The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 191 David Radzynski: Insights from the Concertmaster's Chair

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Conversation with David Radzynski, concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra, covering topics such his practice habits, violin technique, managing repertoire efficiently, overcoming doubts, and the importance of self-awareness and kindness in our musical journey. Tune in for inspiration for your practice! Sign up now for the brand-new FREE workshop – Mastering the Stage Download the transcript from this episode HERE     MORE ABOUT DAVID RADZYNSKI Website: https://www.davidradzynski.com/   YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sababa123     Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dradzyns/   Mind Over Finger Click www.mindoverfinger.com/coaching to book your free consultation with me. Visit MindOverFinger.com for my online courses as well as free resources on peak performance. Connect: https://www.youtube.com/@MindOverFinger https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindoverfinger https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/     THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme:  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson.

You're listening to The Mind Over Finger Podcast, episode number 191. Welcome to The Mind Over Finger Podcast, where we dive into the world of mindful music making, peak performance, and crafting a purpose-driven life and career. I'm your host, violinist, certified performance and life coach for musicians, and your guide to unlocking your full potential, Dr. René-Paul Gaultier. Hello, everyone. I hope you're having a fantastic day as you're tuning in today. In this episode, I'm really excited to bring you a great conversation I had with David Brudzinski, Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. David was appointed by

the Cleveland Orchestra in 2022 after eight years serving as Concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to his duties as concertmaster in Cleveland, David is a very active soloist and chamber musician. Some of his memorable performances as soloist include concerts with the Israel Philharmonic, the Lodz Philharmonic in Poland, the Polish National Philharmonic, the Columbus Symphony, and the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Poznan, where he premiered the double concerto composed by his father, Jan Radzinski. An avid chamber musician, David has performed across the world with musicians such as Immanuel Axe and Martha Argerich, and he was guest concertmaster with several orchestras, including the Houston, Pittsburgh,

and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras. David holds a bachelor's degree from Indiana University, a master's degree from Yale, and artist certificate from the International Center for Music at Park University. His violin teachers include Roland and Almeda Vemos, Paul Cantor, Mariso Fuchs, Kevork Marderosian, Sioko Aki, and Ben Zayevich. In our conversation, we covered many topics that I think you'll find fascinating. We talk about his practice habits as concertmaster of a major orchestra, violin technique and tone production, experimentation and practicing, managing repertoire and practicing efficiently, overcoming doubts, and the importance of self-awareness and kindness in one's journey. I think you're going to find a lot of inspiration for your own practice

in our conversation. And speaking of that, if you're someone who knows a lot about practicing but finds it challenging to put that knowledge into action, I have something special just for you. I've created a brand new, absolutely free workshop called Mastering the Stage. Tell me if you can relate. We can often struggle to do the things we know are good for us. And that's where Mastering the Stage comes in.

This is the workshop that's going to help you bridge the gap between knowing what to do, and finally taking action on it. We meet April 4th to the 6th from 10 to 11 a.m. Central, and you can sign up at tinyurl.com slash mastering the stage. And of course, you're going to have this link in the show notes. Inside Mastering the Stage, we're going to go beyond the tips and tricks and hacks. We're going to dive into the psychology of practicing and performance preparation. We're going to explore the reasons behind your challenges, whether it's your past experiences or your current thought patterns. You're going to get answers and a fresh perspective on what works and what doesn't at a deep level. And you're going to address the

factors that hold back your progress in the practice room and unpack the mindsets that are going to enhance your playing. Inside Mastering the Stage, you're going to gain insights that will elevate your practice, boost your confidence on stage, and help you feel free during performance. Sign up today at tinyurl.com slash mastering the stage and let's transform the way you approach your work. You're going to leave with a fresh new outlook on your practice and performance. I hope to see you inside Mastering the Stage. And now, I hope you enjoy this conversation with David Rudzinski. Let's go to the show. David Rudzinski, it's so great to have you on the show. Good to be here. Thank you for having me.

