September 12 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts and Entertainment Source: Nigel Armstrong revisits Brahms at the Empress

Virtuosic violinist Nigel Armstrong is bringing his talent as a soloist to pair with Vallejo Festival Orchestra for the “Johannes Brahms and the Romantic Spirit” concert.

The orchestra had originally planned a Brahms concert for the spring, but suffered delays with renovations of the theater’s sound system. Fortunately, rescheduling the concert included reworking the program to include Brahms’s Violin Concerto — a piece which has become a recurring motif in Armstrong’s career.

At that point, “I think my name came up, I guess,” said Armstrong, who wasn’t “exactly sure how” Armstrong said he and VFO Conductor Thomas Conlin knew each other prior, but “he hadn’t heard me play solo.”

Armstrong’s best guess was Conlin had found a video of him playing the piece on Youtube. For the unassuming violinist, that’s as close as it gets to acknowledging his reputation might precede him.

Playing Brahms’s Concerto in Vallejo marks a homecoming for Armstrong, or a proximate one at least for the Sonoma native. As a world class violinist, it’s more likely that Armstrong would be playing in Europe than back near his old stomping grounds. “Having grown up in this part of the world and this part of California, I feel I appreciate it more the more I see of the world,” said Armstrong, who was taking advantage of this opportunity to visit his mother in Sonoma. “It’s neat to be back.”

While Brahms’s Violin Concerto is a standard violin concerto for musicians of Armstrong’s caliber, “at the same time, it’s a heavy lift,” says Armstrong. “It’s a big piece technically.” When Armstrong performs it on Sept. 14 with the Vallejo Festival Orchestra, he’ll be revisiting the very piece he took to the finals during the 2011 Isangyun International Violin Competition and again in 2017.

Playing the concerto first at 21 and now 34, Brahms’s composition has been a key marker of the last 14 years, measuring Armstrong’s growth as a violinist as well as an individual. One comment he received during the 2017 competition has even stuck with him seven years later. “They thought I had picked the wrong concerto in the final,” laughs Armstrong, who admits his style tends more toward the improvisational and light than the big and dramatic.

Given the right setting and the right piece, the violinist enjoys the liberating aspect of seeing where the music takes him. The concerto is not that piece, he says. “For a piece like (Brahms’s Concerto) you kind of go with the notes on the page and see what you can do with that.”

“It’s interesting to get back and, hopefully this time, really inhabit that space of grandeur,” said Armstrong. “It’s an honor to be able to play it. I think it’s such a beautiful piece.”

Armstrong gained worldwide acclaim when he made his mark as a finalist in the 14th Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow — the Olympics of the music world. On the cusp of his twenties, Armstrong was already leaving a trail of awards as prize-winner in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, the International Competition in Buenos Aires and the Corpus Christi International Competition. He proved himself academically, spending four years at Colburn Conservatory and two years at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Though Armstrong is the standout violinist in his family, he regards his family as “quite musical.” Growing up it was natural to have a violin in the house and hear his mother playing it every now and then. At age 5 and a half, Armstrong took up the instrument himself and received lessons taught by Leta Davis who led a group called “The Little Fiddlers.”

“I was enthusiastic and enjoyed the sensation of learning,” said Armstrong. “By late childhood, I was already saying I wanted to be a professional violinist.” With his sights set firmly on his future, he pursued the instrument throughout his teenage years but perhaps with less “raw enthusiasm” as time went on.

The period of competitions and conservatory revived his passion and dedication to the craft before waning again at 23. Armstrong had just started glimpsing the beginning of an illustrious career when he felt the call to leave it all behind and become a monk.

A friend had given Armstrong a book by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh and it “really touched something in me,” said Armstrong, who felt called to join the Plum Village Tradition. “It was a big decision but it also felt like the decision made itself.”

For a year and a half, Armstrong immersed himself in life at the French monastery. He spent his days gardening, meditating and — despite his formal break from violin — playing music with singers and songwriters from around the world. The depth and warmth of the people he encountered and the resulting conversations shaped his mindset in lasting ways.

“That period opened up a lot of things musically,” said Armstrong. The impact was most evident in the way he approached competitions. Comparing the two Korean competition in 2011 and 2017, Armstrong saw a clear shift away from competitive thoughts to enjoying it socially. “It was interesting seeing the mental shift in myself,” said Armstrong. “There was very little of the competitive comparison I had been feeling before. My internal experience was that I felt a lot freer the second time.”

That sense of freedom continues even as Armstrong acclimatizes back into professional life.

“I disassociated myself from having my identity be tied up with my career,” said Armstrong, who has since taken up more hobbies like surfing. “I grew up spending hours and hours a day practicing violin from a young age and that was my identity as a kid. It’s been neat to explore life outside of music.”

IF YOU GO:

• WHAT: Johannes Brahms and the Romantic Spirit
• WHEN: September 14, 7:30 p.m.
• WHERE: Empress Theatre, 330 Virginia St, Vallejo.
• TICKETS: $35-$95 available at www.EmpressTheatre.org or at the Empress Theatre Box Office: 707-552-2400.