The Selection
The questions that ultimately confront any young musician considering a mentorship with Pinchas Zukerman is "How much do you want it?" and "How much is it worth to you?"
One of the premiere violinists and violists of his generation, as well as the charismatic music director of Ottawa's National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra, Zukerman offers a calibre of wisdom best appreciated by those entering artistic maturity. Such were the three candidates selected by the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative for his consideration – two violinists and one violist, each of them extremely talented, none of them strangers to strong-minded instruction, but still knowing that the more self-regenerating knowledge they have at the beginning of their careers, the longer their creative lives will be.
"The big question," says 59-year-old Zukerman as he considered the difficult task of choosing who would be his protégé, "is how far that person can reach."
In order to find that out, Zukerman invited the three finalists to play for him in two periods separated by several months, meaning that the selection process was longer than in other disciplines of the Rolex Arts Initiative.
Ultimately, he chose violist David Aaron Carpenter, who at 21, is already an intense performer and impressive technician. He won the 2006 Walter W. Naumburg Viola Competition, which has launched numerous high-profile careers. Carpenter’s intellectual curiosities are such that his senior thesis at Princeton University is on comparative democracies in Turkey, France and Romania. What creates a natural connection with Zukerman, though, are Carpenter's years in the Juilliard School pre-college division leading a double life as a violinist and violist. Zukerman has done much the same, claiming that one instrument informs the other.
"The first time I met him [through Rolex]," says Carpenter, "everything clicked. And after two weeks with him in Ottawa, I felt a huge difference in my playing. Everything he did just fit."