David, I shared some information about you in my introduction, but I'm sure the listeners would love to hear about your musical path from you. So can you please tell us a little bit about how that unfolded for you? Well, both of my parents are musicians. So my mom teaches piano and my dad is a former cellist and a composer. And so I grew up with music in the house pretty much constantly. And it was pretty obvious to my parents that I was drawn to music at a very young age, even when I was two or three. They used to play for me the magic flute all the time. And that was one of my favorite pieces as a kid.

that means still is one of my favorite pieces um but um yeah i mean it was pretty obvious to my parents that i was drawn naturally drawn to music and so i started with piano um then i picked up the violin um the reason for picking the violin was a very childish uh reason it was uh i think one of my best friends at the time was playing violin so i wanted to i mean it wasn't um i'm very happy i chose it um but um it there wasn't it wasn't like there's no there was no deep reason for why i chose to play the violin um i think playing the piano was very helpful in my musical development i think it's very important for every musician to at least learn to play the keyboard and you know you just feel harmony in a different way

and you can really um learn a lot um combined with music theory um training that i had actually from my parents um my dad especially was was teaching me i mean my mom was teaching me the circle of fifths and all that all those uh all those basic concepts um when i was a kid and then my dad later on took over and and we did music theory together um and it was i i really commend people who are able to play two instruments some people play actually there's some people who can play several instruments which i i don't even understand um but uh for me i think um i i needed to put all of my energy into one instrument and just slowly over the years I think I just had more I was more drawn to the violin later on but that's how I ended up playing the violin I

guess my parents were definitely an influence for sure but they never forced me to do it it was never we want you to you're going to play a musical instrument it was they they felt like my sister um my sister started out playing violin and piano as well but then she just you know it was clearly not for her and that's fine she became a doctor we're all very happy so i think we're all very happy that you became a violinist oh well thank you and it's great what you're saying in terms of how you your parents could sense that you were drawn to music and they paid attention to that yeah oh yeah yeah so these these days you have that little gig in cleveland and um of course i'm very fascinated by fantastic musicians like yourself and the process that they

go through to, to get to this point. So can you tell us a little bit about that? What is it for you, that process of walking into the practice room and honing on your skill on the instrument? Uh, what is the process? That's a really good question because you really I mean I'm never happy with my there's always something that I

feel that I can improve in my playing and I'm never I never feel totally satisfied or or just okay it's my job I'll just learn this piece

and then I'll learn this program and i'll show up to rehearsal it's always constantly um i always start from scales i mean i have a whole crazy thing i do but i i do open strings i always start from open strings just to feel the instrument even if it's for just a couple of minutes um to work on my bow changes at the frog at the tip. Um, and just to feel the weight of my arm and just to feel, I mean, it's, it's, um, to feel the instrument, just get, get my bearings. Then I do one fingered scales on every finger. I do it on the G string. I don't know why. Um, um, and then I do two fingered scales so first and second finger second and third third and fourth and you know up and down

um then i do regular scales uh four octaves um the one i'm doing now is b flat minor i guess because it's in starts in second position and so second position is uh not the most comfortable position to start from maybe I don't know I um that's the one I decided that I'm doing right now um edgios um and then I do I take just to keep my fingers in check um well then I do I do octaves i do fingered octaves and i don't just do like a scale in octaves i'll take for example i might do a a patterned passage so i might go i can't sing but just until i get to the top and then i go down in that same fashion uh using first and fourth fingers then first and third fingers and second and fourth fingers

um i'll do a regular passage in fingered octaves and then i'll take a passage from peganini that famous passage from peganini 17 and i'll practice that slowly just that passage um and that's the other thing like you can take um i used to think as a student well now i'm going to work on this Paganini Caprice and I'm going to work on the entire Caprice. Well, sometimes to work on an entire Caprice can, can, can take hours and, and then you still haven't gotten to your concerto or whatever it is that you have to learn. Um, and so I, I just, I'm going to take this passage from this Caprice and I'm going to see if I can make this really good, you know, just for the sake of my to keep my my fingers in shape um so there's that famous passage from

