Free But Happy - Inspirational Musical Friendships
Posted Wed, 19 Oct 2016 23:14:00 +0000
Every time we collaborate as music colleagues, the meeting of "minds and hearts" is at the center of that remarkable experience.  This has been true through the ages - the most inspired and inspiring musical friendships are intrinsically tied to this connection between minds and hearts.

One of the most famous of all musical affiliations was that of Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Clara Wiek Schumann. Their extraordinary relationship has been described as a love triangle, an extended family, a mentor relationship (Brahms being the younger) and in countless other ways. However one may try to explain it, what is certain is that a great font of inspiration channeled between these three great musicians, fueled by intimate affection, passion, and artistic intensity that they shared.

Serafin String Quartet enjoys the exhilaration and challenge of working closely together - colleagues and friends sharing a deep and personal exchange through the music we seek to know, and that we craft together and share with audiences. It is our great privilege to have the wonderful opportunity to extend our collaborative process to include others, as we will do with Jennifer Campbell, Nina Cottman and Jennifer Stomberg at the Anthony G. Simmons Scholarship Benefit Concert on October 26, 2016 at 7:00pm at The Music School of Delaware. The joy of musical exploration is a deeply individual pursuit. At the same time, it is an enlightening and uplifting exchange - between musicians, and with the audience.  

The title of the October 26 concert program "Free But Happy - Inspirational Musical Friendships" is drawn from an exchange between Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, who spoke about being "free but alone" or "free but happy."  They incorporated a musical motive for each of these ideas based on the first letters from the German version of each phrase: "frei aber einsam" or (FAE),  and, "frei aber froh" (FAF). This was one of a number of musical dialogues that flowed from their compositional intersection through the language of music.

The musical inspiration for October 26 concert: masterworks by two astounding composers - a program of collaborative works that provide colleagues an inspiring musical meeting ground - is our opportunity to share with you, the audience, this "musical offering." This program also pays tribute to our colleague who passed before us, Tony Simmons (founding violist of Serafin String Quartet), who embodied the best of what it means to be a musician, a colleague, a teacher, a friend, a husband, and a human being. His passing inspired the creation of the Anthony G. Simmons Scholarship Fund at the Music School. The fund provides financial aid so that more people can experience the special and compelling joy of making and experiencing music.


Kate




Free But Happy - Inspirational Musical Friendships
Posted Wed, 19 Oct 2016 23:14:00 +0000
Every time we collaborate as music colleagues, the meeting of "minds and hearts" is at the center of that remarkable experience.  This has been true through the ages - the most inspired and inspiring musical friendships are intrinsically tied to this connection between minds and hearts.

One of the most famous of all musical affiliations was that of Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Clara Wiek Schumann. Their extraordinary relationship has been described as a love triangle, an extended family, a mentor relationship (Brahms being the younger) and in countless other ways. However one may try to explain it, what is certain is that a great font of inspiration channeled between these three great musicians, fueled by intimate affection, passion, and artistic intensity that they shared.

Serafin String Quartet enjoys the exhilaration and challenge of working closely together - colleagues and friends sharing a deep and personal exchange through the music we seek to know, and that we craft together and share with audiences. It is our great privilege to have the wonderful opportunity to extend our collaborative process to include others, as we will do with Jennifer Campbell, Nina Cottman and Jennifer Stomberg at the Anthony G. Simmons Scholarship Benefit Concert on October 26, 2016 at 7:00pm at The Music School of Delaware. The joy of musical exploration is a deeply individual pursuit. At the same time, it is an enlightening and uplifting exchange - between musicians, and with the audience.  

The title of the October 26 concert program "Free But Happy - Inspirational Musical Friendships" is drawn from an exchange between Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, who spoke about being "free but alone" or "free but happy."  They incorporated a musical motive for each of these ideas based on the first letters from the German version of each phrase: "frei aber einsam" or (FAE),  and, "frei aber froh" (FAF). This was one of a number of musical dialogues that flowed from their compositional intersection through the language of music.

The musical inspiration for October 26 concert: masterworks by two astounding composers - a program of collaborative works that provide colleagues an inspiring musical meeting ground - is our opportunity to share with you, the audience, this "musical offering." This program also pays tribute to our colleague who passed before us, Tony Simmons (founding violist of Serafin String Quartet), who embodied the best of what it means to be a musician, a colleague, a teacher, a friend, a husband, and a human being. His passing inspired the creation of the Anthony G. Simmons Scholarship Fund at the Music School. The fund provides financial aid so that more people can experience the special and compelling joy of making and experiencing music.

Kate



Ask a Serafin! A Q&A preview of the 2016-2017 Season
Posted Tue, 20 Sep 2016 15:54:00 +0000
Welcome to Ask a Serafin! - where you'll hear personal perspectives on all things SSQ. The first Q&A article will preview SSQ's 2016-2017 season. 

Do you have a question you would like answered by a Serafin? Send us a message on Facebook and look for an answer in the next enews.

Question: What are some of the highlights of SSQ's programming this season?

