This William Primrose quotation is my motto. In my opinion, the typical viola tone is an ideal sound. Even so, I constantly try to elicit entirely new, altogether atypical sounds from my instrument in order to present the viola as a vibrant, virtuoso solo instrument this is full of surprises.
I am Miriam Ross and this is my story My musical journey seems like a miracle. Looking at my career so far, I cannot believe how much good fortune I have had.
I began playing the viola in 1976 after a short detour with the violin, which I took up relatively late, at the age of thirteen. Two years later, I switched to the viola -- the instrument which offers me my ideal range of expressive possibilities.
Not long after I began studying the viola, two of my teachers died. Very shocking indeed! However, good things often come out of bad and in my case, the death of my teachers led me to Professor Karl Stierhof, a truly excellent teacher and a member of the Vienna Philharmonics, who taught me the basics – profound, old school. He piloted me through almost every exercise of Sevcik’s and Schradieck’s and he made me love studying music.
Professor Hatto Beyerle was my second teacher at the university in Vienna (Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst). He provided me with a great store of knowledge.
In 1984, I moved to Berne, Switzerland after receiving a stipend from that city to study at the local conservatory in Professor Max Rostal’s master class. That same year, I also won the prize for best interpretation of a modern piece at the International Viola Competition in Budapest. 1984 marked the start of a period in my life when opportunities came quickly for me. For example, almost immediately after graduating with distinction from the Vienna Musikhochschule, I was accepted into the Herbert von Karajan Foundation, the orchestra academy of the Berlin Philharmonics. The outstanding education I received there coupled with consistent practice on my part paid off and just a year later in 1987, I became a permanent member of the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan, which was a very significant musical experience for me. During this time, I also won several competition awards. All of these experiences helped shape my artistic outlook and inspired me deeply.
Although at the time, it was a tremendous honor as a woman to be able to play for the Berlin Philharmonic, it was not long before I began to feel a calling for something else, even though I could not yet define exactly what that “something else” was. Even so, after Karajan’s death, I remained with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado until 1997 when I accepted the offer of a professorship of music at the Musikhochschule Bremen. By then I had realized that what I was yearning for was to reconnect with myself and the viola, a feeling that I felt I had lost completely after playing in the orchestra for a couple years. I felt that I could reconnect with my instrument by working in an academic environment where I would be more responsible for myself and have the opportunity to delve deep into the technical aspects of playing and to rediscover through my work with students what I loved about playing.
As a professor my goal was to help my music students develop a solid technique and a strong mind-body connection that would then allow them to begin interpreting music for themselves. It was the same goal I had set for myself. I believe that every note must be connected to the body. When that happens, and only then, can you play “as if the playing is taking care of itself”, and are you free you to completely focus on how you express your music. Christa Ludwig, the famous Austrian singer, once said in an interview something that resonated deeply with me because it exactly reflects what happens when a musician is able to achieve this goal: “Something sings out of me; what it is I do not understand.”
In 1999, I placed first at the East and West Artists competition in New York. My prize was the opportunity to give a concert in the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall. My concert was very emotional because in the front row I could see a number of Holocaust survivors, all of whom I knew, were crying as they listened to me play Schubert.
Then in 2003, I moved back to Vienna, Austria, the city of my birth, where I accepted the post of solo viola with Tonkünstlerorchester Niederösterreich as a day job. I continue to play with this orchestra. I also play in two ensembles dedicated to New Music -- Kontrapunkte and Die Reihe. More than anything however, because it’s impossible for me to forget the fantastic feeling I had walking out on stage for my first solo concert with an orchestra at the Vienna Musikverein, when I felt borne on the crest of a wave of warmth and intense connectedness with the audience and with the music -- a rarefied moment of absolute clarity -- I pursue my calling, to be a viola soloist.
For a long time, I wanted my own music academy where I could teach professional musicians my method -- the Miriam Ross™ Method. Now, I have realized that dream with the establishment of the Miriam Ross™ Academy, an online music school for professional violists and violinists, that provides online music lessons via web cam and also offers coaching by phone, among other services.