peganini 17 then i'll take the thirds and the tenths from peganini 4 uh you know uh so i'll take that and and just that passage and work on that uh so then okay i did my thirds i did tenths I did fingered octaves. I did arpeggios. Okay, now I feel, and sometimes I don't have two hours to do that. Or, you know, on a day when I have a free day and I can practice the entire time or for as long as I want, I can spend an hour to an hour and a half just on maintenance. But some days I don't have time for that. So I will do a smaller version of all of those things, um, and just, you know, do spend 45

minutes, but it's still better than nothing, but just, you know, if it's a really busy day and I need to get to learn, I have only a few days to learn this program or whatever. And I, I need to work, uh, and learn quickly. So, but I will always, there's never a day where I don't spend time on maintaining, and I only spoke about my left hand. Right. There's also, there's also the right arm. um um and i feel that i find nowadays that when when when people talk about technique they talk about their left hand oh how in tune can somebody play how fast can somebody play this

passage oh can you play all those fingered octaves and can you play this arpeggio but what about quality of sound and where has that gone and i don't think i feel that that is a lost art form i mean people play with it i mean i'm not saying that people nowadays don't play with a beautiful sound but i believe that sound production and sound quality um you know a hundred years ago when you took like the the top players they all had their own sound something that really defined them and they're playing nowadays it's a little it became a little generic in my opinion um and um it takes technique to play with a beautiful tone it really does that is technique as well it's not just this left hand uh that's not technique is not just left hand it is very

much the right hand and the right arm and um there's this um there's this thing that a lot of violinists young violinists do so i'm not so young um that i can't stand which is the the port the portado it's the portado disease where it's they're they're playing legato or they want to play legato but you hear them separating the notes actually you know this thing and i'm exaggerating but um i it's it's like i consider i consider it very rare now when i hear somebody playing like a smooth legato for example um that's an aspect of technique that i don't think enough enough of us focus on and we're too busy thinking about this one shift that is bothering us or whatever but i

think sound production tone and the right arm it's all connected and i actually find when it comes to intonation that if my right arm is doing what it's supposed to be doing, um, in connection with the left hand and left arm, left hand, then it helps the intonation actually. Oh yeah. So sometimes you miss the shift because your, you miss the shift because your right arm is all over the place sometimes, you know? Right. Right. That was actually going to be one of my questions for you is how your approach to tone production, because I was telling some of my clients that I was going to be speaking with you

and someone was asking me to ask you about tone production and how to really, let's say, increase our ability to produce a beautiful tone. So if someone is practicing and working on their tone production and trying to really get a better sound, what would be an advice that you would give? first of all you have to know what sound you want if you can't hear in your head

what kind of sound you want to have then it's over before you've started it even you know um there has to be a um like let's say you're working on a on a passage on a on a on a melody um it's it's not enough to just work on to think of it of it with your brain logically okay i'm going to phrase it here and i will make a shift there and maybe it will be nice to make a glissando here that's not enough you have to first of all feel it in your um i don't know how you translate kishkis it's a word in Yiddish but you have to feel it in your gut in your gut I think that's what it is kishkis in your gut you have to feel it uh you have to feel in your gut how you want this to sound like what you want it to sound like what kind of sound you want and then when you

know what kind of sound you want then it's like okay well how do we what is the best approach in in getting that kind of sound um it's not enough to me you know i could be wrong but it's not enough just to play with a nice sound that's like saying have a nice day what do you mean nice you know it doesn't that doesn't mean anything it can be nice unoffensive kind of but leaves no impression um so you know ivery gitlis for example he had a very distinct sound um uh david oystruck had a very distinct sound um i i i don't know i i think that um i mean i guess we're talking about two different things it's about finding your own voice as an artist and oh oh yes it's this is clearly so and so is playing so that's you know

