David Gable

I am from Minnesota, where I fell in love with the sound of the violin while listening with my ear pressed to the crack under a door as my older brother practiced. When I was nine years old, I began lessons with Merle Adams, a retired member of the Minnesota Orchestra who was my brother's teacher and who had also taught my father when he was a boy. My father had smashed his violin as a child because he wanted to play baseball. My brother gave up the instrument in high school, though in a much less dramatic fashion. I could not give it up!

I continued my training with Paul Makanowitzky at the University of Michigan. I also studied with Ronald Copes and Ivan Galamian during that time and was coached in chamber music by Eugene Bossart, Jerome Jelinek, and Gustave Rosseels. While in Michigan, I won the undergraduate concerto competition and received the Eugene Ormandy award. It was in Michigan that I met my wife, Susan, a violist with a degree in music performance from Northwestern University. Problems with tendinitis demanded a change of technique, so I went to Boston University to study with Joseph Silverstein. At BU I studied chamber music with Eugene Lehner, Maria Clodes, and Luis Batlle. While in graduate school I performed as concertmaster of the New Hampshire Philharmonic and as principal of the Civic Symphony of Boston and joined the first violin section of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. It was in Boston that I met cellist Ted Mook and pianist Donald Enos. They were looking for a violinist to perform trios, and I joined them. We adopted the name "The Hawthorne Trio" and began a heavy schedule of rehearsing and performing. For our debut, we performed the complete trios of Beethoven in a period of three months. We gave many performances on Cape Cod and also played on concert series in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

After my wife and I moved to Cape Cod to raise our children, I continued performing in the Boston and Providence areas as well as on the Cape. Among the groups, I performed with were the Boston Classical Orchestra, the Orchestra for the Art of Music, the New Orchestra of Boston (with which I toured Portugal), the Boston Ballet Orchestra, Banchetto Musicale, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Concert Opera, and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. I was concertmaster of the Bellini Festival Orchestra during its American tour and went on tour with Henry Mancini and the Boston Pops. On Cape Cod, I have performed as concertmaster of the Pro Arte Society Chamber Orchestra, the Falmouth Chorale Orchestra, and the Cape Cod Chorale Orchestra. I have been featured as soloist with Strictly Strings of Boston, The Cape Conservatory String Ensemble, the Falmouth Chorale, and the Main Street Music Society. I have performed chamber music at the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival and as a guest artist with the Monomoy Chamber Ensemble and the Philador Ensemble. These performances have allowed me to play in recital with prominent musicians including harpsichordists Martin Pearlman and Peter Sykes, violist Scott Woolweaver of the New England Piano Quartette, violinist Wilma Smith of the Lydian String Quartet, sopranos Nancy Armstrong and Sharon Baker, mezzo-soprano D'Anna Fortunato, and clarinetist Gervase de Peyer. As an orchestral musician I have also had the pleasure of performing with artists like Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Dame Janet Baker, Jessye Norman, Samuel Ramey, Mstislav Rostropovich, Janos Starker, Leon Fleisher, Christopher O'Reilly, Jeffrey Kahane, Peter Serkin, Ruggiero Ricci, Shlomo Mintz, Yehudi Menuhin, and Eugene Ormandy.

Today I am primarily devoted to teaching, but perform regularly with several musical organizations on Cape Cod. My wife and I also perform as "Arco e dolce," a violin and viola duo.

"My father had smashed his violin as a child because he wanted to play baseball. My brother gave up the instrument in high school, though in a much less dramatic fashion. I could not give it up!"