Alina Kobialka in Conversation with Christian Baldini

Alina Kobialka is a remarkable violinist that I have known for a long time, and she has been a regular collaborator for me on several violin concertos. We sat down to discuss her upcoming performance of Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, which she will perform as our soloist with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento on December 7, 2024. Below is our exchange:

Christian Baldini: Alina, what a pleasure it is to collaborate with you again! It has been a while since the first time we met, and since the first time we performed together. You were probably 12 or 13 years old the first time I heard you play. Tell me, what are some of your favorite moments and musical gestures in the Scottish Fantasy, and why? What should people listen for in this piece?

Alina Kobialka: I am thrilled to collaborate with you again with this beautiful piece! It's hard to pick some favorite moments because I love the musical journey of the entire piece. If I had to choose, the very opening of the piece would be one of them, where the orchestra sets up this dream-like atmosphere for the solo violin to enter with a beautiful, quasi-cadenza-like melody. There are also so many other lovely moments in the piece where I get to trade lines with various instruments in the orchestra or even duet together with them. That's something that people can listen for in this piece, along with all the beautiful melodies and harmonies that are created. The harp also plays a great role, so definitely pay attention to that! I love that I get to sing my heart out with this piece, and then it all culminates in the exciting and challenging final movement. I've wanted to play this piece for a long time, and I am delighted that I finally get to! 

CB: A lot has happened since you and I first met. Now you are a tenured member of the New York Philharmonic, still at a remarkably young age! Tell me, how have the last couple of years been? What can you share about being a member of the NY Phil and working every week with wonderful soloists and conductors? What are some of your favorite memories?

AK: I feel incredibly lucky to be a member of the NY Phil. I have amazing colleagues, and it's so joyful and inspiring for me to play with them week after week. I am always learning from them and continuously motivated to improve myself to be the best musician and colleague. There is a certain flexibility that is also required from this job, as we are constantly working with many different soloists and conductors, and it's always amazing to me how quickly the orchestra can adjust and adapt. My favorite memories include working with exceptional soloists (I still remember how Emanuel Ax's encore made me cry!) and fantastic conductors who bring a certain energy and fun to the week. I got the chance to play the chamber version of Appalachian Springs with Hilary Hahn, and it was so fun to work with her in a smaller group setting. I also played a mixed-genre concert with Jacob Collier, Chris Thile, and Madison Cunningham, and it was amazing to see the improvisation and communication between those musicians. I could go on and on. It's been a phenomenal two-ish years with the orchestra. 

CB: Being a California girl, and after living in Chicago (for College), and now living in New York, what are some of the main differences you notice? And also, what do you miss the most about California?

AK: The first and most obvious answer that comes to mind is the weather! Going from no seasons to extreme seasons shocked me, and sadly, I still can't confidently walk in the snow. What I love about these cities is that they all have different personalities, and the experience varies from neighborhood to neighborhood. I do miss how accessible nature is in California, especially the beaches and hiking. But I love living in NYC and am lucky to be close to Central Park! 

CB: You have developed wonderful long-term relationships with many musicians, including Donato Cabrera and Michael Tilson Thomas. You and I have also performed several concertos together. What do you notice in these experiences where you know your collaborators so well? Is it quite different from performing with someone for the first time?

AK: I've been so lucky to have many great musical experiences with you all. A certain familiarity comes from collaborating continuously over time, and it can be easier to communicate specific musical ideas you have. It can be different when performing with someone for the first time, as you are familiarizing yourself with the person's style. Still, I've been fortunate to work with many great, flexible musicians who make the experience easy. 

CB: You are also an avid chamber music performer. What are some of your favorite things about performing chamber music?

AK: There is so much fantastic chamber rep, and I always have so much fun performing it. Chamber music has made me a better musician, as I've learned how to listen, communicate, and lead through it. I've also learned so much about timing and phrasing. I love collaborating and performing with other musicians, and I feel so fortunate to be able to play so much chamber music! 

CB: What are some of the next projects that you really look forward to? Also: what are some dreams you have which you may not have realized yet?

AK: I am performing Britten's String Quartet No. 1 with my colleagues in January. I love his music and would love to perform more of his works. Gustavo Dudamel, our incoming music director, is also coming in the spring, so I am incredibly excited about that! I am also passionate about community concerts and giving back, and I am working on putting together some projects with various organizations in NYC. I am currently living the dream, but I always strive to learn, find inspiration, and feel fulfillment, whatever that may mean at specific points in my life. 

CB: Welcome back Alina, and thank you very much for your time. I look forward to featuring your wonderful musicality with our audiences in Sacramento!

AK: I'm so happy to be back and excited to make music with you and Camellia Symphony again! 

