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Concert Dates:
Saturday 28 July - Montecarlo, Italy
Sunday 29 July - Lucca, Italy
Monday, 30 July - JAM SESSION /RECEPTION - The Villa Lacchin, Sacile
Tuesday 31 July - Caffe Degli Specchi, Piazza Unita, Trieste
Thursday, 2 August - Palazzo Menegozzi, Aviano
Friday 3 August - Le Contrade Restaurant - Sacile
Saturday 4 August - Caffe Degli Specchi, Piazza Unita - Trieste

About

BEGINNINGS...

In the summer of 1972, I had just finished my freshman year at Allegheny College, and joined PEER, a student run summer day camp for 7-12 year olds referred by local teachers. Each day our station wagons collected and dropped off the kids. Anthony was one of my five 9-year-old boys. That was the age I had started piano, and at 19, I considered myself a pretty serious classical piano student. So when the door to the side porch of Anthony's house swung open to reveal an old upright piano, I noticed. When I asked him about it the next day, he said he wanted lessons, but his foster mother couldn't afford them.

Anthony was a kid ripe with an uncanny creativity, sensitivity, and desire to learn. We started meeting on his side porch at 10 am every Saturday morning for piano lessons. His piano was troubled: several of the piano keys around middle C didn't work, so we had to transpose his songs higher up on the keyboard. When he eventually performed in his grade school talent show, he was amazed at how nice the pieces actually sounded in their proper register. It snowed in winter, and it was cold on the unheated side porch, but Anthony practiced regularly and rendered his lesson wearing old gloves with open fingertips.

He loved concerts, so I took him to programs at the college, to my home in Erie, PA, and even to the big amphitheater in Chautauqua, NY. I left Allegheny College in 1975, losing myself in nine years of graduate studies and losing contact with Anthony.

Thirty-two years passed. Then, one December day, after returning from lunch, I found a phone message waiting from Italy - it was Anthony - he'd been looking for me, and asked me to e-mail him. I locked the door to my office, waited for the emotion to subside, and began to type. We exchanged voluminous emails, and then finally came together when he visited the States for a business meeting. When he was 19 years old, he had struck out on his own, moving to Washington, DC, and eventually joined the Air Force, in pursuit of learning languages. He became fluent in French, German, Italian, Russian, and American Sign Language. He spent most of his adult life in Europe where he used his language skills to interpret for Arms Control Treaty negotiatons and inspections in Eastern and Western Europe. He lived 10 years in Germany, where he acquired a grand piano, and shuttled back and forth to Moscow, attending concerts at the Moscow Conservatory. He now lives in Italy, near Venice, where art and music remain an important part of his life.

Anthony's successes were accompanied by many hard times. He told me that his love of music carried him through those hard times, and that he wanted to thank me again for fostering that love as a child. When I eventually get to Europe, we will again attend concerts together - perhaps at La Fenice Opera House or even the Moscow Conservatory - the gift of gratitude that survived three decades. And I want to bring music to him - I want to bring my chamber musician friends to Italy to play for him and his people there. Music glues us together, over time, and over continents. I think Pablo Casals had it right when he said, "Perhaps it is music that will save the world."

--John Holter

AND SO BEGINS A TRADITION....

Perhaps it is music that will save the world.
- Pablo Casals

Gallery

Video

Julie Lee

Julie Lee - Owner of a Lonely Heart & Smooth Criminal

Holter Trio

Julie Lee, Gayane Grigoryan & Elizabeth Devereux

Octavian Moldovean

Musicians

The Holter Ensemble is an international group of chamber musicians who represent Armenia, Canada, China, Italy, Romania, Russia and the United States. If you are interested in joining the festival, please fill out the contact information. We would love to have you!