Answer by Kate: It is all great repertoire this year, as usual. We are balancing large pieces like the brilliant and exuberant Mendelssohn D Major, the dramatic Dvorak G Major Op. 106, and Beethoven's masterful Op. 59#3 with classical fare from Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven. We complete the programs with less often played selections by Shostakovich, Puccini and Wolf. Focusing on more traditional fare is warm and friendly for the audiences this year. And a great way for us, as a quartet with a new member, to reestablish and further develop our sound and our style for each composer.

Question: Is there a piece this year that especially captures your interest - and why?
Answer by Sheila: I am thrilled to finally play Dvorak's String Quartet in G Major, Op.106 at my first concert with SSQ on October 1 at The Arts at Trinity! The piece is an imaginative and beautiful work, and quite difficult, as the compositional writing is very complicated. This summer, I had the pleasure of performing and teaching in Prague, the capital city of Dvorak's home country, at the first Karen Tuttle viola workshop in Europe. Now, I can vividly picture the beautiful Czech countryside, where I walked for hours, eating my way down Bohemian country lanes - wild raspberries, all kinds of country apples, crab apples, cherries, little plums - golden, purple, and crimson - heavenly!

Question: SSQ collaborates with other terrific artists  - who is on tap this year?
Answer by Larry: We've have several great collaborations on the schedule this season. We're playing the Brahms Piano Quintet with Julie Nishimura in March, for our spring concert as Quartet in Residence at the University of Delaware. This is significant, not only in that it's SSQ's first performance of the work, but that it's Julie's last year as Collaborative Piano faculty at UD, and we wanted to honor her amazing work over the years with one of the greatest chamber works ever written. We're also excited to collaborate with wonderful artists on a program at The Music School of Delaware on October 26: the excellent young pianist Jennifer Nicole Campbell, who will join us in the Schumann Piano Quartet, and our good friends Nina Cottman, viola, and Jennifer Crowell Stomberg, cello, joining SSQ for the grand Brahms G Major Sextet (and yes, Jennifer and I are related - in addition to being an outstanding cellist, she has the dubious distinction of being my wife). In May, we will perform the Dvorak Quintet with acclaimed pianist Hugh Sung at The Arts at Trinity.
Question: How does SSQ choose what repertoire will be performed each season?
Answer by Lisa: We all come to the table with works we haven't played, and would love to explore, as well as the tried and true, which we would like to revisit. It is vital for a quartet to have a repertoire, so bringing works back is not just recycling. It is more like taking in a favorite painting again, after stepping away to study more of its predecessors and followers.  The eye looks with an entirely different perspective. This is key to how we grow as a group-- not to mention, there are quite a few works out there that will NEVER get old as long as we play them. Sometimes works come to us because of people we know, such as our collaboration with Julia Adolphe, which led to SSQ premiering two of her quartets last spring at Weill Hall. It was a wonderful time getting to know Adolphe's language, and especially learning quartets that were entirely new to all of us. I love that process, and I'm always a fan of exploring the unknown.




10 Interesting Facts about SSQ's New Violist Sheila Browne!
Posted Tue, 06 Sep 2016 19:08:00 +0000

SSQ is thrilled to have critically acclaimed violist, Sheila Browne, join the Quartet! Here are some interesting facts about SSQ's newest member:
  1. Sheila has the great honor of being named the William Primrose Memorial Recitalist of 2016. 
  2. She is a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland. And yes, the red hair is natural!
  3. Sheila recently traveled to Eagle's Nest, Alaska to perform with the Highland Mountain Correctional Facility Women's Orchestra. The orchestra's viola section presented Sheila with a handmade viola dreamcatcher.
  4. She has been featured in two books - UPBEAT, the story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq, and The Musician's Way, - as well as in the PBS documentary, Beethoven Alive!.
  5. On her "farmette" in North Carolina, Sheila had a pet Vietnamese potbelly mini-pig namedCosmo. She also had Nigerian dwarf goats, Paisley and Parsnip, free-ranging heritage chickens, and rescue husky mixes Rosy and Tilda.
  6. In the 8th grade, Sheila traveled to China as the youngest member of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. She has performed on five continents.
  7. Sheila played a concerto in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium with the New York Women's Ensemble.
  8. She has studied with two of the world's greatest violists and pedagogues - Karen Tuttle (at the Juilliard School), and Kim Kashkashian (in Freiburg, Germany).
  9. Sheila helped hitch up a dog sledding team in minus 20Β° F temperatures outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.
  10. She has performed on the David-Letterman show with Aretha Franklin (Puccini arias!), Good Morning America at Lincoln Center with Barry Manilow, and recorded with the Fire Pink Trio, Carol Wincenc, Audra MacDonald, Paula Cole, Lisa Loeb, among others.
The Serafin's first public concert with Sheila Browne will be Saturday, October 1st at 7:30pm - opening The Arts at Trinity's season. 





Larry's Weill Hall history with SSQ - a stormy relationship, and a stiff drink
Posted Thu, 11 Feb 2016 01:55:00 +0000
This March, a couple weeks after we've left the stage of Weill Hall, I will be celebrating ten years as cellist of the Serafin String Quartet. A decade in an ensemble is notable in itself, but I find a return to Carnegie Hall at around the same time to be a particularly fitting event, and one that brings back wonderful, if harrowing, memories of my first two appearances in Weill Hall as a member of SSQ.

