Berkeley Symphony assistant conductor/San Domenico School music director/SF
Classical Voice critic George Thomson plays the viola in a number of Bay
Area orchestras and at the Carmel Bach Festival.  In that last of his
many manifestations, Thomson made claim to the Guinness Book of Records
last weekend by performing on a cell phone.

He has scored before with performances of the "endless" C of Purcell's
"Fantasia on One Note" (the piece written for Charles II so that
the king could play in a viol consort without knowing how to play an
instrument), but yesterday's event in Carmel was something else.  At the
end of the concert-concluding Tartini Concerto, Thomson emerged from the
orchestra to announce that recent fiscal constraints prohibit a proper
encore, so he will offer the simple, inexpensive "Fantasia" instead.

Tuning his D string down to C, so that he could play the note one-handed,
Thomson arranged for a friend to call him on his cell phone while in
the middle of the piece.  Maintaining the note, he answered the call by
saying "Mom?  Well, um, actually, it's really not a good time to talk
just now, but you'll never guess what I'm doing..."

Music and humor. If not now, when?

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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