okay you have your own voice but then um even more detailed would be okay here's a passage how do i want this the what do i want this to sound like um so i would say that's the first step no know what you want first and then uh figure out the best way in in um what am i trying to say here figuring out the best way to achieve that sound how would you recommend that they practice for tone production for tone um i would recommend that people experiment um i think that not everything should be treated like a textbook i love this answer um i think that um

there's a little too much of this. Okay. My bow needs to be here. And yes, of course, you know, the whole Galamian school, which is great. And, you know, Maurizio Fuchs taught us this when I, when I was in school, this out and in and all this stuff, but okay, that's great. But once, but, but you also have to experiment not just do what your teacher is telling you because yes i mean do what your teacher's telling you i'm not saying don't do that but i'm saying that okay there's the sort of the textbook this is how you hold the bow this is where you your

bow is generally supposed to be it should be parallel to the bridge all that but you should i think one should dedicate some time in their practicing to just experiment um with different sounds try playing sultasto and use fast bow speed and then try playing that with a really fast vibrato and see what that sounds like play a little closer to the bridge with a slower vibrato um um try making a glissando within vibrato in other words vibrate through your glissando and as you do that go a little bit closer to the fingerboard what does that sound like all sorts of different i mean it's like you're painting and you know how does a painter figure

out what colors to use you have to combine different colors and and it's not just the bow it's also in the left hand that can give a slight nuance to the color that you want to use and what eventually comes out of the fiddle so um i think that a lot of and and that goes back to what kind of a sound do you want to have what kind of an artist do you want to be what kind of voice do you want to have and then start experimenting yeah and in finding that you know um and and it starts it starts at a really young age at least for me i was always influenced by i wasn't so much influenced by the by new school players i was always influenced by the old school and um i still really mostly revert to them i mean uh

um chrysler um high fifths sharing um even some of the old those concert masters joe silverstein abram stern was an incredible violinist not a lot of recordings of him i mean there are some videos where he's already old but you can tell he was a hell of a player and there are some recordings where he was young very few but credible player and and i remember when as a kid i would okay i went through an isaac stern phase and so i would try to play like and i think that's a good thing for kids especially to be influenced by these artists and to it's not good to try to imitate somebody else as a professional you want to have your own voice but i think for for someone who's young when you're 12 years old i think it's it's uh it's good to be influenced by great artists and

to maybe try to experiment with with that and um i i just think that i just think that the more you experiment, the closer you'll get to finding what works for you. Yeah. I love this answer so much because nowadays we have so much information coming at us all the time. It's like a fire hydrant. And I see it in myself also at times, but I see it so widely around me when people want to, let's say, master a specific skill. It's who has the perfect recipe and who has the trick and the hack that will work. And we forget that actually all of this needs to be processed and we need to experiment until, you know, what you were talking about, until we feel it in our gut, until we have somehow understood how it feels like to produce that.

It starts with, as you say, the vision or the idea of the sound that we're after or whatever other technique. We have a clear concept of what it is that we're after. But I think that we don't tend to experiment enough. We try for five minutes and then we want to, it doesn't feel quite right. So we will read one more article. Maybe there's the answer in there. So I totally agree. And it's not a scientific, you can't really, you can't break it down scientifically. People have tried, you know, to break down scientifically, mathematically, how does Heifetz make that glissando and that chanson poem? Only he can do it. People have tried imitating it. It doesn't work.

yeah yeah only he can do it that way in his way and only you then can do but it has to come from you and it has to be your own your own voice and only you can do that you know i mean i it really it's a very personal thing and that ties into i think the part of music making that you really can't quite explain you know yes yes um absolutely so it's like cooking also somehow i follow recipes and it's always a mess in the end yeah david one question that i had for you you perform so much repertoire and you are in a high pressure situation are there some specific ways of practicing that you feel really translate well from the practice room to the stage what does that look like for you first of all i never i mean i i didn't realize how helpful it would be