When I read with the quartet to auditIon in late March of 2006, I was delighted to be offered the position. What seemed a little less delightful, in the same phone conversation in which I was being offered the job, was the following conversation:

KATE: So, we'd like you to join us as a member of SSQ. 
ME: Wow! That's fantastic! 
KATE: And, we were wondering if you'd be able to finish the current season with us instead of waiting until next season. 
ME, small lump forming in throat: Well, sure, I think so. What all is left? 
KATE, after listing a few concerts: And then, on May 7th, we're playing Weill Hall.  
ME, lump growing bigger: Um, what's on the program? 
KATE: Mozart K. 575 [known as one of the "cello" quartets], BartΓ³k 3, Ravel Quartet, and this [really hard] world premiere. 
ME: [complete, lump-throated silence]

So, in about a month, I prepared this really hard program with my new SSQ mates, with just a few preparatory concerts along the way. Now, I had played at Weill Hall before - I did my New York recital debut there in 1999. But for that concert, there was a lot of lead time, and, you know, time to rehearse and practice. Needless to say, this new experience was trial by fire, particularly when that Mozart quartet was first on the program. I have been fortunate to have played a lot of concerts in my life, including the opportunities to perform major concertos home and abroad, and recitals in major arts centers like London and Vienna, not to mention that NYC debut years ago, but I have never felt as nervous as I did walking out on stage with the quartet to start the concert with Mozart K. 575 in May of 2006. Luckily, all went well, we got a pretty good review, and I had a stiff drink after the concert.

My second appearance at Weill Hall with the quartet, while not as nerve-wracking as the first, had its own hilarity. As I usually do when I play in New York (especially when I have an afternoon concert like this one was), I went up the day before to stay with old friends who live downtown in Manhattan. This time, I was able to go with my family (it is fortunately a very big apartment my friends have!), which I thought would be wonderful. I didn't bank on my son and my friend's son deciding to stay up and wander around the apartment until after 1:00 AM, somehow making more noise whispering and shuffling around than they would have just talking normally, or perhaps even shouting and stomping, it seemed. I figured "Okay, 1:00 AM, I'll still get decent sleep." Then 2:00 hit, and the bar across the street closed. Under normal circumstances, I might have been amused by the profanity-laced, many-decibeled banter of the well-watered now-ex patrons out on the street. But with sleep becoming a desperately precious commodity, I found myself more frantic than amused. Then 3:00, or 4:00, or something like that (it was a bit of a blur at this point) hit, and the NY Fire Department, apparently having been called by someone in the apartment building, did what the fire department does in a city - they kept ringing apartments until someone would let them in. Having almost settled down from the reveling drinkers, the sudden and quite loud buzz of the apartment intercom system jarred me into unrecoverable consciousness. I think I did finally catch an hour of sleep or a little more, and found myself dozing backstage shortly before the concert, but it made the performance more of a struggle than it otherwise would have been. But, like the first time, the concert went pretty well, we got a decent review, and I had another post-concert stiff drink.


At least in terms of external weirdness, I'm hoping the third time at Weill Hall with SSQ will be the charm. It is always such a treat to play in this amazing space, with my wonderful colleagues, that I'll take it even if all sorts of crazy stuff happens before. And there's always that stiff drink after the concert, if necessary.




Esme on SSQ's NY premieres of two Julia Adolphe Quartets
Posted Mon, 18 Jan 2016 20:58:00 +0000
Julia Adolphe
I first came in contact with Julia Adolphe's music on a road trip to play at the Pikes Falls Music Festival in Vermont.  My drivers were Evan Soloman and Sarah D'Angelo, a wonderful couple, artistic team, and entrepreneurial force.  They are the co-founders of INSCAPE chamber ensemble, a Grammy-nominated group that performs all over America.  They also established a summer residency at Pikes Falls, where I've been lucky enough to play with them these past two years.  We were all listening to a first edit of their new CD "American Aggregate", which would soon be released.  Evan and Sarah, who had just come out of the recording studio, were obsessively picking out little details and assessing the cuts with a critical ear.  Meanwhile, I was relaxing in the backseat, simply curious about all the new compositional voices I was hearing.  Julia's piece came on, and I was immediately entranced.  The piece "Wordless Creatures" created a sensation that I now associate with Julia's music of constant growth.  It is a kind of story-telling--full of churning motion and development.  There are identifiable themes and gestures, but the music never feels steady; rather, it is in constant evolution.  Whether slow or fast, her inventiveness is in direct dialogue with my curiosity.
I recently visited a friend who nervously read aloud a mystery she had written full of twists and turns.  We discussed at length how, when sculpting a plot, the author must remain sensitive to what the reader does or does not know.  Pacing the revelation of information so that the story is constantly stimulating, intriguing yet natural requires incredible virtuosity. I returned from this visit to rehearse and realized that Julia's music possesses this gift and only grows more interesting as we delve deeper into our interpretive process.

