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  • Hi, I'm Cynthia Phelps, and I'm the principal violist of the New York Philharmonic.

  • I grew up in Hollywood, California.

  • I'm the fourth of five girls, and we all play instruments.

  • So we did grow up going to music lessons together, playing in youth orchestras together and playing a lot of chamber music.

  • I started on violin, the sister just above me and the sister.

  • But loamy also played the violin.

  • My mother, it also plays the violin, and it was way too much East ring surrounding me.

  • I would beg to be able to practice in the room next to my sister who played the cello.

  • And once I did get a viola, it was clear that it was an instrument that really spoke to me.

  • I felt that I could draw sound out that I really loved was very passionate about it, where it was not at all about the violin.

  • So my mother figured it out.

  • I got some good early training, and when I was about 11 I switched to the villa and I never looked back.

  • So my three daughters, my eldest, my stepdaughter, is, um, musical theater.

  • She has two Children of her own So we have two grand Children right now.

  • We have such a big family.

  • Are our Sundays air kind of reserved family times?

  • We'd like to cook a lot between family and exercise, reading that book at night.

  • That's that all I have time for responsibilities lie on me to really be a translator for what the conductor would like to hear from the section if we're lagging behind, if we're playing in a stroke, that doesn't match with the other upper strings.

  • You know, I keep an eye out on all of that.

  • I coordinate the Boeings with the concert Master.

  • If there's a question from the section, Did you want to take time before the downbeat of this next bar?

  • That kind of thing.

  • I'm the one who sort of gathered all the information and works in a way that helps the rehearsal flow.

  • You know, I did not start out studying music, going university, thinking I'm gonna be the principal viewers to the New York Philharmonic.

  • My goal was always to play with people that I really respected.

  • It really makes this job so wonderful to have such incredible colleagues on any given day.

  • I mean, we're all tired.

  • We work really hard.

  • It's really hard to pull these four performances in a row out and have a sound as if it's the first performance.

  • And I have to say I'm so rely on my colleagues, my other principal colleagues.

  • The principal wins the people who have solos that just make me so happy and responses.

  • And that's the case in this orchestra.

  • You you really hear so much incredible music making going around you all the time.

  • It's very, very inspiring.

  • And, um, that's really worth everything, the ideal that we want to make this music making process as excellent as possible and as committed as possible.

  • That's for Universal, and that's a big thing to share.

Hi, I'm Cynthia Phelps, and I'm the principal violist of the New York Philharmonic.

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