College
of THE ARTS
Outstanding
graduate - Gregory Maldonado
By
Jill Thomsen
On-line Forty-Niner
 Yehudi
Menuhin once said, the violinist is that
peculiarly human phenomenon distilled to
a rare potency — half tiger, half poet.
Outstanding College of the Arts student
Gregory Maldonado is a violinist who is
half student, half teacher.
Receiving his master’s degree in orchestral
conducting, Maldonado specializes in early
music, notably Baroque — the style of music
played in the 1600s. He conducts the Cal
State Long Beach Collegium Musicum, an early
music ensemble dedicated to the performance
of lesser-known repertory, especially that
of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque
eras.
Music department graduate adviser Kristine
Forney said the department had let the group
go until Maldonado began teaching at CSULB
in 2001.
“He has gotten it going again and they are
doing really wonderful concerts now,” Forney
said.
Maldonado also founded the Los Angeles Baroque
Orchestra in 1985 and has taught classes
at USC and UCLA before coming back to school
at CSULB.
“I was so impressed with the school and
liked the environment — the students and
faculty are great,” he said. “It has been
interesting being both student and faculty,
there has been a question of fitting in
— where exactly do I go?”
Maldonado’s thesis is a reception history
of Beethoven’s, “Wellington’s Victory,”
first performed in December 1813 as part
of a program to benefit Austrian and Bavarian
soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau.
A reception history is the study of a piece
and how it has been received by audiences
and critics throughout history - in this
case, from 1813 to the present.
Maldonado loves teaching and has particularly
enjoyed teaching an academic class for music
majors this spring.
“It was nice teaching about different eras
of music, it was nice to let students have
a historical perspective while they’re sitting
in a practice room playing all day,” he
said.
Forney says Maldonado has “wonderful teaching
ability.” She also noted that
Maldonado “helps keep our performance and
academic standards high because he has such
high standards for himself. He’s a consummate
professional and performer.”
Fellow graduate student and violinist Randall
Brinton calls Maldonado “very inspirational
and very musical. He cares very much about
the music.” Brinton has worked with Maldonado
in the Baroque Orchestra and in teaching
at CSULB.
“He is a very good teacher,” Brinton said.
Although Maldonado cannot pick a favorite
piece as he likes “music from all periods,”
he particularly enjoys BeethovenÇs
“Violin Concerto in D” and Bach concertos.
He hopes to conduct larger orchestras in
the future and is looking forward to having
more time to plan the season for the L.A.
Baroque Orchestra now that he is graduating.
“He’s done so many things for the department.
We have a multifaceted department and Greg
has contributed more to all different facets
of the department than any other grad student,”
Forney said.
Maldonado is content at CSULB and is anticipates
teaching more.
“I’m here, I’m happy, I’m going to continue
doing what I’m doing,” he said.
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