I had the fortune to perform "Veil of Leaves" that same summer in Pikes Falls. Sometimes I hunger for music to begin from absolute stillness, from some sort of primal origin, which "Veil of Leaves" does.  In this work, the opening four-voice unison is our point of departure, from which the sounds seem to split off from each other, like shards of refracted light radiating away from a center. The initial whole dissolves into a miniature in the form of little rhythmic motives that each instrument plays with a special technique called artificial harmonics.  We lightly place our fingers on the strings, creating a much higher sound with a windy, whistling quality to it.  Complexity and an almost raucous chaos ensues when these atoms of the theme are set free to clash and crash against each other in the middle section before culminating in a powerful climax.

In her work "Between the Accidental", the music begins with far more energy and agitation, through the use of a myriad of dissonant sonorities.  Still, I feel this constant sense of diffusion and growth, in which the musical narrative constantly defies expectation, turning and expanding from the unified "once upon a time" of 16th notes that opens the work.

Julia's music challenges all our expressive and technical faculties, but it is so rewarding.  Like a great novel in which you already know the ending but forget how the hero might get there, her lines transport us into their story.  We can't wait to share these new pieces with you at upcoming concerts including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in NYC on March 14.

-Esme Allen-Creighton




Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue!
Posted Wed, 02 Sep 2015 15:45:00 +0000

Although we don't do weddings, Serafin String Quartet does relate to the phrase "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue!!"

As a string quartet, we have the privilege of access to a vast archive of time-honored masterpieces which we revere, and audiences relish. OLD masterworks, such as those by Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, are featured in our 2015-2016 season repertoire. Such works of art make up the centerpiece of our programming every season. We love to delve into works by these great works, and masters from Haydn, forward.  Also this season, we look forward sharing works by Schumann, Borodin, Bartok, Grieg, Shostakovich, and many others.

At the same time, we take great satisfaction in learning NEW works, including works that have recently been written and have never, or rarely, been performed. String quartets (ranging from 4 to 9 minutes each) written by the 27 year-old rising star, Julia Adolphe, will be an exciting part of our repertoire this season. We look forward to the honor of giving the New York premieres of two of Adolphe's works when we perform at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall on March 14, 2016.

Borrowing is a less frequent experience for quartet players, simply because the original quartet repertoire is so extensive and so marvelous. But we do occasionally play a work that we BORROW and that has been arranged or transcribed for quartet, such as the delightful little Spiccato Caprice by Arthur Foote (one of America's earliest classical composers) which we performed at the Highlands Festival this summer. Or, sometimes a composer borrows a familiar melody or theme and utilizes it to create an original work, such as Jennifer Higdon's setting of Amazing Grace for string quartet, which is also borrowed in the sense that she re-wrote it for quartet after originally setting it for SATB choir.

Playing something BLUE is more of a reach for quartet (we don't often delve into the blues genre). But, in our case, Serafin Quartet has enjoyed the wonderful opportunity to perform and do the premier recording of Higdon's Sky Quartet, the elegiac slow movement of which is titled Blue Sky. For those not familiar with Higdon's thematic and stylistic vernacular, Blue is an important theme for her, including her pivotal orchestral work Blue cathedral which is one of the most performed contemporary orchestral works, having been performed over 500 times.

As we traverse the wide and wonderful string quartet landscape this coming season, we hope to share with our audiences the long and continuing legacy of interesting and excellent works at our fingertips! 


-Kate Ransom, violinist, Serafin String Quartet  




Discovery and Revisiting: Forty Years of Chamber Music
Posted Wed, 15 Jul 2015 19:23:00 +0000