Our Musicians

John Holter

John Holter

I was 9 years old when I met John Holter, and to me, he was a giant of a man. I would come to realize that his heart matches his height. John started his piano lessons as a nine year old and would go on to Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, to study biology with hopes of going into medicine. He also studied piano at Allegheny with Dr. Fred Marantz. I was lucky enough to be attached to John’s hip for his four years of college and that meant access to the music. I was present for his Senior Recital when he performed an all Prokofiev solo recital and the Grieg Piano Concerto, to this day, one of my favorites. I still recall with great sadness John’s departure for Hershey Medical College with a follow on to Ohio State University for training in Internal medicine. After completing a fellowship in Pulmonary Disease, he joined the faculty at East Carolina University School of Medicine and also resumed his piano studies. Although John practices internal medicine in Greenville, NC, his passion is chamber music. After a 33 year separation and after looking for him for as long, thanks to the internet, I found John. I learned that the same young man that ventured away from Meadville to become a doctor was married to his college girlfriend, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Betty Williams. He is also the father of Amy, a graduate student at American University, and of David, a graduate student at Salem College. In 1997, accompanied by his son, David, John drove to the Steinway Hall in New York City to purchase his lifetime dream, a Steinway Model “B” Piano. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd struck and flooded John’s home. With the help of friends from the Peace Church in Greenville, a hole was cut in the roof of the house and the piano hoisted mid air until the flood waters resided. John has been the pianist at Peace Church for about 20 years. John regularly accompanies students from the violin studio of Ara Gregorian at the East Carolina School of Music. The love of music was great and John decided to start a music festival in his home, hosting all of the out of town musicians and feeding them his famous gourmet secret recipe waffles. During the third year of John’s festival, disaster struck in the kitchen and several of the musicians injured themselves while preparing meals. The following year, I decided to fly to the festival to run the kitchen so that the musicians could concentrate on the music. I thought that I was in a conservatory as I heard music in various parts of the house from sun up to sun down. Without a doubt, I got the best end of the bargain. It was during that festival that I invited the group to Italy. And they came! And they came with gusto and with passion and they endeared themselves to all of the Italian people with whom they had contact. A tradition has been started. Dr. Holter believes that music is a gift, and it is a gift that he wants to share with the world. But most of all, he wants to share it with you!
--Anthony Warner

Elizabeth Devereux

Elizabeth Devereux

Elizabeth Devereux is an active chamber and orchestral performer in the Philadelphia area and a founding member of the Holter Ensemble. Her musical interests are broad and diverse, and as a member of the Philadelphia-based Elizabethan Duo she has the opportunity to perform music ranging from classical to Klezmer and Celtic fiddling. Her performance career has taken her from Philadelphia and other major U.S. cities to Leipzig, Vienna, and Prague. In Philadelphia, Elizabeth has received regular coaching with Philadelphia Orchestra violinist Amy Oshiro-Morales and Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Clarinetist Ricardo Morales. She has performed in orchestras under the baton of Andrew Litton, Patrick Summers, James Ross, Michael Stern, and Ken Masur. Elizabeth has chamber music experience on both violin and viola and has performed in master classes for artists such as Martin Chalifour, Ellen DePasquale, Lawrence Dutton, and Robert McDonald. Elizabeth holds a Masters of Music in violin performance from East Carolina University, where she studied violin with Professor Ara Gregorian of the Daedalus String Quartet. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in French literature from Columbia University, where she studied violin with Min-Young Kim, also of the Daedalus String Quartet. Elizabeth is a committed private violin teacher, holding positions as faculty member of the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia and Camden and as the Suzuki String Coordinator at Rowan University Prep in Glassboro, NJ. Outside of her musical work, Elizabeth loves running and writing; she completed her third marathon in April 2011, and she writes a music-lovers’ blog at SoundStringS.wordpress.com.

Beth Etter

Beth Etter

Harpsichordist and pianist Beth Etter holds a doctorate in harpsichord performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her musical career includes faculty positions at Allegheny College and the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Division. Her performances have been characterized as "spirited and brilliant" as well as "profound" by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. She was the designer, founder, and director of a multifaceted music outreach program and Summer Music Festival at Allegheny College that combined high-level performance with the needs and ambitions of local music teachers and students. A passionate educator, she has presented arts-in-education workshops for preschool through college and adult audiences. As a teacher, she has nurtured many young performers in musical careers. She has moderated and presented as a panelist on topics ranging from historical keyboards to innovative approaches to education in classical music. Her articles and editorials have been published in various journals including the Chamber Music America journal as well as the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and her interviews have been heard over Pittsburgh and Cleveland-based public radio stations.
Beth comes to the Holter Ensemble Music Festival because of life-long friendships formed through music. John Holter and she met as students at Allegheny College. Both played the piano most days, as many hours as possible. Though Allegheny did not boast many music majors, both John and Beth considered the department home. Though tortured by his decision to make a career in medicine instead of music, John completed a pre-medicine major while keeping music front and center in his life. Beth was music major and English minor.
Some 28 years later, after completing her doctorate, Beth returned to Allegheny College to establish and direct what became an international summer music festival, inspired by one she attended as a student there. The festival brought students from far and wide, and included preschoolers through seniors. One of the first friends she called to participate was John Holter. John said, “I’m coming.” And, he did. John continued to come for 5 successive years to “Beth’s” music festival until funding sadly went in a different direction. During those festivals, John performed on live broadcasts for highly respected public radio stations with other festival musicians.
Moral of the story? Music brings together and keeps together friends who make it together.

