Caroline Goulding stands on an empty Markel auditorium stage at Sage Center for the Arts Tuesday night. She, her pianist for six years, Alicja Basinska, and a handful of Hillsdale College attendants are the only ones in the Auditorium. It's 7 p.m. and Goulding is warming up for her concert at eight. She drags her bow across the strings. The violin lets out a few mangled chords. She tunes the instrument, and begins playing again, this time with Basinska, who sits behind Hillsdale College's Steinway & Sons Grand Piano. Goulding discusses with Basinska a string of notes which will not cooperate.
"It sounds similar to..." Gouding said, playing the offending notes.
Basinska agrees. From the middle of Markel, the similarity of the crisp notes would only be discernible with the trained ear, but it's there, lurking like a ghost.
Goulding has played at various venues, including Carnegie Hall and has recorded an international album. She's played on the Martha Stewart Show, received a Grammy nomination for Best Solo Instrumentalist, and she's only 17 years old. At 13, she won the Aspen Music Festival's Concerto Competiton. For Hillsdale concertgoers, Caroline Goulding, who began playing the violin at three and a half, is an exceptional artist to have on campus.
At 8 p.m. Markel auditorium fills up. After a short introduction the duo step out on stage, and for an hour and a half the two play Beethoven, Paul Schoenfield, George Gershwin, Jascha Heifetz and César Franck. They get a standing ovation.
Goulding came to play at Hillsdale through one of the college's National Leadership Seminars hosted throughout the country. Director of Music James Holleman said it was at one of these seminars that a friend of the college, Charles Luellen talked to a sponsor of Goudling, James Vandeveer, who offered to have Goulding play at the college.
"We said yeah," Holleman said.
Junior Jarett Duker attended the concert and was amazed.
"She's definitely one of the best violinists I've ever heard in person," Duker said.
Duker said, despite losing sound to the rafters of Markel auditorium, the violin had a glorious sound and easily compensated for its handicap.
Senior Artyom Chelbayev said he was amazed to see a 17-year-old girl play for an hour and a half and have and equal amount control and passion over the instrument.
"Musically speaking it was amazing, I thought the tone was really full and vibrant as compared to the other violins played in Markel," he said.
Chelbayev knows a little about Goulding's instrument, too.
"It was an 18th century Stradivarius which is worth, supposedly, about half of what it took to build the Howard Music Hall, which I imagine was a lot," Chelbayev said.
The violin is called the General Kyd Stradivarius, and was constructed in 1720 by Antonio Stradivari whose instruments are famed for their sound and perfection, over half a century before the Revolutionary War. Holleman said for such a one-of-a-kind instrument, with its historical value, it's priceless.
Holleman, in a separate interview, said he valued the violin at roughly $4.7 million dollars. Chelbayev was accurate in his estimation Howard Music Hall. He does the math.
"So total it was about $5.3 million. Are you kidding me? Just goes to show how well she handled it," Chelbayev said.
He's right. When Goulding plays it's not just the bow and hands that move: it's the whole of her body. She flows, shakes and nearly leaps with her music. Basinska plays the piano in a similar manner, her hands hovering over the piano keys like a skilled technician. Neither miss a note, despite the lighting speed of the pieces.
Goulding found out she offered to play on a Stradivarius two weeks before she received it in February.
"I was so excited, and so honored," Goulding said. She said it was awesome knowing she'd get to play it.
She was given the instrument at the beginning of February. Holleman said she hasn't let the instrument out of her sight while she was on campus. During the concert's intermission, Holleman said he was afraid to even have the instrument on campus.
"I was just a little nervous because if something happened to it," Holleman said, pausing. "You can repair it, yes, but it would never be the same."
Goulding played "Yankee Doodle Dandee" for an encore. Tuesday's encore was the second most expensive variation played on an instrument. Goulding has also played the most expensive variation as well, on Henri Vieuxtemps' original violin, estimated at $20 million.
As for Tuesday's concert, Goulding was satisfied.
"It was fun," Goulding said.
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