The Cleveland Orchestra found its next concertmaster in South Philly
Curtis’s Joel Link is also first violinist at The Dover Quartet, where he will be keeping his place.
A South Philadelphian with deep ties to the Curtis Institute of Music has been appointed concertmaster of one of the top orchestras in the world.
Joel Link, first violinist of the Curtis-based Dover Quartet, has been appointed concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, the ensemble announced Thursday. The selection was made by music director Franz Welser-Möst. Link is a Curtis Institute of Music graduate and currently serves on the school’s faculty.
The violinist, 36, said he hadn’t been seeking a new job.
“They found me and essentially said, ‘Hey, there’s an opportunity here at the orchestra and someone said you’re a name that we should consider strongly.’ I thought about it and said I was really happy [playing with the Dover]. But when the Cleveland Orchestra calls you, you shut up and listen.”
Link’s tryout involved two weeks playing with the orchestra, as well as an audition. He begins in July.
“I’m not surprised at all. He’s just a tremendous violinist,” said Curtis Institute president and director Roberto Díaz. “The way I think of the Cleveland Orchestra is like a really large chamber music group, so what better person to be concertmaster of a great orchestra like that than a superstar first violinist of a string quartet?”
Part of Link’s arrangement with Cleveland is that he will be able to keep his place in the Dover Quartet, he said, although the group — which is ensemble-in-residence at Curtis — will spend less time touring and performing.
Change was already in the works for the quartet. Julianne Lee, the Dover’s violist, had decided to return to the Boston Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal second violinist. But in the end, the quartet — named by BBC Music Magazine as one of the best string quartets today — decided on continuity, and both Lee and Link will stay on with the Dover.
“The idea is for us to be able to focus on the quality, not just playing a lot of shows,” said Link, who grew up outside of Atlanta and came to Philadelphia to attend Curtis. “And also have time in our lives to be in an orchestra, or get married and have kids, and do that in a way you‘re excited about as well.”
It’s not yet clear what Link’s appointment means for the Dover’s future at Curtis, where the group was founded in 2008 (with a different violist) while its members were students. All four current members now serve on the school’s faculty. Even the group‘s name has Curtis ties — it’s a nod to Dover Beach, the 1931 work for voice and string quartet composed by Samuel Barber while he was a student at the conservatory.
Link says to be affiliated with both Cleveland and the Dover “is a little bit of a ‘have your cake and eat it, too,’ situation, and I can’t imagine anything more meaningful to come out of all this.”