until i ended up having no choice but to do it when you really study the score well and you know the score and you know who you're playing in unison with and you know who has what who's playing what at all times um that really changes the the game in terms of how you feel even in the practice room and it also imagine answers a lot of technical questions too yeah um i just i don't i can't think of a specific example but you know it could be in a sonata even oh the pianist here has a jump or or has this passage that that the pianist will need to bring out this passage that'll actually give me time to make that shift i don't have to shift so quickly so in other words you're just thinking more musically um and i find that i personally find that practicing a piece especially

there's a recording uh playing with a recording is helpful um not on a daily basis because you don't want to get used to somebody else's interpretation but just so that you can hear you know we have this technology why not use it so so it's just so that you can hear the instrumentation and you can hear the context as well as knowing the context but also just hearing it and playing along with it um is helpful um but not too much because as i said you don't want to get used to somebody else's interpretation because when you come to rehearsal it'll be totally different um but it does at least for me um i find it helpful just once or twice taking a recording playing through the with that recording maybe taking somebody else's recording

some a different interpretation different tempos playing with that and then and then you know um i find that very helpful and and uh again it it does help answer technical questions i mean you all of a sudden certain things that were easy might seem more difficult and some things that were more difficult might actually be easier yeah um i find that very often actually in the practice room, certain things that I've found difficult in the rehearsal are a lot easier. And the same could be vice versa. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And how about, you know, those passages, what you just said made me think of that. What about these passages that no matter how much time we spend on them, no matter how many different techniques we practice them with, they always feel difficult.

what's your strategy with that practice them i mean i mean they're always going to be difficult so yeah um um just so so you know that you know that like you're you're going to get a piece that's famously or infamously difficult to play um like let's say don juan right it's always difficult i don't care what anybody says that's it's it's not easy and so okay or or whatever piece it is let's you know whatever it is um okay you so you know you're gonna get a piece that's difficult you gotta first of all plan in advance don't wait until you have two days left until the rehearsal you know give yourself however long you feel you you will need and plan accordingly you have the schedule in front of you say okay i will i'm gonna need this amount of time you know and with

experience you end up being able to gauge like okay a week should be you know two days should be enough for this a week and a half i'll need for this or for that to prepare and you know just planning in advance i because if if there's a passage that's or if there are pieces that are always going to be difficult no matter what and there are pieces like that you know no matter how many times you've practiced a certain uh piece of repertoire it's always difficult just good planning plan in advance and and you'll be fine i was curious about how to stay on top of the schedule with your position so i'm guessing that is the same answer right good planning yeah yeah i mean uh well one thing you really do learn in the professional world you learn how to learn

fast it's a it's a it's a it's a really good skill to have and um you won't you're not always going to have the luxury that you have as a student where you have a month to prepare something oh if only I had a month you know yeah that seems like such a huge luxury I used to think oh I need a month to prepare this at least a month I need so much I need time I need to because every note has to be super you know uh polished and and but sometimes most times you don't have that most times you don't have that I mean on average I would say for an orchestral program i mean a week should be enough time to prepare any program on average sometimes you need more depends if it's an opera if you're preparing an opera you should give yourself more time than

that uh i mean yeah if you're that's like an opera by the way opera is probably the hardest most difficult thing um and and i'm not just talking about technically um uh technically usually the operas aren't i mean it depends that also depends but but just musically is difficult i remember we did um my first opera i ever led was with the israel philharmonic it was with zubin meta now zubin is you know he's legendary and he was incredible and the clearest hands and um he was incredible with the soloists and um so working with him was a real pleasure um but i i gave myself a good amount of time i can't remember exactly how much time you know maybe a month or maybe less maybe maybe if i had a few weeks that i gave myself to really

because you know you have you have to really know the richard tativs and the and the and the soloists and they take so much freedom and you know you you you have to be you really have to know it inside out um i don't know i'm talking about operas but but um wait what was the question or i was talking about you know having to handle so much repertoire yeah always in these high pressure situations right right well i think you you you get used to the rhythm of of the professional life you you you end up you you do get used to it and i found that when i first started like in the israel philharmonic was when i started i didn't have any experience and that or you know they they we worked a lot and um i just found that