Praised for her “beautiful tone, effortless precision, and musical maturity beyond her years,” Chinese-American violinist Alina Kobialka joined the New York Philharmonic in 2022. Hailed as a “jaw-droppingly assured” soloist with a gift for making “present and future converge” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Kobialka’s artistry shines as a collaborator, chamber musician, and soloist. “Watch for her name. She appears to be bound for greatness” (Las Vegas Review-Journal).

Since joining the New York Philharmonic, Kobialka has performed with luminaries such as Hilary Hahn, Yo-Yo Ma, and Emanuel Ax. She frequently appears in the Philharmonic’s Merkin Hall Chamber Series and has toured extensively in Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. In May 2024, she performed with the World Union Orchestra in South Korea alongside members of the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

A three-time artist at the Marlboro Music Festival, Kobialka has collaborated with legendary musicians such as Dame Mitsuko Uchida, Jonathan Biss, and Kim Kashkashian. Her love for cross-genre collaboration has brought her to the stage with Jacob Collier, Chris Thile, and Esperanza Spalding in performances seamlessly blending classical, folk, and jazz elements.

Kobialka is a prizewinner of the 2017 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition and a laureate of the 2016 Irving M. Klein International Competition. She also received the Grand Prize at the Mondavi Center National Young Artists Competition.

A San Francisco native, Kobialka made her solo debut at age 14 with the San Francisco Symphony during its 100th Anniversary Concert at Davies Symphony Hall. She has since appeared with the orchestra three times, most recently under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. Other solo engagements include performances with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and Asheville Symphony.

Kobialka began her violin studies at age five with Li Lin and later trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s preparatory division under Wei He. At 16, she moved to Los Angeles to study at the Colburn School’s Music Academy with Robert Lipsett and Danielle Belen. She earned her master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Ilya Kaler.

Daniel Godsil in Conversation with Christian Baldini

On September 28, I will have the pleasure of conducting Daniel Godsil's "Cathedral Grove" with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento. Also on the program are Brahms' Violin Concerto with Catherine Lin as our soloist and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1. Below is an interview with composer Daniel Godsil. (click here for info about this program)

Christian Baldini: Daniel, welcome, and let's start by talking about your music. What was the genesis for Cathedral Grove? Is it different from your other music? What should people listen for in this piece?

Daniel Godsil: One of the things that really inspired this piece was a comment by composer Sam Nichols, my former teacher at UC Davis: he said that orchestral music—with its relatively bigger scale, ​large performing forces, and sheer number of people working behind the scenes—is really a public art. That really resonated with me, and got me thinking about other public spaces like our country's national and state parks. I often visited California's beautiful parks while I was studying at UC Davis, and decided to do an orchestral "sound-painting" of one of my favorites, Muir Woods (of which Cathedral Grove is a part). Around the time I was writing this piece, I was writing a lot of electronic music that used what I called "sound-shapes"...honestly kind of silly, but trying to render in sound very simple shapes like triangles, X-shapes or chiasms, circles, etc., as jumping-off points to start a composition. People can perhaps listen in this piece for big triangles and X-shapes—roughly the giant shapes created​ by trees in the Muir Woods—rendered in sound. This piece was also a little different from my other work at the time in that I consciously tried to use more consonant combinations of notes. I often write using a spectrum of dissonant and consonant sound combinations, but for this work I experimented with trending more towards the consonant side of things. 

CB: Let's talk about your beginnings with music. How did it all start for you? Was there a particular "eureka" moment when you decided to become a professional musician?

DG: I started playing guitar at age 11. Throughout junior and high school I played mostly rock music, and (after learning just three or four chords) started forming bands with friends. I was writing tons of new songs and riffs all the time, which really the culture of rock music...everyone was writing their own stuff! I didn't think about it much at the time, but that environment was really teaching me the art of composition. My eureka moment was around the age of 17 when I really fell in love with film music. I realized that the orchestral timbres I was drawn to were difficult to achieve with the more limited pallet of tone-colors in rock, and found a piano teacher, learned how to read music, and more importantly, how to write it down and communicate with lots of other more classically-trained players. 

CB: Who are some of your favorite composers? Why? What do you look for in "new music"?

DG: This is a tricky question! It's often said that the music you learned to love in your adolescence is the music you love for your whole life, and that's definitely true for me. So that's a lot of heavy metal like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Sepultura...and also film scoring in the classic Golden Age style like Erich Korngold, Max Steiner, John Williams, and James Horner. Because of my metal background I love "classical" music with lots of raw energy...Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Beethoven, and more recent composers like Georg Haas, Thomas Ades. And because of my love of film music I love composers who built a lot of drama into their forms...I love Sibelius! I also found myself very drawn to the American Symphonists of the 1930s and 40s who helped form the language that film composers use. Composers like David Diamond, Walter Piston, Roy Harris, and of course Copland. What I look for in new music, I think, really tends toward those two silly adolescent drives...energy and drama! 

