East Side West Side at the CSO

(first published in The Cincinnati Post April 20, 2004)

You might call them East Side, West Side.

Violinists Timothy Lees and Gabriel Pegis, concertmaster and principal second violinist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, come from opposite sides of town.

Tim lives in Greenhills Township on the west side. Pegis commutes from Clermont County in the east, "just outside of Anderson."

The two join forces this week at Music Hall in Mozart’s Concertone for Two Violins and Orchestra in C Major, K.190.

Concerts are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 pm. Saturday, and will be led by guest conductor Marin Alsop. Also on the program are Saint-Saens’ Symphony No. 3 ("Organ") and the CSO premiere of "Rapture" by American composer Christopher Rouse.

Composed when Mozart was 18, the Concertone ("large concerto") is a charming work that tends to be obscured by his five solo violin concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola.

Neither Lees nor Pegis has ever performed it. Remarkably, it is a CSO subscription premiere.

Like Mozart’s early work, Lees and Pegis came relatively recently to the CSO. Lees, a native of Philadelphia joined the orchestra in 1998, having served previously as concertmaster of the Charleston (South Carolina) Symphony.

A Rochester, New York native, Pegis came in 1999 from the North Carolina Symphony where he was assistant principal second violin. He moved up to the top spot in the CSO second violin section the following year.

Lees, 34 and noticing his first "gray hair," plays the first violin solos in the orchestral repertoire and often performs concertos with the CSO (most recently, the Brahms Double Concerto with CSO principal cellist Eric Kim in April, 2002).

Pegis, 39, performs the second violin solos and also appears as a concert soloist. He performed Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 with the CSO on a "Bach and Beyond" concert in June, 2001 and the viola part in the Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia and Sarabande for Violin and Viola on a CSO Chamber Players concert earlier this month.

Both feel that with music director Paavo Järvi, they have come to the CSO at an exciting time in its history.

"In terms of energy and commitment, I don’t think there are too many orchestras that can equal what we’re doing right now," said Pegis. "Certainly, the folks who have been in the orchestra, if you talk to some of the real long term members, they can’t remember the orchestra playing like this."

Järvi "drives a really tight ship," said Lees, an Eastman School of Music graduate who studied with Charles Castleman. "He doesn’t settle for mediocrity."

As concertmaster (first chair first violinist), Lees works with Järvi even more closely than the other principal players.

Besides leading his own section and transmitting Järvi’s wishes to them, Lees serves as a second pair of ears. "The leadership aspect of the concertmaster position involves not only taking charge of my section but also keeping an ear out for the rest of the orchestra. If I hear something that is not together ensemble-wise or is not in tune, it’s important for me to bring that to the conductor’s attention, if he hasn’t (heard it) already."

As concertmaster (until the early 19^th century, the first violinist also served as conductor) Lees has a special responsibility to the entire ensemble.

"Paavo finds something special in every piece we play," Lees said. "Even from performance to performance, he will do something a little bit different, a little bit funky, and see if it works.

"I think I read him pretty well now. I feel very comfortable with whatever he would throw at us."

There is nothing "second fiddle" about being second fiddle in "an orchestra like Cincinnati," said Pegis, a graduate of the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut, and the New England Conservatory in Boston.

"I don’t feel it in the least, for my colleagues or myself (unlike the viola, which he has played since high school, "there aren’t any second violin jokes that I know").

Being a second violinist is "a flexible role," he said. "When we have music that’s together with the first violins, I’m actively trying to communicate and play with the front stand. Then you change gears and you’re doing the same thing with the violas or cellos. I think of it almost like a chamber music position.

Lees and Pegis have much in common. Both are family men and enjoy living in the suburbs. Lees and his wife MaryEllen have two sons, Caleb, 4, and Joshua, 2 ½. Pegis and his wife Annette have two daughters, Julia, 7 and Jackie, 4.

All play musical instruments. The Lees boys are learning piano like their mother. The girls are continuing the Pegis family tradition – all of his five brothers and sisters are string players - by choosing the violin (Julia) and cello (Jackie). Annette plays the French horn.

Lees credits the public school music program in Philadelphia for introducing him to music, while Pegis and his siblings were trained in the Suzuki method in Rochester.

The CSO, both agreed, is a very congenial orchestra. "I think it’s kind of unique among orchestras at this level," Lees said.

"There are grumpy orchestras, unhappy orchestras that play great but have unhappy people. This is not one of them.

"A lot of the people in the orchestra have families and children and do things together, so it makes for a very good relationship among the players."

Lees likes to spend his free time with his family and doing maintenance and repair work on their house ("I love fixing things or figuring out how they work so I can fix them").

"Every orchestra has its cliques," said Pegis, who plays chess with the CSO’s diehard chess aficionados. "But I never got the feeling from groups of people who tend to associate with each other that anybody was on the outs. I find it a very sociable, friendly, approachable group of people."

As members of the inner circle of first stand string players, that translates into good music-making, Pegis said.

"If you look at someone and you try to play with them, they’re not going to ignore you. It makes it easier to get the job done well."

This week’s CSO concerts are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Saturday at Music Hall. Tickets are $13-$54, $10 for students, half price for seniors, at www.cincinnatisymphony.org or call (513) 381-3300. Thursday concert includes complimentary buffet dinner beginning at 6:15 p.m. in the Music Hall foyer.