Gayane Grigoryan

Gayane Grigoryan began playing violin at the age of seven. She studied at the Arno Babajanian Music College and the Komitas State Conservatory of Music where she worked with Ara Bogdanyan, a former student of David Oistrakh, and Armen Haroutunian. Her solo appearances include performances with the Yerevan Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Arno Babajanyan Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, the Alan Hovhannes Chamber Orchestra, the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, the Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra, the Espirito Santo Philharmonic Orchestra in Vitoria, Brazil, the Hamburg Chamber Orchestra in Germany and the Armenian TV and Radio National Symphony Orchestra. She also participated in two competitions: the Aslamazyan and Gabrielyan National String Competition where she received a Diploma, and the J.S. Bach National Competition where she received the First Prize. Ms. Grigoryan recorded with the Gloria string quartet in Yerevan, Armenia, was a member of the Hrachya piano trio in Beirut, Lebanon and currently is a member of the string quartet sponsored by Amabile Classic organization in Hamburg, Germany. She also served as a faculty member at the Arno Babajanyan Music College. Currently Ms. Grigoryan is on the music faculty at the Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC.

Gayane Grigoryan

Liz Frazer

Liz Frazer

After taking an eight-month hiatus from performing to complete her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Liz Frazer, soprano, is thrilled to be returning to the stage in her second Holter Music Festival. She has performed many operatic roles, and Classical Voice of North Carolina praised her in a review for singing, “with great power and emotional depth…easily soaring over the orchestra.” While Liz enjoys performing in operas, her true love is for chamber music and art song. She is an ardent supporter and fan of modern and new music, and is an active recitalist, soloist, and master class technician in the southeastern United States. Liz is passionate about all things music and brings that passion to the recital stage; to the voice studio as a private voice teacher; the operatic stage as a director and performer; and to the classroom as a music educator. Although classically trained, she is a lover of all types of music and is excited to be directing a musical for children, A Year With Frog and Toad, in North Carolina this fall.

Kirsten Swanson

Kirsten Swanson

Graduating from the Eastman School of Music with a Bachelor’s degree in Viola Performance in 2004, violist Kirsten Swanson spent 2005-2007 as Assistant Principal violist with the Charlotte Symphony. She completed her Masters Degree at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA in 2009, and now holds a Graduate Certificate in Suzuki Pedagogy from East Carolina University. An extensive orchestral musician since high school, Kirsten has played with the North Carolina Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and Aspen Festival and Chamber Orchestras, to name a few. Chamber music being her first love, Kirsten co-founded the Atticus String Quartet, a semi-professional quartet based in Eastern North Carolina in high school. She was a regular on the Honor’s Chamber Recitals during college and was even featured on Eastman’s promotional cd distributed across the world. She has collaborated with such artists as Jon Nakamatsu, Garth Knox, and the Pacifica and JACK Quartets. Currently, she enjoys playing with the Madison Park String Quartet, the faculty string quartet at the University of North Carolina- Charlotte. An avid fan of contemporary music, Kirsten has premiered new works by Eastman and world composers and has worked with many living composers as a member of Ossia and Musica Nova, new music ensembles at Eastman and with HGNM, the new music group at Harvard University. Music has taken Kirsten across the United States and Europe as a violist in festivals such as the Garth Newel Chamber Festival, Kneisel Hall, the American Institute of Musical Studies Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, Master Classes at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, Master Classes in San Sebastian, Spain, and, as a New Horizons Fellow, the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado. Her principal teachers include Joanne Bath, John Graham, and Roger Tapping. She has participated in master classes with Sylvia Rosenburg, Sabina Thatcher, Garth Knox, Roberto Diaz, Atar Arad, and members of the Ying Quartet and Juilliard Quartets. Currently, Kirsten teaches viola at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and plays in various orchestras and chamber ensembles across the state.

