Preview: Violist Jennifer Stumm brings home a night of classical music at Eddie’s Attic

The viola is the middle child among orchestral bowed string instruments. The players of its closest siblings, the violin and violincello, get far more fame and attention as featured soloists with U.S. orchestras. And while there are few truly well known, rock star viola virtuosi on the symphonic circuit in this country, Jennifer Stumm hasn’t let the odds deter her from making an international career out of playing the “big fiddle.”

The Atlanta-born and -raised violist, who states on her Facebook page that she “no longer speaks with Southern accent but still likes okra,” will perform at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur on Sunday night as part of the acoustic venue’s new series of classical music concerts.

Stumm, who attended Westminster High School, studied with local viola guru Marilyn Seelman and played in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, then went on to the esteemed Curtis Insititute in Philadelphia. Today, in addition to being a globe-trotting soloist, she is the International Chair of Viola at the Royal College of Music in London, but she comes back to visit family in Atlanta several times a year. She arrived in Atlanta last week following three performances at the Bolivia Classica Festival in the high-altitude city of La Paz, Bolivia, plus a few days of exploring that country’s Amazon jungle.

Over coffee in Emory Village, Stumm explained that Andrew Hingley, who does the talent booking for Eddie’s Attic, learned of her from a mutual friend. “Keith Jeffords sings in the symphony chorus and has been a great supporter of mine,” she said. “And he knew I was going to be back in town this week and made a suggestion.”

The last time Stumm was in Atlanta, she went to Eddie’s Attic to hear a country music band. “I actually thought, ‘This would be great for classical music; why aren’t they doing it more?’ So it was kind of excellent timing when they rang up. I think it’s a wonderful thing that they’re doing.”

Although Sunday will mark her debut there as a classical violist, it’s actually not the first time Stumm has played the Attic. “I played there when I was in high school,” she says. “I played in an acoustic-bluegrass-rock band and we played there five or six times in open mic nights. Then we actually won the open mic night competition and we got invited back. So when I was 16, I thought I was like the coolest kid in the world who got to play at Eddie’s Attic. So it’s kind of fun to go back there.”

Because Eddie’s doesn’t have a house piano, she has invited some string-playing friends to stand in and play with her. Among them are fellow violist Stephen Upshaw, who also studied with Seelman and likewise now lives in London, and Christopher Rex, principal cellist of the Atlanta Symphony. Stumm has also invited Wick Simmons, a cellist in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, whom she calls one of Atlanta’s rising young musical talents

Stumm says the show’s mixed repertoire will include “La Folia” by French Baroque composer Marin Marais, some Spanish folk songs, some of J.S. Bach’s two-part “Inventions” and “Fantasies” by Georg Philipp Telemann. And as a grand finale, they will close the show with Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 6.”