“This is paradise,” Martin Chalifour began, and all hyperbole aside, if it’s not, a Rotary meeting in San Marino is about as close to nirvana as one can get in the 91108 area code.
Chalifour was the keynote speaker at last Thursday afternoon’s meeting of the Rotary Club of San Marino and the principal concertmaster—chief violinist—of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Also, the longtime San Marino resident seemed to be touting the virtues of our local life.
“We love living in San Marino,” he said, with his wide, Nancy, in the room.
“When I was leaving Cleveland, we were looking for a place to live and loved San Marino,” Chalifour told the attentive audience. “The schools are so good. I was told by many of the members of the orchestra that we should live on the west side. But that commute is terrible. Here, I can come home twice a day, after a dress rehearsal in the morning and then back to Disney Hall for the evening show. There aren’t a lot of places where you can do that.”
Chalifour also mentioned the wonderful experiences his two children enjoyed playing in San Marino National Little League. Daughter Stephanie’s team made it to the Softball World Series twice and son Eric was also an all-star.
“We are loving San Marino,” Chalifour said, fortifying his previous narrative.
As substantial a celebrity as there is in this community, Chalifour has served in his current position since 1995. But he never seems to pass up an opportunity to share his craft with his neighbors. He has performed locally along with high school students, most notably a sold-out concert to commemorate the centennial of St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church. He also teaches violin at USC and Caltech.
Judging by the large size of the audience at San Marino Community Church, Chalifour asked for a show of hands to indicate who had seen the LA Phil perform live.
Most had.
“Our orchestra is one of the rare ones that has a summer home that is more famous than our main home,” Chalifour said, referencing the iconic Hollywood Bowl. “For the public, it’s a nice place to have a picnic area in a quiet little ravine. It’s really amazing.”
Chalifour harkened back to the days when the Hollywood Bowl was naturally acoustic but said that increased ambient noise has brought about the need for electronic amplification.
“And we get an occasional curious helicopter or private plane wanting to come by and take a look,” he said.
Chalifour explained his role as principal concertmaster as “a violinist and the leader of violins, but also the leader of all the strings, which is the largest part of the orchestra. When the music calls for one violin, a solo, that is where my special skill comes into play. Otherwise, we are all playing the same thing.”
One of his lesser-known duties is to prepare the music that will be used for a performance “several months ahead of time.”
“I receive the music from one of our librarians and examine the entire score,” he explained. “That’s why when you see an orchestra it looks like a big wave, like a flock of starlings that fly together very tightly. It’s the same principle.”
The long road for Chalifour began in Montreal, Canada, when his parents decided he would play the violin.
“It was by happenstance,” he said. “My parents were choosing an instrument for us. We had a piano but there was no piano teacher in our town. But there was a man who had just come back from training with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki in Japan.”
Chalifour called it “a great introduction to music.”
“It was back at the age of 14 and I told my parents I was going to be a musician. They gasped and said ‘How are you going to live?’”
Quite well, it turns out.
Chalifour was accepted at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
“It was a lucky place to land,” he explained. “I was fortunate to play with people like Leonard Bernstein. He conducted an entire concert of his music and I was able to play for him.”
Setting his words to action, Chalifour brought out his violin, a Stradivarius, one of the most famous instruments in the world. His was made in 1711, the Golden Period of the Italian craftsman’s career, and while it has a price, it’s probably priceless.
“If you look at the work of others from the same years, it is messy,” he said. “This one is very precise.”
The crowd hushed as he gracefully, deliberately, drew the bow across the arched strings and Bach materialized, right here, in what was now surely a lot closer to paradise.
And applause…which he has certainly by now grown very accustomed.
