The Viola in My Life: An Alto Rhapsody (CD included)

During the 1950s and the early 1960s Bernard Zaslav played viola in Broadway shows like Fiddler on the Roof, Once Upon a Mattress, and the Broadway revival of Porgy and Bess, while commissioning and per- forming works written by the most innovative composers of the time, like Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, and Ben Johnston for string quartet and the viola/piano Zaslav Duo with Naomi Zaslav. He made the first recordings of Charles Ives Quartets and many of the Dvorak String Quartets before joining the world-famous Fine Arts String Quartet, and touring with them all around the world. His life as a string quartet violist reached a zenith when he joined the Vermeer Quartet, and became one of the world's most celebrated string quartet musicians. Bernard Zaslav tells the story of his musical life and his travels from the perspective of a musician on the inside-literally, one of the inner voices of a string quartet. From the earliest days of his career he came into close musical and pers.