The Strad: Why we should all be violists

The Strad
Hsin-Yun Huang

Violist and teacher Hsin-Yun Huang makes the case for her instrument of choice

What is a viola?

Walking down the street, meeting strangers the conversation often goes ‘So you play the violin?’

‘No, actually it is a viola.’

‘A WHAT??’

‘Well, it’s an instrument bigger than the violin, smaller than a cello.’

‘Oh, I see …. never heard of it! Good luck with THAT!’

As I write this, spell check is not allowing me to write the word ‘violist’, suggesting the word ‘violinist’ as a possible fix. Funnily enough, I too never heard of it when growing up in Taiwan 30 years ago. We young musicians were given the option to pick a second instrument as we entered the 4th grade. Knowing only that I didn’t want to play the violin like everyone else, I opted to play something that the orchestra needed. They offered me either the oboe or the viola. We had no idea what a viola was, but my father thought playing the oboe did not look too appealing, so the viola was what we settled on.

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