Traveling to the mountains of Highlands, North Carolina in June to play four performances with Serafin String Quartet was heartwarming and gratifying. Thirty-two years ago, I first ventured to Highlands, as a 20-something-year-old member of Alexander String Quartet. We served as quartet-in-residence for several years for what is now the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival. Eventually, diversification of the artists opened up as ASQ was being offered other summer engagements, and the festival branched out. Today, the festival continues to feature international artists, both established and emerging, and programming is extremely varied - even encompassing solo artists and, on occasion, a small chamber orchestra. 
Over the years since 1983, I have missed the festival only a few times, due to extenuating circumstances - and there is no place that feels more like "summer home" to me than Highlands. My hosts are dear friends; the sights, sounds and scents of the mountains are soothing and relaxing; collaborations are with exceptional artists; and the audiences are enthusiastic and engaged. The experience of revisiting and sharing this festival experience with my current ensemble, Serafin String Quartet, and of witnessing their discovery of this gem festival and location, was truly sublime.
Reflecting on the many performances I've participated in at the festival, I calculate that I must have played on more than 160 programs there over the years!! During that time, I have had the pleasure of tackling many works brand new to me - and also come back to familiar works, time and again, in a glorious and enriching way, with seasoned artists from whom I have learned so much and enjoyed music-making. 
The building of a quartet relationship is famously (infamously?) challenging - in that our task is to meld, blend, hone, and polish four techniques, attitudes about style, sets of opinions, and personalities into one coherent, cohesive and compelling voice. "Mixing it up" with varied colleagues as we do at festivals, in "time-limited," musical collaborations, is different from being part of an established ensemble. It is an experience that can be "loved and left," without the pressure or need to establish commitment to a "way of doing things" as a group for more than one or two performances. That virtually eliminates the stress of "consensus-building" on the deep level required of ongoing partnership. 
"Discovery" and "revisiting" become part of a chamber musician's life in short order. Over our years together, if we stay together, Serafin String Quartet will learn and perform works repeatedly. Some of these we all start for the first time together, and some we may have individually learned at age 16, 18 or 30 - somewhere along the way with other groups, perhaps guided by excellent and experienced coaches. 
The balancing act of bringing together time-tested perspective from our individual musical backgrounds, along with the excitement and freshness of an entirely new adventure that we are all sharing from the starting point, is all part of the richness of what we experience in life as chamber musicians. The common denominator, whether in "discovery" or "revisiting" is remaining open to what can be learned - from those who have more familiarity and intimate connection to a work, and from those who have a fresh and unshaped palette. 
Summer festivals are an inspiring and energizing "melting pot" of musical encounter. I have always been recharged and my perspective enhanced and enlightened by what I learn from my colleagues from around the globe. The biggest thrill for me, however, is bringing this "home" to my chosen quartet partners and forging with them a musical expression that is "ours."  Although not always easy, the result of creating "one voice" from "four voices" is the most gratifying experience of artistry that I have known. And the best musical partnerships are devoted to finding "discovery" in revisiting a familiar work. 
I look forward to many more musical adventures with chamber music colleagues - at home with the Serafins, and around the globe! The experience of great art, revisited a thousand times, only becomes all the richer the more one returns!

-Kate Ransom, violinist
July  2015





Aaaand we're back!
Posted Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:21:00 +0000
Greetings all! What better day than the first day of autumn than to say hello and give you a status update about the beginning of our new season. We all returned from our summer travels and performances last month, and have been hitting the books to be ready for an exciting start to 2014-15. And the last couple of weeks have already provided us quite a whirlwind of activity. Here's what we've been up to:

Celebrating with our friend, Julie
We were honored to be a part of the University of Delaware's Music Department Faculty Gala Concert on September 13th, and delighted to be starting our 5th year as Quartet-in-Residence at UD (more details on all our activities there to come very soon). But this concert was extra special, as it was a celebration of a wonderful pianist on faculty there, Julie Nishimura, who has been at UD for 25 years now. She put together performances with a variety of faculty artists, and SSQ got to play the opening movement of the glorious Schumann Piano Quintet to finish the first half. Luckily for us, we'll get to play the entire work with Julie at our Fall UD Concert, Friday, November 7th at 8PM (in the Center for the Arts, Gore Recital Hall)

We've also gotten a jump start with the fabulous UD chamber music students, having had our first master class with them this past week. Lots of great rep and wonderful musicians - it's going to be a good year.


Some new outreach
In collaboration with the Music School of Delaware and UD, we are now offering chamber music coaching and performances at the Archmere Academy in Wilmington, Delaware. Archmere is a wonderful preparatory school with devoted teachers and bright, driven students. There is a small group of fine string players, and we'll be working with them in chamber music coachings this year. After presenting a short concert to the entire student body a couple of weeks ago (they were an amazing audience!), we had our first meeting with the string students last week, and look forward to a fun and fruitful relationship.
We made a fun group effort out of reading an early Schubert quartet last Thursday.

Getting intimate in Philadelphia
Bet that got your attention! We were delighted to play at Philadelphia's World Cafe Live again, on September 14th. We had been at WCL for last year's CD Release and Season Launch party, and loved the venue and the people there. So, we decided to have a special kind of collage concert this time, centering around the ideas and emotions put forth so viscerally in Leos Janacek's second String Quartet, titled "Intimate Letters". In addition to the Janacek, we also played music by Mozart, Haydn, Grieg, and Andrew Norman, and were joined by a fantastic poet and reader, Craig Franson, who shared poetry by Coleridge and Shelley. It was a great deal of fun, and a nice way to launch into some repertoire that we will be taking around a lot this season.
Twas a beautiful sunny day in Philly for our concert - Larry had to work hard to not get distracted by all the joggers and cyclists going by the WCL window during the performance!

Sipping and savoring
Coming up tomorrow night is the first performance in a series we are very excited about, called Sip and Savor. This is a 3-part series in the intimate setting of Kennett Flash in Kennett Square, PA, where we will be delving into three major works, picking them apart a little and putting them in some musical and historical context (that's the sipping), and then performing the entire work (we hope you'll savor that part). Up first, tomorrow: the beautiful and ground-breaking String Quartet in g minor by Claude Debussy. Hope to see you there! (Wednesday, September 24, 7:30 PM)

More to come, for sure, but we thought we'd just let you know how thrilling a start to the new season we've already had!



Relax, refresh, and reload
Posted Tue, 08 Jul 2014 02:38:00 +0000
Happy summer, friends of SSQ!

