Classically Speaking

Violist Maggie Snyder will be playing at Carnegie Hall this Sunday. No, not  that Carnegie Hall, the other one … up in New York City. She and her sister, harpsichordist Alexandra Snyder Dunbar, will be playing a recital featuring three world premieres at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. 

Snyder is from Memphis, received degrees at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and now teaches viola at West Virginia University. She and her sister have performed together all their lives, but they just recently established themselves as a group with a name – Allemagnetti (you can read the story of that name on their site). 

I called Maggie Snyder Tuesday at her sister’s apartment in New York City, and we chatted about how they got to Carnegie Hall, the music she’s playing, her experience growing up in a musical family, comissioning new music, and bringing the harpsichord into the 21st century. 

In the interview, Snyder mentions that they’ll be performing this music sometime in West Virginia (after she catches up on her taxes!). I’ll be sure to let you know when that happens. 

The duo Allemagnetti will perform at Carnegie Hall Sunday May 10 at 5:30 p.m. Their program includes music by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, Alan Hovhannes, Manuel de Falla, Kenji Bunch, Thomas Pasatieri, Kamra Ince and Garrett Byrnes. 

** As a fellow violist, I was remiss in not asking Snyder her opinion of viola jokes and whether she started on viola or violin.  I’ll get back to you on those questions – and if you ever have extra questions you want asked of the people we interview, let us know, and we’ll see what we can do. 

** UPDATE: Maggie Snyder wrote back to me a bit ago with answers to my questions, and now I'm finally getting to post them. Here's what she said:

"I didn't start on viola. My father was a violinist, and I actually did the 'learn to stand, learn to hold a violin' Suzuki training. I was even first more of a prodigy pianist than a string player anyway, starting that intensively when I was 3. 

"At about 12 years old, my father handed me a viola, and I was in, hook line and sinker after that. I kept up piano and violin all through high-school (and violin continues to be a "back-up" instrument for me), but viola was definitely my focus in college. My very first piece on viola was [Mozart's] Sinfonia Concertante, scordatura (my father believed in trial by fire).  What fun to play first thing with my dad, though!

As to viola jokes, I am a big believer in taking oneself very lightly, so think they are very fun. I probably have heard most of  them. I especially like the ones that end up with a twist at the end which turns them into jokes about conductors or violinists. And I like jokes of any kind, so ones about my instrument are like "famous" ones."