The Associated Press
Adrian Anantawan, 18, plays the violin Wednesday in Washington. He is one of the winners of the Rosemary Kennedy International Young Soloists Award given by VSA Arts, which Jean Kennedy Smith founded.

One-handed violinist wins soloist award

Olympian news services

Originally published Friday, March 22, 2002

WASHINGTON -- He was born without a right hand, and yet he had no trouble playing a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin at the Kennedy Center.

Eighteen-year-old Adrian Anantawan was among the winners of the Rosemary Kennedy International Young Soloists Award given by VSA Arts, which Jean Kennedy Smith founded.

Using what he calls a "spatula" attached to the end of a prosthetic arm, the first-year Curtis Institute student performed the slow movement to Henryk Weiniawski's Concerto No. 2 and Pablo Sarasate's dazzling "Zigeunerweisen."

At the end of the spatula is a device that attaches to the bow.

"I can probably, with work and practice, play any piece that a two-handed violinist can play -- and probably even better sometimes," the Canadian-born Anantawan told The Washington Post.

He used the 300-year-old Taft Stradivarius, which was loaned to him for Wednesday night's performance.

The annual award, which includes $1,000, is named after the oldest Kennedy sister, who was institutionalized in 1941 after mild retardation and a prefrontal lobotomy left her unable to care for herself.

LONDON -- R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck denied prosecutors' suggestions that he lied about taking a sleeping pill on a trans-Atlantic flight to avoid accusations of drunkenness after his alleged rampage on the plane.

In his second day on the stand in Isleworth Crown Court, Buck said Thursday that he couldn't explain why he didn't mention downing the tablet with a glass of wine when police interviewed him in a cell at London's Heathrow airport.

The 45-year-old, who lives in Seattle, denies charges of being drunk on an aircraft, assault and damaging British Airways crockery.

Prosecutors say Buck drank about 15 glasses of wine in the first three hours of the 10-hour flight from Seattle to London last April. They say he became increasingly unruly, staggering up the aisle of the Boeing 747 and assaulting two cabin crew members.

Questioned by prosecutor David Bate, the musician testified that he hadn't thought of mentioning the sleeping pill to police.

"It didn't really occur to me. I felt scared, kind of terrified, kind of foggy," Buck said. "I was not lying. I was just trying to deal with a very difficult situation. I didn't know exactly what was going through my mind at the time."

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- A bronze bust of former President Ronald Reagan that Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver commissioned is now a permanent fixture at the 40th chief executive's library.

The couple arranged for the sculpture, created by artist Robert Berks, as a tribute to the former president, library spokeswoman Melissa Giller said. Berks and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Maria Shriver's mother, were guests at Wednesday night's presentation.

The "Terminator" star and the newswoman ordered the custom bronze for display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Giller said. Berks has sculpted more than 300 historic figures.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Singer Ani DiFranco, a graduate of Buffalo's performing arts high school, will give the proceeds from an April 8 concert to her alma mater and other financially troubled city schools.

The estimated $20,000 gift will be used for musical instruments and equipment and possibly some field trips, which the district eliminated this year because of budget problems, said Kevin Kazmierczak, principal of the Academy for Visual & Performing Arts.

About half of the concert proceeds will go to the arts school, where students use 40-year-old instruments and worn sheet music with missing pages.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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