NEWS Updated:  

New Office Hours.
Please note that the NVFA office is now staffed Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Board Changes.
The NVFA Board of Directors has accepted, with regret, the resignation of Ellen Carlson as Secretary. Carlson stepped down citing unexpected outside demands on her time, and the association wishes her well. NVFA Director Lin Tollefsen, who graciously stepped in to fill the gap, will fill Carlson’s remaining term. We'll tell you more about Tollefsen in “The NVFA in Person," a new feature in our fall newsletter.

Newsletter Vol. 2, no. 7.
Our spring newsletter is at the printer now, and we hope to have it on its way to the membership by the end of March.

NVFA Website Redesign Planned.
The association’s web site, www.nvfa.org, will soon undergo a major revamping. The old site will remain functional for the near future as much of the work is scheduled to take place behind the scenes and will not be noticeable at first. Mark Goldberg will be in charge of the new design, while Robert Spear will be responsible for content.

Goldberg says that he wants to make the site more accessible, easier to use, and to increase the frequency of site updates as much as possible. He plans to have both audio and video clips available for downloading, and to install a shopping cart for the NVFA store. The site will gradually become the main source of information about the association and its activities, while the newsletter will take on some aspects of a news digest. Goldberg also contemplates a searchable archive of printed material for researchers coming to the site.

Included in the upgrade plans is the association’s forum, which is partially shut down at the present time due to excessive spam attacks. Goldberg and Spear hope to reopen the forum at the same time the new web pages come on line.

Frank Lewin- March 27,1925 -- January 18, 2008.
It is with deep sorrow that we report the passing of composer Frank Lewin, who died at his home in Princeton, NJ on January 18, 2008. He was 82 years old. Born in Breslau, Germany, Lewin came to America by way of Cuba in 1940 after his parents fled Nazi Germany in 1939.

Lewin studied with a number of noted composers during his University years, including Felix Dayo, Jack Kilpatrick, Roy Harris, and Paul Hindemith. He received his Bachelor of Music Degree from Yale University in 1951, and returned there to teach composition as a professor at the Yale School of Music from 1971 to 1992. His academic career came to an end a few years later when he lost his sight. He continued to be involved with music through 2007, producing six CD masters of his music for Albany Records.

Lewin appreciated the potential of the new violin family and composed some of the earliest works written for the full octet, including an arrangement of the Sanctus and Pleni Sunt Coeli from the Mass L’Homme Arme by Palestrina. Original works included the Dramatic Suite for New Violins, scored for the lower six instruments of the family, and the Introduction on a Psalm Tune, which many have called a “masterpiece in miniature.” These pieces appeared first on vinyl discs from the Musical Heritage Society in 1979, and were subsequently remastered by Lewin and former NVFA President RJ Miller for a CD released by the New Violin Family in 2004.