i think knowing knowing the score was a huge thing for me um in in in learning the piece at a quicker pace than it would normally take me if I didn't have, you know, as a student, I would probably think I needed so much time, but knowing the score definitely speeds up the process, at least for me. Um, and knowing how to practice well and efficiently. Okay. That that's my answer for you. Knowing how to practice in an efficient, in a way that is efficient and very not a lot of people know how to practice efficiently and sometimes repeating a passage over and over is not the way to learn something quickly right um even if you may let's say you

only have two days to learn something but you have to let's say sometimes you're in a situation and you only have two days to learn something i remember it happened to me one of the concert masters because we were in israel we had more than it was like three concert masters and i think both of them got sick and i had to learn there was a program i didn't even know i was leading it i had to learn it in two days it was they unexpected you know and and um um you have to still even if you find yourself in that situation instead of panicking you have to practice as if you have a week you know uh slow calculated okay let's listen to this to it first you listen you first listen to the piece then you look at the score you mark everything who you have

in unison with what are the voices and you can hear in the music what are the voices that are important for me to listen to who am i who do i have dialogue with who am i responding to okay that's work that takes time okay yeah then okay now let's look at a part itself then you start practicing it and you start to you can you can sort of isolate the spots that are tricky you're like, okay, I need to work on this passage, I need to work on that passage, you work on the trickiest parts first. And then there's some moments in the piece where you don't really don't need to work on it as much. So you go through over that. And then you try to play it through, and then try with a recording and see how it works. And you'll be surprised at how quickly

actually you can learn a piece just by just by following these steps but in a in in a cold and calculated way without because it is stressful and you know like my wife will tell you I'm always I need to learn this I need to learn this I need to learn that but um but once I'm in the practice room my brain switches and I just become very okay let's listen to this. Now I'm going to mark my part and look at the score and mark my part and look at the passages. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it, it works out. That's really great advice because it's to, to spend the time where it's maximizing your results instead of just rushing in. And you know, we, we think that by moving fast, we're getting so much done, moving our arms around,

we're getting things done but when it's actually when we really take that time to isolate those key elements that need to come first and then the first you first need to know you first need to know the piece in here mind over finger mind over finger know the piece in here before you start putting it in here and in here um but really i i can't i i don't have i don't maybe if when i was younger i would just take the part and i would start playing immediately but now i can't approach a piece without unless it's brand new piece contemporary work but if it's a piece that I uh you know um let's say it's a piece that I haven't played before but there's a recording and there's information and there's a score that you can use I don't feel that I can

really approach um the physical part of the practicing until I have it down mentally yeah um again with a contemporary piece well you just you have there's no real i mean with contemporary music it's it's a little different with contemporary music first of all the composer usually writes tempo markings and you know um of course there is going to be a score and hopefully they will be kind enough to give you a copy um but you don't really you do there is a lot of things that you do figure out in the rehearsal because it's brand new and has never been played before and we're all learning this piece together um that's a totally different kind of experience actually yeah yeah i love all of these answers

i want to be respectful of your time because i know you that's okay you're very busy i'm happy I'm happy to talk. Yeah. So I have a few questions from the rapid fire questions that I I'd love to ask you. Rapid fire. Yes. What makes practice most enjoyable for you? I said, no.

Yeah. Sorry. Let's I'll be serious. What makes practice most enjoyable for you? um when i achieve the results that i want and um that usually happens when i record myself i find that sometimes it's difficult to it's difficult to hear yourself when you're playing because you're so in your own world And so I find that recording yourself, even if it's on an iPhone, you can't really hear as well, but just to record yourself so you can hear what it is you're doing, even if it's just working for intonation, but you'll notice things better if you record yourself. I find that very helpful. Um, marking the spots and working on those spots and being patient with yourself. So, you know, you don't really get the satisfaction. That's the problem. You don't get

