Fiddling with Life: The Unusual Journey of Steven Staryk

Desmond Maley is the music librarian at the J.W. Tate Library,
Huntington College, Laurentian University, and the editor of Newsletter
of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and
Documentation Centres.

Violinist Steven Staryk has been concertmaster of several of the
world’s leading orchestras, toured as a soloist and chamber musician,
made dozens of recordings (including premiering works by Canadian
composers), and taught at conservatories and universities in Canada, the
United States, and Europe. Yet, an unmistakable note of frustration
pervades this memoir, written in collaboration with former Staryk
student Thane Lewis. There is the feeling that Staryk could have, and
perhaps should have, done better.

Now living in retirement in Scottsdale, Arizona, Staryk, who was born
in Toronto in 1932, makes it clear he has no nostalgia for Canada. A
pivotal event was the “Symphony Six” affair of the early 1950s when,
in an atmosphere rife with McCarthyist hysteria, the board of the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra terminated Staryk’s contract. He
subsequently became the first-desk violinist with orchestras in London,
Amsterdam, and Chicago, but he remains bitter about the fact that TSO
conductor Sir Ernest MacMillan cravenly ignored his plight at the time.
These experiences are recounted in detail, as are Staryk’s thoughts on
teaching, instruments, eminent musicians, competitions, touring, and
critical reception. His often shabby treatment at the hands of record
companies, including the CBC, is described, and there is interesting
material on the control of the concert circuit exercised by New York’s
57th Street and “superviolinists” like Isaac Stern. Although
brilliantly gifted, Staryk never cracked the top tier as a concert
artist; nor did he land a multi-year contract with a major record
company.

Fiddling with Life has its share of lacunae. It lacks an index and
there are a number of errors in editing. We don’t learn much about
Staryk the man, and Staryk the musician says little about his sojourn
with the Quartet Canada ensemble, his latter-day return to the TSO, or
his associations with composers. Still, the memoir is definitely a
worthwhile read. Completing the presentation are black-and-white
reproductions of photographs, a discography, a bibliography, and lists
of composers and conductors with whom Staryk has worked. A compact disc
of Staryk’s playing may also be ordered.