Posted by Ryan Selberg on May 13, 1999 at 06:52:46:
In Reply to: Re: Cleveland Orch. posted by S.W. on May 13, 1999 at 05:49:35:
Gwen Starker is married to the concertmaster, Bill Preucil, a fantastic violinist and very nice individual with a great sense of humor. We here in the Utah Symphony were priviledged to have had him as our concert master for a season, but our management was TOO STUPID to be able to keep him here long. He asked for a bit more time off to pursue solo opportunities. They said no and Atlanta said yes, and the rest is history-Cleveland Quartet and now Cleveland Symphony.(Some of the most memorable moments with Bill were performances in children's concerts playing Lucian Callet's Variations on Pop Goes the Weasel. It has a violin cadenza in the middle that sets up the variation to follow, "In Jerusalem". Bill began to improvise cadenza variations that could incorporate portions of other well-known violin repetoire. We never knew what to expect, but were always delighted at the outcome, as was our very sympathetic associate conductor.)Gwen is also a fine violinist, and played in the USO with Bill.
Ryan