the satisfaction immediately. Don't expect when you go into the practice room, don't expect immediate satisfaction. You might get it in a week. You're not going to get satisfaction in five minutes. Yeah. But, but if you work on something for more than five minutes and you're not getting, and it's, you don't notice even a slight improvement, you're doing something wrong. So you're not going to, you might get the, the ultimate satisfaction might come in a day. It but if you're working, let's say on it to work on one passage for five minutes is a lot. Actually. Yeah. Let's, I mean, let's, let's just say you're working on, let's say, um,

the, the, the, the third movement of Brahms concerto, the arpeggios and you're working on it for five minutes and then, okay, now let's play it again. Let's see. And, and it's not even getting slightly better, you're doing, you're practicing it wrong. Right. So there are, so you have to be able to catch yourself. And sometimes I catch myself too late, but you have to be able to catch yourself when you are practicing in a way that's not effective. Yeah. Because you'll just get stuck on that thing. So give yourself five minutes if you're working on a passage that's really difficult for you give yourself five minutes

without expecting like perfection but if you're noticing a slight improvement even if it's a small microscopic improvement at least okay at least you know that okay this is helping right you know yeah oh yeah that's so important you you should get all of this on t-shirts and you could make a with the merge no uh no but yeah uh practicing uh practicing uh so so the most satisfaction is when yes when when i finally achieve the uh the ultimate you know ah okay this is what i wanted you know then it's very satisfying i love that what about um a habit that you have that you think contributed to your success? Um, well, it's not so much a habit. It's, um, it's a personality trait. I'm always worried all the time that I'm not, that I'm not going to be

ready. On the one hand, I'm very lazy and I, I, I can sit in front of the couch and just watch TV or whatever um play video I'm a gamer too so um I you know or whatever I I can sit and do nothing for hours but um there's this I have this need to this fear that I'm not going to be ready when I'm on stage even if it's a rehearsal I have to be prepared and it's just this constant need to be prepared. And so that's what I think contributed to my success because, um, and, and the constant need to improve my playing. That's, I think that's what it is. It's, it's, it's both. It's the need to be professional and to be prepared at all times. But also I have, i have i have this fear that i always feel i mean we start playing at the age of what

six five some people start at the age of three oh my god but um you know we've dedicated our whole lives to this craft and i dread the day um when i won't when when i'll start noticing the decline in my playing because it will it will happen it happens to everyone and so there's i have this fear of oh my god that you know my i have this fear that my playing will decline or won't keep getting better and better and better. And so it's a, I'm sorry, this isn't a rapid answer. You're giving me rapid fire questions, but I'm not really giving rapid fire answers. They never are. In the history of this show, they've never been rapid. The need, the need, the need to improve and the constant need to be prepared.

I love that. Yeah. Yeah. How about some doubts or resistance, internal or external, that you might have faced on your journey? Yeah. I mean, what is the, just examples or? Yeah. What are some examples of doubts or resistance that you had to face? Rejection from places or, you know, people When you're holding a high-profile job, and I'm not particularly speaking about my current job, but you're always going to feel – it comes with the territory, but – well, let's start – we can start from when I was a student. I wasn't really – I didn't know what was going to be my future. I think that was pretty scary. um i wasn't much of a competition guy i didn't like violin competitions

i find i found the experience to be the opposite of what music making should be um it's the opposite it's it's the opposite of music for me competitions and um but i did find the preparation i only did like two competitions in my life but um but i found the preparation for them to be highly beneficial and and and playing under immense pressure is is also good um but you know i never really you know you you apply to a music festival maybe you don't get in Um, and dealing with that or people that are trying to, you know, you always encounter people who try to bring you down. Um, they see that you're successful and maybe they feel insecure about the fact that they

didn't get to where they want to be in life. And so they, they take it out on other people. They're always, you're always going to run into people like that. And I just feel like the most important thing that you can do for yourself is know what you are, know what you're not, know what you're not, know what you are, know what you, you also want to know not just what what you want to achieve and what you want to be but what you don't want to be and who you don't want to be like yeah um the world is full of sharks and and you know you don't want to be that I mean I know I don't want to be like that yeah and um I think the most important thing for you is to know what your value is you only you get to you know what your value is and to be honest with yourself you know i i had a friend in the israel philharmonic and there was some position that was open and i i asked him if if um i think it was a principal

