Wayzata Elementary String Program Oral History Project: Interview with Barbara Fallstad and Russell Fallstad

Titles: Wayzata Elementary String Program Oral History Project: Interview with Barbara Fallstad and Russell Fallstad (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Barbara Fallstad studied Business Administration at the University of Minnesota and College of St. Catherine. For the past forty years she has worked in her field of study, as Executive Secretary for a Vice President of Investors Diversified Services, Executive Secretary for the officers and founders of National City Bank (now M & I), assistant to her husband Russ when he started a business, and for the past twenty years as Business Administrator for a church. Barb's involvement with Wayzata Strings started when her son Russell was in first grade, continued until he graduated from Wayzata High School, and included assisting with fundraising for Wayzata Orchestra's European tour in the mid-1980s, a trip upon which she accompanied the orchestra. During all the years Russell was involved with strings in Wayzata Public Schools and at MacPhail Center for the Arts Barb and her husband were active volunteers with string program activities. They are past chairs of the Wayzata Orchestra Boosters organization. Russell Fallstad began violin lessons at age five in kindergarten in the Wayzata Public Schools, and remained a part of the orchestra program as a violin and viola student through high school, while studying privately and participating in The Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies. He received Bachelor and Master degrees from Northwestern University, as a student of Gerardo Ribeiro, and was the recipient of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago Graduate Fellowship. Russell has played violin and viola with various chamber groups, appeared as soloist with several Chicago area orchestras, and taught at Northwestern University, DePaul University, The Music Center of the North Shore, and the Western Springs School of Talent Education. In 1997, Russell and violinist Rebecca McFaul founded the Fry Street Quartet, a string ensemble which participated in a chamber music workshop under the direction of the late Isaac Stern at the Jerusalem Music Center, and afterwards performed in Stern's series at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, in November, 2001. The Quartet was selected to serve as ambassadors of the Carnegie Fellows Program, and toured the Balkan States in July, 2002, performing composer J. Mark Scare's "Y2K", a work composed for the group with a grant from Meet the Composer. Other awards include first prize at the 2000 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, the 2000 Millennium Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and two fellowships to the Aspen Music Festival’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies. During the 2002-2003 season the quartet will appear as part of Chicago's Jewel Box Series and at a tribute concert for Isaac Stern at Sweet Briar College on the invitation of Linda Reynolds Stern. The Fry Street's debut recording of works by Janacek and Beethoven was issued in December 2001. During 2002, the Fry Street Quartet completed their three-year tenure in Chamber Music America's "Rural Residencies" program at Hickory, North Carolina, and in September of the same year became the Faculty String Quartet in Residence at Utah State University. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Russell and Barbara recount their involvement with Wayzata strings, with emphasis on the enormous importance it has had shaping the life of their family, the significance of starting early childhood, and the impact of peer involvement. The interview turns from remembering to discovery, as mother and son discuss the difficult but inevitable process of Russell's separation from his parents and evolution into an independent, mature musician.

Dates

• 08/23/2001 (Creation)

Creation

• interviewer: Weber, Lynne
• interviewee: Fallstad, Barbara
• interviewee: Fallstad, Russell

Identifiers

• Library Call Number: OH 109
• Accession Number: AV2007.12.7

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

• Oral History - Project, MHS Collection, project: 'Wayzata Elementary String Program Oral History Project' <OH 109>

Quantity: 1.5 hours sound cassette 37 pages transcript

Format

• Content Category: sound recordings
• Content Category: text

Measurements

• 01:25:34 running time

Subjects

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