Anthony Warner

Anthony Warner

Anthony Warner is the Managing Director and host of the Holter Music Fest. Originally from Meadville, Pennsylvania, he has spent more than 25 years living in Europe. After a foreign exchange program took him to Paris in 1985, Anthony decided to make his home outside of the United States and to date he has lived in Southern Italy in the city of San Vito Dei Normani, in Wiesbaden, Germany, Moscow, Russia and now in Northern Italy in the cities of Trieste and Sacile. By day, Anthony works as an Arms Control Treaty Compliance Specialist for the United States Air Force. He is also the lead Physical Fitness instructor on Aviano Air Base, Aviano, Italy, teaching 6 classes each week. Outside of his activities on the Air Base, he is the proprietor of CAFE SAMOVAR, a Russian themed Tea Room in Sacile. While Anthony does play the piano, he is wise enough to leave the chamber music to the real musicians! He also studies the cello with Professor Anna Stankevich.

Julie Lee

Julie Lee

A Canada native, was first recognized for her talents during
competitions, then by legendary Maestro Viktor Pikaizen (pupil of renowned David Oistrakh) during a masterclass and subsequently went on to become his protege in Europe.
In the summer of 2000, Julie relocated to Rochester, New York, studying on a four year undergrad scholarship at the prestigious Eastman School of Music under the guidance of Oleh Krysa. Julie has spent subsequent summers in various workshops and festivals throughout the Americas and Europe as student, festival player and guest artist, most notably: Meadowmount, Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar at Stanford, the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles, and the Interharmony Music Festival in Europe. She has worked with today's preeminent artists such as Jeremy Cohen, Patrick Williams, Chris Brubeck, Amanda McBroom, the Ahn Trio, Michael Daugherty, Allen Vizzutti, Misha Quint...
Although trained rigorously within the Classical genre, Julie continues to challenge the boundaries of what it means to be an artist today and works beyond the confines of the Classical genre. Currently, Julie works in a broad range of genres spanning from pop, rock, alt, and experimental. Her work spans from studio projects and performances with bands to performances with the multi-genre rock band TSO (Trans-Siberian Orchestra).
Julie's latest collaborations have led her to perform with multimedia artists and dancers in a music series entitled t2: Echo in Vancouver, Canada, performances with percussion instruments at the Bob McCormick Marimba Festival at SFU in
Tampa, Florida and an ongoing new music series, AMPHIBIAN in New York City and most recently performances as a DJ with electric violins and amplified cello.
Julie currently resides in Amherst, Massachusetts, pursuing her Master's degree in music and teaching at the University of Massachusetts.

Octavian Moldovean

Octavian Moldovean

Octavian, a native of Romania, began his musical education at the age of 10 at the "Tudor Ciortea" Music School in the city of Brasov. He is now pursuing his Bachelor's Degree at the National University of Music in Bucharest. He has won first prize in many competitions throughout Romania but his most prestigious award was the "Young Talents" Scholarship, awarded during a competition under the patronage of Her Royal Highness, Princess Margarita Of Romania. Octavian competed for and was also was awarded the "Erasmus" grant which fosters Cultural Exchange between universities that send thousands of students from all over Europe to Strasbourg, France, to study, interact, and learn from other cultures. In Payerbach, Austria, Octavian participated in the International Summer Academy which performed in several cities throughout Austria, to include Gloggnitz, Reichenau, Semmaring and Vienna. The prestigious International Summer Academy is sponsored by the University of Vienna School of Music and Performing Arts. Octavian has participated in Master Classes throughout Romania, in Payerbach, Austria, in Boston, Massachussetts with Cynthia Meyers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and in New York City with Carol Wincenc of the Julliard School. In 2010 he was invited to Washington, D.C. by the U.S. State Department to perform at the Kennedy Center for the Young Ambassadors Cultural Exchange Program. Octavian will soon audition for the New World Symphony in Florida and hopes to attend Yale University in pursuit of a Master's Degree.

