JIC Oversight Committee — Who We Are
Johansen International Competition for Young String Players
FMMC Foundation, Inc.
The Johansen International Competition for Young
String Players (JIC) is overseen by a hard-working
committee of volunteers, plus one part-time staff
person. Three of these volunteers, Judy Shapiro,
Judy Silverman, and Paul Silverman, have been part
of the JIC since its inception, and helped found the
competition in 1997. All of us are musicians.
Competition Coordinator Judith Basch Shapiro
is a violinist and a graduate of Barnard College. She
received a Master of Arts (Musicology) degree from
Columbia University and attended the Juilliard School
of Music, where she studied with Oscar Shumsky. She
has appeared in solo and chamber music performances
at the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the
National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Recital Hall, New
York and Jordan Hall, Boston.
Mrs. Shapiro has served on the faculties of
American University, University of Maryland, Tufts
University, New England Conservatory Preparatory Division, Boston College, and Phillips Exeter
Academy. While residing in Boston, she performed
on modern and baroque violins with the Handel and
Haydn Society, Christopher Hogwood, music director.
She was a founding member of the Potomac String
Trio. Mrs. Shapiro is currently concertmaster of the
Prince George’s Philharmonic, and maintains a private
violin studio in Kensington, MD. She joined the
Friday Morning Music Club (FMMC) in 1964, and
was named Honorary Member in 2008.
Judith Silverman, violinist/violist, is a graduate
of the University of Maryland and is associate principal viola of the National Philharmonic Orchestra. She
studied violin with Albert Zorrer, Joel Berman and
Andres Archila, and viola with Miles Hoffman. Mrs.
Silverman has given chamber music performances in
numerous venues, including the Library of Congress,
Kennedy Center, Corcoran Gallery, and local
universities.
Since l970, Mrs. Silverman has taught students
age 4 to adult. Her viola and violin students have won
auditions in all of the regional youth orchestras including, Maryland All-State and All-County Orchestras.
Many have held concertmaster and principal positions
in those orchestras. Some have gone on to professional
careers in music. In 1992, Mrs. Silverman received the
Chester Petranek Award from the Montgomery County
Youth Orchestra (now the Maryland Classic Youth
Orchestra), and the Outstanding String Teacher of the
Year Award by the American String Teachers Association, MD/DC Chapter.
In 1998, along with conductor, Piotr Gajewski,
Mrs. Silverman co-founded the National Philharmonic’s Summer String Institutes. She served as
Director of the Institute for senior high students from
1998-2002 and has continued to serve on the faculty
until the present, teaching violin, viola, and coaching
chamber music. In 1999, the ASTA MD/DC gave her a
Service-to Strings award for co-founding and directing
the Institute.
Mrs. Silverman has been a member of the JIC
Administrative Committee since its inception in 1997,
and has served in a variety of roles, including the JIC
House Manager and Volunteer Coordinator. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Friday
Morning Music Club Foundation.
Professionally, Dr. Paul Silverman earned his
Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1964. His career activities included serving as chief psychologist of the DC
Youth Services Administration and later in independent practice in Kensington, MD.
As a youth, Dr. Silverman studied cello in
Newark, NJ with Barbara Reisman of the Reisman
Trio and some years later with Oliver Edel, formerly
of the Manhattan and Roth String Quartets. For 15
years, he played as a sectional and principal cellist
of the Greater Rockville (MD) Jewish Community
Center Orchestra. Along with his wife, Judy, a professional violist, Dr. Silverman has been an avid player
of chamber music on an amateur and professional
basis for over four decades, including many years as a
participant at the annual Chamber Music Conference
of the East in Bennington, VT. Dr. Silverman has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center Concert
Hall, the Strathmore Music Center, and numerous
venues throughout the Washington, DC area.
Dr. Silverman was a founding member of the
Johansen International Competition Administrative
Committee dating back to 1997. Among other volunteer duties, he has served as stage manager at the JIC
semi-finals and finals and at the Winners’ recitals. He
also had a key role in establishing the JIC Website and
placing the application form online.
In retirement, Dr. Silverman studied television
and film production. His documentary films Summer
Music and Brookside Gardens: Through the Seasons
have won Monty awards and have been aired on local
television. The Silvermans live in Rockville, MD and
have two sons and four grandchildren.
Felice Kornberg was the Director of Music at the
Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington
in Rockville, Maryland, for 28 years. In that capacity, she managed a resident orchestra of 70 musicians
and administered the School of Music. In addition,
she presented such internationally acclaimed artists
as violinists Joshua Bell and Gil Shaham, cellists Yo
Yo Ma and Leonard Rose, and numerous outstanding
chamber groups, including the Beaux Arts Trio and the
Emerson String Quartet. Ms. Kornberg was the first
person to present the Young Concert Artists Series as
part of an Urban Arts Center rather than in a university
setting.
Previously, she was the head of the Piano Department at Prince George’s Community College in
Maryland, where she not only participated in Faculty
Recitals, but also appeared as soloist with the Prince
George’s Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared in
recital at both the Weil Recital Hall and Town Hall in
New York City and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Friday Morning
Music Club, and has also been a member of the
National Music Teachers Association and the
Maryland State Music Teachers Association.
In addition to serving on the JIC Committee in an
advisory capacity, Ms. Kornberg stays in touch with
and follows the careers of past JIC winners in order
to maintain the “Past Winners Update” page of the
FMMC website, and to write the “Where Are They
Now?” column for the FMMC Newsletter.
Joyce Rizzolo is a native of New York City. While
attending Bard College, she studied violin with Emil
Hauser, founder of the Budapest Quartet. She has been
a member of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, the
Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the Filene
Center for the Performing Arts, and the Charleston
(SC) Symphony Orchestra.
Currently residing in Maryland, Ms. Rizzolo has
performed with the National Philharmonic, the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra and the Prince George’s
Philharmonic Orchestra, and she is Principal Second
Violin with the Symphony of the Potomac. She joined
the Friday Morning Music Club in 2001, and has
performed frequently at Strathmore Mansion, Sumner
School Auditorium and Dumbarton House.
Ms. Rizzolo is a member of the Board of Directors of the Left Bank Concert Society, the Board of
the Friday Morning Music Club Foundation, and the
Committee of the Johansen International Competition.
STAFF
Executive Administrator Alice Berman plays viola
in the Beethoven-to-Bartók String Quartet, which
has presented the entire cycle of the Beethoven string
quartets ten times. In addition, the quartet has performed all of the Bartok quartets, as well as numerous series featuring the quartet and quintet music
of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Schubert, Smetana,
Verdi, and many other composers.
Ms. Berman has also had a successful career
as a writer, editor, photographer and publisher for
more than 30 years. She was the founding publisher
and editor of Skater’s Edge magazine, the Skater’s
Edge Sourcebook, Lamaze Parents Magazine, and
Childbirth Forum. In addition, she co-authored the
Emergency Department Patient Discharge Manual for
Aspen Publishers. She is a former faculty member
of the College of Journalism at the University of
Maryland, College Park.
Ms. Berman has managed the Johansen International Competition for Young String Players since the
Fall of 2003.
IN MEMORIAM
We warmly remember the late Dorothy Jarvinen,
a 50-year member of the FMMC, who was a dedicated
founding member of the Committee for the Johansen
International Competition.