Zoya Leybin teaches enthusiasm, music

Russian-born violinsit holds series of teaching sessions with students at the Con

Her name is not known to the general public.

But perhaps it should be.

Violinist Zoya Leybin paid an inspirational visit to the Oberlin Conservatory this week giving a series of master classes, coachings and lessons to Conservatory string players.

Leybin is a first violinist with the San Francisco Symphony, and her visit brought about reunions with past students who now study here.

But for those meeting Leybin for the first time, her visit was an introduction to a warm, caring woman with an overflowing enthusiasm for music.

Leybin was born into a Jewish family in Riga, Latvia, part of the former Soviet Union. As a child she developed a love for the human voice, from the first "time I heard a voice there was something magic," Leybin said in a thick Russian accent. "I couldn't sing and the closest instrument to the soprano was the violin. That was my voice."

So at the age of five and a half, Leybin began studying the violin, eventually studying under David Oistrakh and Yanke Levich at the Moscow Conservatory.

After graduating from the Conservatory, however, Leybin found she could not stay in her town. "I wanted religious, human and artistic freedom and all three were suppressed," she said. "I am Jewish and from a town that was not recognized as a major town in the eyes of the Russians. Even with the highest qualifications, I had no hope for a career because of my religious and ethnic background. To them I was a foreigner."

So Leybin chose to immigrate to Italy, spending 11 months teaching in Florence. She then moved to Canada and finally to the U.S., landing what she called her "first real job" in the Denver Symphony.

"I became an American," Leybin said, her blue eyes lighting up. "Two years later I became a member of the San Francisco Symphony and started to build a career in the most wonderful country in the world where I found satisfaction in every way I could dream."

In a vocabulary where the words "magic" and "love" surface more often than a V-I progression in a Mozart Symphony, Leybin's happiness is apparent. It not only makes her a caring person, but a compassionate teacher as well. "She is very caring, very demanding and very fair," sophomore Mirabai Weismehl, a former student of Leybin's, said. Those characteristics were on full display during the master classes Leybin gave early this week.

With about 50 people packed into a Conservatory classroom on Monday, Leybin sat listening intently while a student played the first movement of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. After giving advice on a difficult double stop passage, she looked at the young man and said, "If I be wrong, you call me collect call."

Later, as another student stepped up to play, Leybin asked, "What's on the menu?"

"Ysaÿe Four," came the response.

"That's not a menu. That's a main dish," Leybin quipped back.

After the student finished playing, Leybin said, "Sweetheart, that is wonderful. There is no question."

And then she proceeded to do what she does best. "She cuts right to the point. There's no beating around the bush," Weismehl explained.

"Ever thought about what kind of sound you would like to have on those chords?" Leybin asked, putting her arm around the student in a supportive hug. "You must think of giving a present," Leybin continued. "The wrapping can look so expensive. That is what is missing: the wrapping. You must make this a beautiful present."

And when the student finally presented the chords beautifully wrapped, Leybin did what she always does when something is just right. She snapped her fingers, pointed at the student and said, "That's it!"

Leybin's visit to Oberlin was her first real acquaintance with a major music conservatory in America. "I feel very honored and happy to share my love, commitment and knowledge with the young generation who will have to take over in the long run," she said.

Leybin's dream is to someday become a teacher at a school like Oberlin. She has thought long and hard about what it means to teach. "To be a teacher you not only have to study how to play, but you must know what it takes to make that high standard in playing," she said. "If I play at a high standard but don't know the fundamentals, it is hard to guide someone."

Leybin has gained much experience in teaching throughout the years, leading sectionals for the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, which she co-founded, and privately teaching students and professionals of all ages. In doing so she has developed a sort of talent formula for what it takes to be a musician.

"You must have 33 percent of God's gift, 33 percent of discipline and 33 percent of hard work," she said. The secret ingredient? "One percent of luck." As a teacher, Leybin has students with different allocations of each component. "God's gift without hard work and discipline is not talent. I must try to balance them," she said.

Sitting in the Conservatory lounge Wednesday after already teaching eight hours that day and an evening of teaching to go, Leybin's voice was almost gone. As a student brought her a cup of tea, Leybin continued talking about her first love.

"I enjoy everything connected to music - even scales," she said. "I can always find something new. Music is a world of magic, a foundation of discovery of our own person. Through music your heart speaks. We are all messengers that can communicate internationally from generation to generation, culture to culture, ethnic group to ethnic group. It unites everybody." She paused and took a sip of tea. "Music is what keeps people alive."