Seth Woods

Seth Woods

Critiqued as “a young Eugene Moye or Yo Yo Ma” by the New Music Connoisseur, Seth Woods has established a reputation as a versatile artist straddling several genres. While being classically trained, he has been seen in a variety of musical settings ranging from Baroque performance to avant-garde new music. Outside the chamber and solo setting, Seth has played with the New York City Ballet, Orchestra of St. Lukes, Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, Di Capo Opera Theater and Vertical Player Repertory Opera. He has also toured the U.S. and Canada with rock band, Brighton and Belle & Sebastian, and appeared in the Canadian Music Festival in 2006. In 2010 Mr. Woods was fortunate to share the stage with Peter Gabriel, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Lou Reed and Cindi Lauper. He studied in the classes of Daniel Morganstern, Frederick Zlotkin, Thomas Demenga and Louise Hopkins. He has played in master classes for The Eroica Trio, Stephen Geber, Quartet San Francisco, Bill Preucil, Joseph Kalichstein, Christian McBride and Maria Schneider, Irvine Arditti and Lucas Fels and Uli Fussenegger. Mr. Woods has had the great distinction to grace the stages of Carnegie Hall, Stadt Casino Basel, Moods Jazz Club-Zurich, KKL Luzern, Theater Basel, Wang Theater, United Nations, Merkin Hall, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Radio City Music Hall and the Bell Centre with Peter Gabriel. As well was the cello soloist for two new works created with the Staatsballett Berlin and the Ballett Basel. Mr. Woods is also the proud recipient of grants by the Puffin Foundation, FCA and the LMCC and the Jerome Commissioning Fund.

Monica Martin

Monica Martin

Monica Martin has been playing violin since the age of five. She has given recitals and performed at many of the major concert halls in New York, including Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall, the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Avery Fischer Hall. She has participated in master classes led by violinists such as Cho-Liang Lin, Maseo Kawasaki, Ittai Shapira, Stephanie Chase, and Anton Miller. Monica has been a winner of the ISO Concerto Competition, the La Guardia Concerto Competition, the Queens College Orchestra Concerto Competition, and the third place winner at the Queens Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition. She has been a member of several orchestras in recent years, including the ISO Symphony Orchestra of New York, the Nova Philharmonic Orchestra, the Richmond County Orchestra, and most recently as concertmaster for the One World Symphony and the Queens College Symphony Orchestra. This past December, Monica was accepted as a violinist in the New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall, where she performed under the baton of Jamie Laredo. Along with her solo and orchestral pursuits, she is an active chamber musician, and is a member of the Balsam Piano Trio sponsored by the Aaron Copland School of Music. She has had the privilege to receive chamber music coachings from musicians such as Marcy Rosen, Morey Ritt, Charles Neidich, Hiroko Yajima, Bonnie Hampton, and Ida Kavafian. Previously, she has spent her summers at the Aria Music Festival, the International Music Festival Academy of Pilsen, and the New York University Summer Chamber Music Workshop. Monica is a senior undergraduate violin major at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, and studies in the violin studio of Daniel Phillips.
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Sergey Prokofyev

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sergey began his violin studies at the age of 5. In 1998 at age 8 he and his family immigrated to the United States where he continued his studies at the Special Music School at the Kaufman Center. In 2001 he was accepted to the Pre-College Division at The Juilliard School, where he studied with Sally Thomas and later with Stefan Milenkovich. After graduating from LaGuardia High School and the Pre-College Division at The Juilliard School he was accepted into Prof. Daniel Phillip’s studio at the Aaron Copland School of Music in 2008 where he is currently working towards a performance degree in music.
Sergey was a winner at the Lincoln Center High School Chamber Music competition and the New York Youth Chamber Music Program and got to perform at The New York Society of Ethical Culture and Carnegie Hall’s Weil Recital Hall. In the spring of 2010 Sergey was a winner of the Aaron Copland School of Music Concerto Competition and got to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the queens college symphony orchestra. Sergey also had the opportunity to perform solo with the Queens College Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Charles Neidich. Sergey has performed as a member of the Nova Phillharmonic, The Westchester Chamber Orchestra, The Pre-College Juilliard orchestra, Queens College Symphony, Queens College Chamber Orchestra and more recently the Musical Olympus Festival Orchestra which this year gave a performance in Carnegie Hall. Sergey has always enjoyed playing chamber music and it has been an integral part of his education. He has had chamber music coachings with musicians such as Daniel Phillips, Marcy Rosen, Morey Ritt, Charles Neidich, Drora Pershing, Anton Miller, Rita Porfiris, Marion Feldman and members of the Pacifica Quartet. This year Sergey joined the group Bachanalia directed by world renowned violinist Nina Beilina.