Summer for us Serafins is a bit of a scattered affair this year, with various events, festivals, vacations, work - but not all together as a quartet. While we'll miss each other, and will feel a sense of urgency when we hit the ground running in August for a rush of rehearsals to launch the 2014-15 season, our time away is also a refreshing time to expand our horizons as individuals and come back to quartet with a new wealth of experiences, inspiration, and maybe a little extra sleep.


We had a little bit going on in June, having a week-long rehearsal retreat, to push through some new repertoire that we "test drove" for a private house concert. It was good to get going with some music new to all of us, like the Janaček "Intimate Letters" Quartet and the Grieg g minor String Quartet, and revisit music that we all knew, just not necessarily together as SSQ. But now, we've gone to various places around North America for a variety of activities, professional and personal.


Kate will be spending a good bit of time at the home base, continuing her tireless and great work for the Music School of Delaware, as their President and CEO, and will also take time to travel for family visits and some performing (including a collaboration with her long-time recital partner, Tony Sirianni). She just had a lovely visit with her delightful and vivacious mother, Nancy!


Lisa is spending a number of weeks at the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, where in addition to performing orchestrally and as a chamber musician, she also acts as the orchestra's personnel manager. (no small job!) Whenever spare time allows, she also loves taking advantage of the great hiking and camping opportunities Colorado provides.


Esme has a variety of events planned this summer. Having already given a guest master class at the Primrose International Viola Competition and Festival in Los Angeles, she will be performing at the Techne Music Festival in Pennsylvania, at the Pikes Falls Chamber Music Festival in Vermont, and serving as a faculty member at the ArtsAhimsa Festival for adult amateur chamber musicians in Lenox, Massachusetts. She left a little time to go see her family in Canada, too.


Larry is also hopping around a fair bit. Currently accompanying his daughter at a Suzuki violin camp in Ithaca, NY, he will be heading to Techne Music Festival in Pennsylvania (and playing some with Esme!), where he serves on the faculty and as a featured performer. He will also be a guest performer at the International Double Reed Society Conference in New York City in August. In between all of that, he'll spend some time with his family in his slice of heaven, Silver Bay, NY, on Lake George.


But even apart, we're all still proud Serafins, and look forward to getting back together in August to gear up for an exciting and full upcoming season! We hope your summer plans treat you to all the rest and refreshment that you need, as well!




Home Sweet Home
Posted Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:41:00 +0000
SSQ was delighted to start our 2014 off with a bang this past weekend, performing the first of two concerts this season at the Arts at Trinity series in Wilmington, Delaware. This is the series' third year of existence, and the third year we've been honored to be a part of it.
An outside view of Trinity Episcopal, beautiful old style
nestled in a modern downtown.






Trinity from the inside - gorgeous visually
and acoustically.













Along with the excitement of performing Wolf's Italian Serenade and Mendelssohn's Op. 12 for the first time as a quartet, and the Debussy Quartet for the first time in our current SSQ configuration, we were ecstatic about the turnout, which was huge, even if it hadn't been a dreary, rainy evening. The place was packed, and the energy of the crowd was truly infectious. What makes this even more wonderful for us, though, is that Wilmington is home for the quartet.

While our work and lives external to the quartet keep us from being on tour a whole lot, we enjoy getting on the road to new places far and near. We have a short tour of Florida coming up this month, and in addition to the warm, sunny weather to look forward to, we're excited to share ourselves with new audiences who haven't met us yet. It's a really special privilege to go new places and have people show up to hear us!

But playing at home, for audience members, friends, and family that we've known for so many years - this is perhaps the most special thing we get to do. As the quartet grows and matures as an ensemble, we feel that our relationship and friendship with our local audience is part of our personal and ensemble growth, too. And to walk on and off stage to the smiling faces of our friends, neighbors, significant others - this is really thrilling. (and they clap for us, even if we forgot to do the dishes the night before!)

So, as happy and honored as we are to get to play all over the country, it's a special privilege to come home, too. So, for our local friends, we hope to see you at our "homes" again this spring, March 2nd at the University of Delaware and April 26th back at Trinity. We'll look for those smiling, familiar faces!

Cheers,
Larry



The Misadventures of a Traveling String Quartet
Posted Wed, 24 Jul 2013 22:25:00 +0000

As we are in the dog days of summer, with everyone in the quartet scattered about doing their various summer projects, it seemed a good time to blog about travel. Not the fun kind that takes you to your favorite vacation destination, but the very different, very specialized business travel of a string quartet. [WARNING]: As the cellist in the Serafin, I probably have the most gruesome war stories to share - some of this is not for the faint of heart.

While we do not travel as much as some quartets who tour for the majority of their work, Serafin Quartet has taken a number of trips by plane and automobile, and the travels, while usually fun and fulfilling (certainly from the performance standpoint), offer unique challenges. Traveling by car is not too big a deal, other than the extra time and energy required to be on the road. In our trips, we have tended to travel in pairs, mostly because of logistics of where we all live, with separate departures from Philadelphia and Wilmington. Driving together to concerts and tours has been a wonderful way to get to know one another and enjoy each other's company. The most compelling reason to drive to destinations far away, instead of flying (we have driven as far as Atlanta from our home base), is my darn cello. We have flown too, but it's a special, and expensive, challenge.