position i i don't remember if it was it might have been assistant concert master and i said you know you should you're you you you play beautifully i think you should consider auditioning for that job and you know he told me look david i know what i am and i know what i'm not i'm very happy where i am and that's fine i i appreciate you telling me that i can audition for this, but I know what I am. I know what I'm not. And I, that's not for me. And so I thought that was incredibly wise just hearing that from somebody. And, and that's very important to know what you are and know what you're not and, um, be honest with yourself. You know, there are people out there who are completely diluted, complete, totally diluted. You know, it's like, what are

you doing you know be honest with yourself um that's the i i i had another friend who studied violin and he just realized he's like i'm never going to make it as a violin it's like it's not going to happen he switched professions completely um but then of course there are people that are incredibly gifted and hardworking and dedicated super professional and you just need to keep on going and life can you know bring you down sometimes but i think the definition of success is how you not so much how you deal with success because that's pretty easy dealing when you're successful it's easy it's like you feel great you work hard you're super motivated everything's great

but i think the definition of success is is more how you deal with the difficulties that you're going to face because you are going to face difficulties unless you just settle and you know but if you really are ambitious and you want to aim as high as you possibly can it's not it's not an easy road and, um, don't let other people define to you what your value is. Um, you know what it is. And the moment you put your bow to the string, everyone's going to know what it is. Thank you for sharing this. I think that was really important for many people to hear. Yes. No, it's my pleasure. No, I mean, I, you know, um, I have, I have, you know, um, I mean, I've been doing this job for almost 10 years now. So, um, I have some experience, um, maybe not

as much as some of my older, uh, colleagues, but, um, um, it's, it's, it's an incredibly rewarding profession. Yeah. I remember when I played, uh, held in Laban with Zubin, uh, Meta and it was sold out in Carnegie Hall and that was probably one of my most memorable moments and performances um a I was performing with well some of my best friends are in that orchestra but also with one of my favorite uh conductors and and he particularly we had a very special half still um but but you know uh a very special relationship working relationship so just to play with him was was such a treat i don't know there was something about that night where i when we finished playing i was like this is why i do this you know um

but for every moment of that there's there's going to be struggle along the way and so you really like you really have to love it that's the thing like because because it's it's uh it's not you're not it's not just i mean i don't think there's any profession in which you feel constantly rewarded all the time um it it's hard work you have to be disciplined. And I think the belief in yourself and in your value is what will help you get through all of that. Beautifully put. David, in closing, what is maybe an actionable tip that the listeners could implement today? Be kind to yourself and then you'll be kind to others. I love that. I think generally the people that I encounter who are uncomfortable in their

own skin generally tend to treat other people badly. So if you're comfortable in your own skin, or even if you're not totally comfortable in your own skin, but be kind to yourself. that's perfect that says it all yeah david radzinski thank you so much for taking this time speaking with me today there's so much amazing insight and wisdom for the listeners so i'm truly grateful oh thank you this was this was it was great it was uh i had a lot of fun talking to you and sharing some thoughts on this crazy profession that we do there you have it thank you for joining me today i hope you enjoyed this conversation with david rodzinski if you found our discussion valuable please share the episode with friends

and fellow musicians grab a screenshot of the episode share on social and with anyone you think might benefit from this conversation. Also, I'd be truly grateful if you could take a moment to leave a review on iTunes. Your feedback means the world to me, and it helps the podcast reach more listeners. And together, let's inspire and empower even more people on their musical journeys. Make sure to follow David on Instagram and catch several of his beautiful performances on YouTube. I'll have those links for you in the show notes also in the show notes you're going to find the link for

mastering the stage so make sure to join us for this transformative workshop you also will find the link to summary and transcript of this episode if this is something you'd like to consult alright, that's what I have for you this week, until next time

much love going your way and à bientôt Thank you.