SERGEY PROKOFYEV

Cristina Nadal

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LINGUA ITALIANA

GLI INIZI...
Nell'estate del 1972 avevo appena finito il mio primo anno all'Allegheny College e mi sono iscritto a PEER, una colonia estiva gestita da studenti per ragazzini dai 7 ai 12 anni, consigliato dagli insegnanti del posto. Ogni giorno le notre station wagon andavano a prendere e a riportare i bambini. Anthony era uno dei miei cique ragazzini di 8 anni. A quell'eta avevo iniziato a studiare pianoforte e a 19 anni mi consideravo uno studente di pianoforte abbastanza serio. Per cui quando si apri la porta del portico laterale della casa di Anthony, rivelando un vecchio pianoforte verticale, lo notai subito. Quando il giorno seguente gli feci una domanda a riguardo, mi rispose che voleva iniziare a prendere delle lezioni, ma che sua madra adottiva non poteva permetterselo.
Anthony era un ragazzino sveglio dotato di grande creativita, sensibilita e desiderio di apprendere. Iniziammo i nostri incontri sotto il suo portico di casa alle 10 di ogni sabato mattina per le nostre lezioni di piano. Il suo pianoforte non era perfetto: vari tasti vicino al do centrale non funzionavano, quindi dovevamo trasporre le melodie di un tono maggiore sulla tastiera. Quando si esibi per il talent show della scuola elementare, Anthony si stupi di come i pezzi sembrassero ancora meglio nel loro vero registro. In inverno nevico e faceva davvero fresco sotto il portico non riscaldato, ma Anthony continuo ad esercitarsi regolarmente facendo lezione con indosso dei guanti che lasciavano libere le dita.
Amava i concerti, quindi lo portai a tutti programmi del college, alla mia citta di nascita, Erie, Pennsylvania, e anche al grande anfiteatro di Chautauqua, a New York. Lasciai Allegheny College nell 1975, immergendomi in nove anni di studi universitari, perdendo i contatti con Anthony.
Passarono trentadue anni, poi, un giorno di dicembre, dopo essere tornato dalla pausa pranzo, trovai un messaggio telefonico dall'Italia, era Anthony. Mi aveva cercato e mi aveva chiesto di scrivergli un'email. Chiusi la porta dell'ufficio, aspettai che l'ondata di emozioni si calmasse ed iniziai a scrivere. Ci scambiammo innumerevoli e-mail e finalmente ritorno negli Stati Uniti per un incontro di lavoro. A 17 anni era diventato indipendente, trasferendosi a Washington, DC, per poi entrare a far parte dell'Air Force al fine di imparare delle lingue straniere. Ora parla fluentamente il francese, il tedesco, l'italiano, il russo e il linguaggio dei segni americano. Ha trascorso la maggior parte della sua vita adulta in Europa, usando le proprie abilita linguistiche come interprete per i negoziati dell'Arms Control Treaty e le ispezioni nell'Europa occidentale e orientale. Ha vissuto 10 anni in Germania, dove ha acquistato un pianoforte a code e ha fatto la spola da e verso la Russia, per andare ai concerti del Conservatori di Mosca. Ora vive in Italia, vicino a Venezia, dove arte e music rimangono ancora una parte importante della sua vita.
I successi di Anthony si sono alternati a momenti difficili, ma mi ha raccontato che il suo amore per la musica non e mai scemato neanche nei peridi piu duri e mi ha ringraziato per aver coltivato in lui da bambino quella passione.
Quando finalmente arrivero in Europa, andremo insieme ai concerti, forse al Gran Teatro La Fenice o addirittura al Conservatorio di Mosca, grazie a una gratitudine che dura da tre decenni. E voglio anch'io portargli della musica, infatti desidero invitare i miei amici musicisti da camera a venire in Italia per suonare per lui, la sua famiglia e i suoi amici. La musica ci unisce nel tempo e al di la dei continenti. Credo che Pablo Casals avesse ragione quando diceva "Forse sara la musica a salvare il mondo".
--John Holter