I’m Anthea Kreston, 2026-2027 Artist in Residence
VIOLIN, GUINEA PIGS, AND SPILLED BEER: MEET ALL CLASSICAL’S NEW ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Hi friends! And I do already think of you as friends, over our shared love of music.
I’m Anthea Kreston – a classical violinist and your new Artist in Residence at All Classical Radio! I am honored and super excited to be a part of this amazing family. I will be writing a regular blog, and wanted to introduce myself before we get rolling. Fred Child, the station’s President & CEO, has sent me some questions, so let’s do this.
Why violin?
Anthea: I can’t even remember not playing the violin! I started at age 2, but before that my parents gave me a little set of two drums that they hung around my neck, which I would gladly play at all hours of the day. Violin is an extension of my body, my soul – it’s more like the violin is playing me, not the other way around.
What do YOU hear when you play violin?
Anthea: I hear bravery, sadness, history, struggle, determination, heart-bursting love. And I hear how all of those things connect to one another, like tangible tendrils that I weave together.
Tell us about your relationship with words.
Anthea: Words and music are the same for me, part of the same tree. I have always been a big reader, that’s the heaviest thing in my luggage when I go on tour. Like violin, words feel like they well up, and it’s my job to release them into the wild, so that other people can grab them and interact with them, however they want to.
Best audience interaction ever?
Anthea: In Berlin, an old woman came to me after a concert with tears in her eyes. She grasped both of my hands, and said she had not heard that sound since she was a child. I told her that it was the sound of my teacher Felix Galimir, who left Vienna as a young man in 1938, and who taught me the soul of old German violin playing. He taught me how to make people cry.
Strangest audience interaction?
Anthea: When I was in a rock band in Cleveland, we judged a successful evening on how much beer was spilled on us. The more the better. I had to use an old junker violin that I plastered with stickers. Ah, youth…
Tell us about your love of Guinea Pigs!
Anthea: If I wasn’t a violinist, I would have loved to be a veterinarian. I have always adored creatures, getting to know their personalities and forging sincere and silly relationships with them. I used to have a Pygmy goat in Oberlin that I leash-trained and would walk into town. Yenroush would come to my knitting class with me. She had a great sense of humor.
What’s your relationship with the contorted physical posture of playing violin?
Anthea: Well – that’s a great question! I have thought a lot about everything having to do with violin, to a borderline obsessive degree. I approach playing like a miniature Olympic sport, and I use a lot of follow-through, big motions. My whole body is activated – often, after a big concert, my legs hurt.
We’ve heard that you are kind of a Superwoman.
Anthea: Well – I’m a triple threat – mom, violinist, and author. And I make a lot of soup. Quadruple threat!
In what way are you preposterous?
Anthea: Basically every way. I lack inhibition. But that took years of concerted, diligent work.
What do you look forward to about being All Classical’s Artist in Residence?
Anthea: Wowza!!! Everything! With such a vibrant group of colleagues, creative staff, incredible facility. And vision! There is a flexibility I’m open to possibilities, and feel a deep desire for collaboration. And I get to hang out with Fred. Score!
Read other posts by Anthea Kreston
