Versatile violist who is as well-known for her collaborations with Jascha Heifetz as she is for playing viola d’amour on Bernard Herrmann scores. She also owns the dubious distinction of having played on an album that won a Grammy for Best Album Cover, Classical, The Intimate Bach, in 1962.
Her recording legacy, in classical music, is as the violist on The Heifetz-Piatigorsky Concerts, alongside Israel Baker, Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky, and William Primrose, performing Mozart’s String Quintet No. 4, K. 516. This merry band of players also recorded Mozart’s Quintet in E flat major, K. 407, and, adding Gabor Rejto on cello, Brahms’ String Sextet No. 2 in G, Op. 36.
She was also a member of the American Art Quartet, who covered Lukas Foss’s String Quartet No. 1.
Her playing so impressed Bernard Herrmann that he featured her on viola d’amour on the film On Dangerous Ground and The Twilight Zone episode “Little Girl Lost”. Her other film credits include An American in Paris, The Amityville Horror (1979), Ben-Hur, Brubaker, Charade, The Color Purple, and Nunzio. She also performed on the soundtrack of the television program Honey West.
All of this activity has not precluded her from working with an all-star cavalcade of artists and groups that includes Peter Allen, Chet Atkins, Count Basie, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Bobby Darin, Doris Day, Earth, Wind & Fire, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Benny Goodman, Julio Iglesias, Quincy Jones, Peggy Lee, Melissa Manchester, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Lionel Richie, Doc Severinsen, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, The Tubes, Deniece Williams, Nancy Wilson, and Sheb Wooley. A Viola Scholarship bears her name at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York.
Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams recordings
Emotion (Barry Gibb/Robin Gibb)
S CBS 6164B (UK 45)
Lalo Schifrin recordings
Love Rhapsody from “The Concorde – Airport ’79” (Lalo Schifrin)
Theme from “The Concorde – Airport ’79” (Lalo Schifrin)
She performs here with Jascha Heifetz and others on the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E flat major, Opus 20…
Sources:
1. http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/artist.aspx?ob=per&srs=prd&aid=4408
2. http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Virginia%20Majewski:1927158658:page=discography:subpage=also-appears-on:b=61?sort=date
3. http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Virginia%20Majewski:1927158658?sort=za
4. http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0538112/
5. http://worldcat.org/wcpa/ow/11df08afe6c71668.html
6. http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.asp?CTR=147403
7. http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Concerto-Sonata-K-378-Quintet/dp/B000003FJ1
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Album_Cover_-_Classical
9. http://www.iclassics.com/productDetail?contentId=8693
10. http://www.log.org/bachfest/2006/2006Program.pdf
11. http://www.cdconnection.com/cd_and_dvd/part/79161?source=prcrnr
12. http://www.wshu.org/classical/2005/cp051207.php
13. http://www.filmscorerundowns.net/herrmann/tzlittlegirl.pdf
14. http://www.filmscorerundowns.net
15. http://musicbase.h1.ru/PPS1/sd_1092.htm
16. http://www.wusf.usf.edu/wusf-fm/programming/Feb_Class_Lstngs/Classical_020502_final.htm
17. http://www.crystalrecords.com/composers_d-g.html
18. http://www.bobbydarin.net/band9.html
19. http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3829848&JRSource=nsa&nsa=1
20. http://www.stevelukather.net/Session.aspx?id=376
21. http://www.bh2000.net/special/patzak/detail.php?id=3117
22. http://www.shopping.com/xPO-In_Hollywood_by_Chet_Atkins_601704199313
23. http://www.kiak.com/iplaylist/album/325691/Sweet+Lorraine.html
24. http://www.949zht.com/iplaylist/album/578539/We’ll+Sing+in+the+Sunshine.html
25. http://www.z94radio.com/iplaylist/album/459956/
26. http://www.cool95.com/iplaylist/album/84179/Main+Title:+An+American+in+Paris+[Alternate+Version][Outtake].html
27. http://www.alice1045.com/iplaylist/album/488992/