Ceremony to honor professor

Tonight at 7 p.m. in Auer Hall in the School of Music Library, the late distinguished professor of violin, Franco Gulli, will be remembered and honored by his colleagues and students in a memorial concert. The concert, serving both as a tribute and a farewell to the late professor, will bring family, friends, students, alumni and IU Music Faculty together to play the music that Gulli loved.\nThe concert will feature music by Bach, Haydn and Franck and will be played by various IU violin professors, including close friends Miriam Freid and Paul Biss. Biss, who visited Gulli nearly every day in the hospital prior to his death Nov. 20, said that while the concert is in celebration of his life, it is "a painful reminder that he's not here anymore."\n"I was terribly sad and felt I lost a true friend," Biss said. "I think Indiana lost a giant and I think it was a very very sad day for music and for anybody who loves the violin and a profoundly sad day for IU. These are all pieces that he loved. And though there may be an element of sadness, none of it is really morbid. They are slow movements but somehow the music has a smile on its face."\nThough Gulli had been ill for most of the fall semester, he still was able to give some lessons to his students. Many had to begin studying with other violin faculty members. Though many students, like senior Michael Evans, came to IU specifically because of Gulli, having to work with a new teacher did not deter his enthusiasm for study.\n"While Gulli was away and on sabbatical, I was put with (Professor Henryk) Kowalski, which was a very different style of teaching but we got along quite well and as a result, it's been a pretty smooth transition for me," Evans said. "I have worked with him in depth enough that we get along pretty well. Every teacher here is here for a reason. They're all wonderful teachers. I feel fortunate to be with a wonderful teacher."\nBut while the transition has been easier for Evans, his time with Gulli was full of learning and memories. \n"He would talk about what you need to consider in terms of balance with the orchestra and getting along with the conductor on certain passages. It was more considering music as a whole rather than how to play it. It was really above and beyond the limitations of pure technique. Gulli himself wasn't much into working on technique. But he was so good at what he did that it didn't matter. It made practicing a little more interesting," he said.\nThe concert on Tuesday will allow the string faculty to say goodbye to their friend and colleague as many of his friends and family were either away for Thanksgiving at the time of his death, or in Italy, Gulli's native country.\nProfessor Lawrence Hurst, the chair of the string department, will give a speech sharing the music faculty's goodbyes as part of the concert. Hurst, like many of Gulli's friends and students, made clear that Gulli was more than just a teacher.\n"What I remember most about Professor Gulli is that he was always encouraging to the students," Hurst said. "He would always be there for them, helping the students overcome difficulties, and the students loved him for that. He's the embodiment of the word 'gentleman'."\nWhen many think of the violin and its repertoire, the works of Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Paganini come to mind, but to celebrate Gulli, works by classical period composers were chosen. Rather than use showpieces, the faculty chose these pieces because they are the music that Gulli most enjoyed in his life.\n"His true love and passion for this instrument was for the classical stuff," Evans said. "Beethoven, especially Mozart -- the great masters. I think it's a perfect program. Gulli had the chops to play anything he wanted to, but his love was centered around those kinds of works so I think it's very appropriate that they picked those works. It was very perceptive on (the part of the organizers in recognizing) Gulli's mastery"