Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyze Dreiling.
Hi Alyze, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I guess my story starts in the Detroit area, where I was born and raised to a father that was a pianist/organist/choir director and mother who was raised with music in her childhood but found her passion in the visual fine arts and was a wonderful artist. As a child I remember sitting at the piano and I guess I learned how to read notes pretty quickly and since we had tons of piano books at home, I would just work through them and play them…I was 5 or so, not sure how that sounded but anyway my parents thought I should take some lessons since I showed some talent and inclination for music. My mother insisted that my father NOT teach me because that didn’t work out too well with my older sister, who cried more than played at her lessons. My mother did play a little piano so she started me off on “official” lessons. I was not the best student and didn’t really want to learn the little pieces in the John Thompson Red Book, I was much more interested in Mozart Sonatas and some Beethoven Sonatas and heard, with symphonic music always playing in the house, what I thought was the most beautiful instrument…..it wasn’t a violin but a cello. So I started playing and studying cello in 6th grade and loved it for about 9 months and then my parents enrolled me in a summer music program. In this music program I noticed how small and lovely the violin was and how most of the pretty melodies were played by the violins (in his particular setting). Between that realization and the fact that the violin was much smaller and easier to carry than the cello, I decided to make the switch. This turned out to be my life, which I always knew being a professional musician would. From then it was a very short time, maybe a year or 10 months, it was recommended to my parents that I should study with the best teacher in the area and I auditioned for, and was accepted into, the studio of the legendary teacher and concertmaster, Mischa Mischakoff. What an honor that was! My parents did not have a lot of money and lessons were quite expensive so Mr. Mischakoff recommended to the Music Study Club of Metropolitan Detroit, that they should award me a sponsorship for my lessons. I was very lucky and they paid for my private lessons until I went away to college. After graduating from high school, It was recommended that I audition for the Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard and Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music and was told that if I am accepted into Josef Giingold’s studio at IU, that is where I should continue my studies after high school I was lucky again and was accepted into Mr. Gingold’s studio, another legendary violin teacher and concertmaster, so I went to IU. Jumping ahead, after graduation with a BM in Violin Performance I auditioned for, and won the job as concertmaster of the Knoxville Symphony. It was there that I really started to take an interest in conducting. I studied conducting with the Knoxville Symphony conductor at that time, Zoltan Rozsnyai, whom I later married. So interesting how paths take a slightly different course and what you expect that you will be doing in the way of a career, changes into something related but yet different. I feel very blessed because I love to play and have had and continue to have many opportunities to do this, but I also love conducting and again feel very blessed that I have a number of ensembles to work with. The life of a professional musician is indeed a gift! .
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
All in all I would say it has been a fairly smooth road although being a free-lance professional musician anywhere has it’s challenges. Musicians, well maybe I shouldn’t speak for anyone but myself, have rough patches of self-doubt, I least I did and do. It is a constant striving to be better and getting deeper into the music. Some days it is horribly frustrating and other days everything comes together, very illusive, but for me, I consider it a huge gift to wake up each day with a plan and am ready to go and give it another try.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am presently proud of the 4 ensembles I conduct. I work with all ages of players. I conduct two string ensembles at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad. These are adult players, many of whom played earlier in life but put the instrument down for number of years for various reasons and are now returning to play. I love to challenge them and I think they love it too! I also have a full orchestra, the New City Sinfonia, which is a great group of adult musicians, some professional and most semi-professional. We do a lot of very fun and interesting works and again, I like to challenge them and they always come out with a great performance. I love working with young musicians too, and direct the Civic Youth Orchestra, Symphonic group. I always really raise the bar and expectations of them and they really excel. With young musicians, I have always felt that if you raise the expectations they will not disappoint…this is a great feeling.
I also have a fairly large private studio and enjoy teaching young violinists and violists, many of whom have went on to win competitions or are music majors.
I am grateful and proud too for the many playing opportunities that I have had in the San Diego area, the many shows that I played concertmaster for at the Old Globe, Startlight, LaJolla Playhouse,and Broadway shows at the Civic as well as subbing with the San Diego Symphony, Chamber Orchestra and doing some work in TJ with Orquestra de Baja.
What matters most to you? Why?
Music, whether it be as it relates to my own path, or hoping for, as I continue on my path, I might be able to inspire others to delve into the world of music, and to keep the love for music through their entire life.
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