Valerie Dimond:

I have been a client of Anthony Lane's for almost 15 years. Even though I live in Dallas I continue to depend on Tony to keep my 19th-century instrument sounding its best. There is no violin maker in the United States who has a better ear for sound and can adjust a string instrument the way that Tony can. He cares about the sound as well as the looks and value of instruments. It was inevitable that I would commission him to make a viola for me.

I have always played small violas. After I heard Linda Ghidossi-DeLuca’s viola, which Tony built in 1995, I knew he would be able to create a small viola for me that would have the sound and power of a much larger instrument. I needed my Lane viola to be the size of my current instrument so I could switch back and forth at will, and I wanted to enjoy playing and making music on it as much as I enjoy my 19th-century instrument. Tony has more than fulfilled all my desires. When I played my Anthony Lane 15 3/8” viola for Andrew Litton, our music director, the same week I picked it up, he was amazed by the "warm, rich tone color."

Because I believe that my Lane viola will outlast me and be greatly valued in the future, I had Tony inscribe on the side of the instrument this quotation inspired by Horace – "Descende caelo et dic age viola longum melos" – an invocation to a muse in heaven to come down and sing a long-continued melody through this viola: a blessing for all who will play on it.

Before joining the Dallas Symphony violist Valerie Dimond was an active player in Los Angeles's television and film studios.

Until 1989 she held the position of Assistant Principal Violist of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and also performed with such noted New York City ensembles as the Mostly Mozart Orchestra and the New York (92nd St. "Y") Chamber Symphony.

A graduate of the Juilliard School, Ms. Dimond's teachers include Lillian Fuchs, Donald McInnes, Raphael Spiro, Sol Greitzer, and Jesse Levine. While a student she was awarded fellowships to the Aspen, Tanglewood, Banff and Waterloo Festivals.

She has been a guest-faculty artist/teacher at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music (New Hampshire) and the Arkansas Music Festival and has toured with the Apple Hill Chamber Players. She has most recently played with the Sun Valley Music Festival and Mainly Mozart Music Festival (San Diego).

Ms. Dimond is familiar to radio audiences for the live broadcast of her solo viola recital as part of the Dame Myra Hess Memorial series and a CD of chamber works by contemporary composers ("New Raptorial Moon" on the Raptoria CAAM label) .

As a soloist, she performed the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante (for violin and viola) with the Dallas Symphony and has also performed the Bartok Viola Concerto with the Occidental/Cal-Tech orchestra in Los Angeles. She was a featured performing artist at both the XXI and XXIII International Viola Congresses.

 

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