Given that I play a nearly 300-year-old Italian instrument worth way more than I am, we always purchase a seat, so flying to a concert means purchasing five tickets, not four - a pricy proposition, even if the concert presenter is paying us pretty well. You might be thinking, "But won't the good people at [insert your favorite carrier's name her] Airlines take good care of the cello in baggage if you tell them how valuable and fragile it is?" My answer to that, sadly, is this:
This (not the Testore, but a couple of cellos ago) is what happened the last time I checked a cello as baggage, in what I thought was a very secure travel case, back in the summer of 1996. When confronted with this evidence, the head of baggage at La Gaurdia Airport, for an airline not to be mentioned (but it rhymes with "Flaberican"), actually wondered aloud that perhaps I did this to the instrument so I could get some money back. So, no, I don't check the cello anymore.

Flying with the cello as a ticket-holding passenger is a very special way to travel, sometimes horrifying, sometimes hilarious. I've worked on some pre-emptive responses to well-meaning folks at the airport, such as "Don't worry, it fits through the X-ray machine" and "No, I don't wish that I played the flute", and I still get a quasi-sadistic sense of giddiness when I see the horrified look on a flight attendant's face, right before saying "It's okay, it has a ticket". While my SSQ colleagues get to their seats and put their violins and viola in the overhead compartment, I go through the process of getting a seatbelt extender and strapping old Testore in its seat, usually with a few more pre-emptive remarks: "Yes, full fare, I'm afraid", "Yes, I should get its snack" and, oftentimes a reprise of "No, I don't wish I played the flute."

Other than the photo-evidenced incident above, though, I have generally had pretty smooth sailing, including our flight to London a few years ago, where the very earnest people at British Airways secured the cello into the seat for me in such a way that it would have likely been the only one on board to survive a major crash. It looked something like this:
This isn't my cello, but slightly overanxious protection such as this is common on a few international carriers.

Some other cellists, and recently some notable ones, have not fared so well in their travels. The troubles of famed cellist Lynn Harrell with Delta Airlines were just highlighted, to typically hyperbolic and hilarious effect, by Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central (watch at your own risk!):

A few years ago, Greg Beaver, of the wonderful Chiara Quartet, was told he had to upgrade his cello's tickets to first class to be able to board and fly. Seeing as that would have destroyed any earnings the quartet would have made, he had to send his wife (also his quartet mate) on the flight with their 11-month-old daughter while he waited for another flight with a less combative flight crew.

And earlier this year, touring cellist Alban Gerhardt had his bow and cello damaged (the bow most likely destroyed) when a TSA agent carelessly closed the case after inspecting it.

So, it can be a big challenge for us to travel, particularly flying with the cello, but when it comes down to it, it's a worthwhile hurdle to overcome in getting to do what we do, even without the frequent flyer miles.

Cheers,
Larry



The Magic of Outreach Concerts
Posted Mon, 01 Jul 2013 20:04:00 +0000

It's the start of summer! Like so many families, organizations or other groups at the end of a season, we Serafins were engaged in some planning for the next season recently. We are excited about so many upcoming concerts, some of them are special "outreach" concerts and I thought it would be a good time to talk about what that actually means as its an important movement in classical programming these days.

If you've never been to an outreach concert (sometimes called interactive, maybe even educational outreach or depending on the audience "family" concert) it means that we performers will be trying to engage the audience beyond just sharing beautiful music. Everyone in the quartet has engaged in different types of these performances. It could be as simple as talking to the audience about who we are, showcasing each instrument alone briefly if (usually younger) audiences aren't familiar with each instrument. It could be quite musicological or theoretical, like a concert we recently played at Dickinson College where we spoke of the structure of our Beethoven op 132 quartet, breaking down sections, playing motives and counter motives in isolation and showing how themes transform throughout movements. This was for a class with some prior background in musical history and theory. For another outreach event, we got a little more abstract, engaging with a poetry class and hearing the aspects of rhythm, meter, syntax or even phonetic artistry they were relating to in our music. Here it's really important to note part of the magic of outreach concerts: they are a two way street! We in the quartet are so inspired by our new knowledge of audience perceptions that it changes how we play! Hearing how the audience responds to a particular phrase, or sound heightens our own awareness of that element and colours our feelings about it when we play.

Of course the idea of pre-concert lectures is nothing new, but an exciting aspect of many new outreach performances is that they try to engage listeners with multiple intelligences, not just analyzing the piece or providing a historical framework, but actually getting audience members to use their own musical skills to experience important elements in the piece they are about to hear. They might use clapping to experiment with rhythms, or conduct expressively, sing through some motives or direct harmonies. In other words, audience members get to improvise musically, guided by the musicians to get a thrilling sense of what it might feel like to create music. This new brand of outreach concerts is the subject of my dissertation and I'm thrilled to be playing in a group where every musician is up for experimenting with different kinds of concerts. Of course, we also will always love the traditional kind of concerts. To me personally, the music we play is often so deified in my mind that it deserves only the most holy temple, a concert environment of stillness and absolute simplicity to frame the piece.

