Reflecting on the Life of a Great Violinist, Composer & Performer

by Jeff Jacomowitz

Highly talented classical violinists like 71 year-old Barbara Benary can be very modest when asked, "how did you get the opportunity to work some of the great ensembles" or "where do you think you got your musical talent from"? These are profound questions often difficult to answer, but according to Barbara's husband of nearly 40 years, woodwind player and instrument designer Steven Silverstein, there's a connection with art and musical greats, so there's no one place where great talent comes from. It sounds very cosmic but if you ever heard Ms. Benary's music, you would realize that it must come from a higher place. Today, Ms. Benary receives rehabilitation at Northern Riverview in Haverstraw, NY after a car accident last year and she's been diagnosed with dementia and Parkinson's Disease, but all of this doesn't stop her from playing her violin.

In addition to being a great violinist, Ms. Benary is a composer, performer and "ethnomusicologist", or one who studies music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. Originally from Bay Shore, Long Island, Barbara Benary was born on April 7, 1946. Her mother was a school teacher and her father sold retail tires, and although her father did some singing in his time, Barbara learned the violin at six year old from a childhood friend from kindergarten who later in life became an animal rescuer, Holly Stader, whom the couple is still very much in touch with. After high school, Barbara received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY in 1968, and an M.A. in 1971 and Ph.D. in 1973 from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. She received a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in 1972 and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1982 and 1993. Her areas of specialization there were the musics of India and Indonesia, later teaching this at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.

During her musical professional life, she had several brief encounters with Steven before getting to know him at a World Music Convention in Berkeley, California in the 1970s. It was a prestigious convention bringing together music and other talents globally. Steven's father played under Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra at one time and the violin his father used, was later given to Barbara and she uses it to this day. Barbara learned Toscanini but later broke away from classical to a more contemporary style.

"I wanted to break away from Toscanini so I went from classical music straight into contemporary music," remembers Barbara. "I did a lot of that in college, and post-college I played with Philip Glass and his band. This was very influential on my composing and influential on my composing was ethnomusicology."

Soon after, Barbara and Steven got married after their trip to India in August in 1978, they had a daughter, Lyra, and ultimately moved to a private community in Stony Point, NY in Rockland County where Barbara can perform in the ensambles of Philip Glass, Philip Corner and Daniel Goode, just to name a few. Daughter Lyra is a graphic design artist today and occasionally picks up the guitar.

Ms. Benary soon to love "gamelan", a traditional ensemble music of Java and Bali in Indonesia, that is made up predominantly of percussive instruments. Later in 1976, she co-founded Gamelan Son of Lion with Glass and Goode, a new music collective and repertory ensemble in New York City that began in 1976. Barbara has composed more than thirty pieces for gamelan ensemble, performed in the US and internationally.

One of the treats husband Steven has arranged for Barbara at home is her love of playing the Irish Harp and Lever Harp.

"As she progresses, playing the harps is a very therapeutic thing, as playing music general is," said Steven.

Asking how she would like to be remembered, Barbara thought about it a bit and humorously questioned from the third person, "aside that she paid her taxes?", she said, "I would like some of my music to be remembered and be played by somebody...really."

(Cover and 2nd Photo: Barbara Benary and husband Steve Silverstein, February 2018 at Northern Riverview)

(Photo credit: S. Silverstein, B. Benary, Northern Riverview, Centers Health Care)