As it happened, Rostal was in a car accident shortly thereafter, and Lefkowitz had to take lessons from his assistant, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The assistant was young, and she didn't intimidate him as Rostal had. "I progressed remarkably. It was incredible. I had been playing so lousy, and I had been dissatisfied with the way things were going."
These days Lefkowitz is preparing for the Montreal International Competition which takes place in late spring. "Everybody enters it," he said, "It's usually won by some Russian. I don't think I'll win anything. I mean, I know I won't. But it's good experience performing." He would like to spend his life performing and teaching. His favorite composers are Bach, Beethoven and Brahms--"deep intellectual composers,"--but he is working on pieces by 19th century composers now, "I've got to try out different styles," he said. "If you're going to put on a show you can't expect audiences to appreciate purely one type of music."
Lefkowitz's true love is chamber music. He likes the individual responsibility as well as the interaction between musicians. "I like working with people on an individual basis, not in groups," he said. "I want some responsibility and a say in what goes on. You don't have that playing in an orchestra."
"Do you ever feel different, do people ever treat you differently?" I asked him. "No, Well, actually sometimes I get a feeling that I'm treated with respect from some people. They respect me because I've established myself as a serious musician instead of someone out to make a big name for myself."
Lefkowitz suddenly stood up, pulled his violin out of his case, and stood poised before his music. "I've got to practice," he said. "I don't fool myself into thinking everything's going to come quickly. Overnight, From now on I'll be great. I have to work towards it." I left him to his practising and in the hall bumped into a member of the Music Department. "You were in there with Ronan Lefkowitz!" he gushed. "Ah, When Ronan first arrived here he was a good fiddler. There was promise glaring through every note he played, but he was just a good fiddler. But now--what a beautiful violinist!"
"Music, as a department, as something to study, is strange. There's no one method to learning and teaching music. Nothing's complete, nothing's defined. Just the term 'musician' is weird, you know...Nobody knows what it means. It could mean you know all the plots from operas, you could know all the record jackets."