - where he also studied Greek and Latin - Kodály, because of
his eminent results, was accepted at the renowned Eötvös College, being the most prestigious
university college in Hungary, to be compared with the 'Ecole Normale Supérieure' in Paris.
Simultaneously he was accepted as a composition student at the Liszt Academy of Music.
Almost immediately after his graduation he became a Professor at the Liszt Academy. At first
teaching Music Theory, he was concerned about the weak reading skills of his pupils and helped
them to improve that strongly. Later he became a Professor of Composition forming a
remarkable school of Hungarian composers.
Kodály's folk music research extends over a period of almost 60 years, ranging from his early
collection of Mátyusföld in 1905 till the melodies of the laments volume. Thousands of songs
were recorded in writing in a form and style that made it possible 'to perform' them again.
Today, the world knows him as one of the great composers of the 20th century, who wrote
masterpieces as the Psalmus Hungaricus, the solo cello sonata and many more, but who also
wrote simple choral pieces for little children. He, himself said it so clearly: 'We must try to teach
youth a good music, as early as possible. Besides good teachers, we need good literature, for
beginners and children. I have spent a lot of time writing choir pieces and music schoolbooks for
children. I will never regret the time that I have been doing this, instead of writing greater works'.
The main characteristics of Zoltán Kodály's pedagogical lifework are the never-ending force to
begin new and new things and the fully democratic principle that music belongs to everybody.
The most intensive realization of his pedagogical concept began in 1950 when the first music
primary school was founded in Kecskemét, the (at that time) little town where he was born,
soon followed by others in Budapest and country towns.
There Kodály's belief, that music, with singing in the focus, would have a liberating effect on the
mind and increase the child's ability to deal better with all the other subjects of the school
curriculum, was proven.
14 years later, the international music society, gathering in Budapest for the world congress of
ISME in 1964, would witness with growing astonishment the incredible results of Kodály's
concept. From then on it became an example for the rest of the world. Over the years many
thousands have gone to Hungary to study the Kodály concept of music education which
nowadays is applied in the five continents.
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