CB: What's a day like for you? When is the best time to compose? Do you have hobbies? Do you exercise? How do you balance your life as a Professor with your time to compose and perform?

DG: I'm in my fourth year teaching music at Columbia College, in the foothills of the Sierra close to Yosemite. This job keeps me very busy—it's a small school and I'm a department of one! I teach music theory, ear training, music history, private lessons, and I conduct the college orchestra. So I haven't found a lot of time to write much in the last few years while I figured out the job! I'm happy to report that I've (more or less) figured it out and am finding more time now to compose...mostly, for me, in the very early morning before my kids wake up. I'm a diehard hockey fan, and have recently gotten very much into astronomy/telescopes. I am an avid cyclist and exercise often...it's essential for me! It's the best medicine one can get. My job mostly (right now) calls on my performing abilities...I play a lot of piano and guitar (and have been studying jazz very in-depth recently) and have been conducting a lot. I find it very musically satisfying. ​

CB: What is your advice for your musicians who are starting out? How does one deal with frustrations? How does one stay positive?

DG: I always recommend that musicians should develop a very diverse and marketable skill-set...learn to compose! Play several instruments. Get good at video editing. Know how to record with a DAW and know what microphones work for what things. Maybe this doesn't work for everyone, but it does for me: if you get frustrated learning a Beethoven sonata or get composer's block, go learn a jazz standard for fun or go for a walk. 99% of the time that will help you forget your frustration and come back to whatever it was with a positive attitude. 

CB: Lastly, what is the meaning of music to you? I know this is a very big and general question. Feel free to answer it in any way that represents you!

DG: This changes for me a lot, but right now I'm just so grateful to be in a big community of great music makers, be it my students, the talented amateur players in my orchestra, or just friends who play bluegrass for fun. Especially now in this election cycle, there's a big push to look at life through a political lens...how much more fun and positive it is to apply a musical lens instead, and let that focus and inform everything else! 

CB: Thank you for your time Daniel, I look forward to making music with you!

DG: Thanks Christian! Can't wait to work with the wonderful Camellia Symphony! 

Daniel Godsil (Courtesy Photo)

Daniel Godsil's music, which has been described by the San Francisco Classical Voice as having an “intense dramatic narrative,” draws from such eclectic influences as science fiction, thrash metal, and Brutalist architecture. His more recent work draws inspiration from the natural beauty of Northern California, his current home.

Winner of the 2019 League of Composers/ISCM Steven R. Gerber prize (for Cosmographia) and the 2017 Earplay Donald Aird Composition Competition (for his quartet Aeropittura), Godsil's music has been played by Spektral Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, Talujon Percussion, Daedalus Quartet, Lydian String Quartet, Empyrean Ensemble, Metropolitan Orchestra of Saint Louis, UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, University Symphony Orchestra at California State University Fullerton, Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Secret String Quartet, and the Nova Singers, among many others. Recent film scores include the PBS documentary Boxcar People, Man Ray’s 1926 silent film Emak-Bakia and the feature film H.G. Wells’ The First Men In The Moon. Godsil was a finalist in the 2018 Lake George Music Festival chamber composition competition, as well as the 2014 and 2019 Red Note New Music Festival Composition Competitions. His choral works are published by Alliance Music Publishing and NoteNova Publishing, and his chamber and orchestral music is published by BabelScores in Paris.

Born and raised in central Illinois, Godsil (b.1982) holds his PhD. in Composition and Theory from the University of California, Davis, where he studied with Pablo Ortiz, Mika Pelo, Laurie San Martin, and Sam Nichols. He holds an MFA in Music Composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he studied with John Fitz Rogers, John Mallia, and Jonathan Bailey Holland. He also holds a BM in Music Composition from Webster University.

Godsil was selected to participate in the 2017 Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) in Boston, where he had master classes with composers Nicholas Vines and Georg Friedrich Haas.

Godsil has also been active as an educator, conductor, and performer in the central Illinois area, Knox College, Monmouth College, and Carl Sandburg College. At Knox College, he directed the New Music Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Ensemble, and Men’s Chorus. He has also held posts as choral accompanist and collaborative pianist, and served as Music Director and Organist at Grace Episcopal Church in Galesburg, IL.  

Godsil is a professor of music at Columbia College in Sonora, California. He has also served as artistic committee president for Ninth Planet New Music, a trailblazing new music ensemble based in California's SF Bay Area.