So, dear readers/audience, I would love to hear from you: have you ever been to an outreach concert that was meaningful to you? What different experiences have you had beyond traditional types of concerts? Come talk to us after a concert and maybe you can be part of our planning sessions in the future.

Til next time,
Esme




Intersections - Creator Meets Interpreter
Posted Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:14:00 +0000

I have always found it insight-producing to play a composition to the composer in preparing for performance. If it is a commissioned work, brand new, of course it is especially helpful simply to make sure the indications and instructions are being properly interpreted and are conveying what the composer intends, and to catch any mistakes in the notation. 
I have enjoyed the tremendous privilege of playing to various composers over my 30 years as a performer, including young composers still learning or honing their craft in university, but also towering figures such as Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter.  My musical journey has most recently presented the opportunity to play to Jennifer Higdon, as part of the Serafin String Quartet"™s current recording project. 
I have also played to George Rochberg, Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Maurice Wright, and a score of younger, wonderful, but not as well-established composers. In each and every case, it is a mind-opening experience and produces insights that help to understand the individual composer"™s personality, compositional process, style and "lexicon". 
Serafin Quartet often plays to college-level composition students. Usually the aspiring composers are hearing their composition performed for the first time (other than through a midi file or keyboard). After playing the composition to them, we often ask them if it sounds as they had imagined it would, or was anything surprising. Their answers are diverse - some are excited to hear how it sounds, and some are disappointed in the results. Sometimes we try adjustments to tempo or character to try to get at what they intended. Then we discuss how they might want to mark indications differently to more precisely convey their intentions for times when they are not present to converse directly with the performers. We explain how their indications or lack of indications leads us, especially as string players, to respond with tempo choices, strokes, dynamic changes, bowings, stylistic character, and phrasing.  We explore how we play in response to one marking versus another - for example, if we see a line or dot over a note, slurs or no slurs - and we explain and demonstrate how the indications encourage us to play in one manner or another. 
Working with Jennifer Higdon on our upcoming Naxos release of her early chamber works was especially gratifying. She was so positive and encouraging about our approach to interpreting her works and the results we were getting. (It is affirming to hear that one"™s interpretation is hitting the mark for the creator of the work!)
Also, she shared freely what she is after in the pieces we played to her, and even what was going on in her life that prompted the emotional content - confirming that we were finding the right emotional landscape in the work, although we had known nothing of specific personal experiences the work reflected. We also learned about her polyphonic inclinations - the idea that, in many sections, she wanted independent lines to interweave, rather than a line or lines standing out in clear relief. This gave us greater insight into how to approach the balancing of intricately intertwined lines. And we were able to confirm that in these works she was not feeling absolute strictness in a given tempo - that it was ok with her if the music moved a little faster or slower than specific tempo markings. 
In every case, the insights from meeting and spending time with the composer are meaningful. Even when the composer (as was Elliott Carter) is quieter and introverted - it is meaningful to feel his/her energy, to experience wit and/or seriousness, to observe where their ideas and expression seem to reside ("head" or "heart", for example. It all helps the interpreter to feel more confident and assured about choosing a direction in deciding how to play the content of the music. Then, our technical choices can reflect more closely and deeply the inner workings of the composer"™s creative soul. 
I treasure that place where we, the "interpreters", meet the composer - the "creator", whether in-person or simply from the pages of history and musical scores. It is a special intersection and a privilege to meet there!

--Kate Ransom




A maiden voyage with late Beethoven
Posted Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:34:00 +0000
Since I was a teenager, I have lived in states of both complete reverence for and utter fear of Beethoven's late string string quartets (some of the last music he wrote - Opp. 127, 130, 131, 132, 135). I was hooked, and my fear was begun, upon hearing his monumental c# minor quartet, Op. 131, for the first time. At that point, I ran out and got myself a score and recordings, and pored over this music in a similar way that a theologian must look at religious texts. I found the music fascinating, confounding and incredibly moving. As a teenager, and then a young college music student, I understood that I had a connection with late Beethoven, but I was too intimidated to actually play it.

Fast forward, um, a lot of years, and here I am, getting ready to play the Op. 132 String Quartet in a minor with SSQ, this weekend at the University of Delaware, the first late quartet I will have performed. The interesting thing: I'm still fascinated, confounded, moved, and terribly intimidated by this music. When I was a student at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, at the ripe old age of 20, I had expressed my late-Beethoven fears to Ron Copes, who is currently the 2nd violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet and was my chamber music coach at the time. His advice to me: "Don't be scared, dig in!" He said that this music will always be challenging and difficult, and never completely understood, so play it early and often. Did I listen to this sage advice? D'oh!

I guess I have some catching up to do. And I'm excited to get started on my late journey with my wonderful Serafin colleagues. Op. 132 is an expansive work of over 45 minutes, consisting of five movements in a kind of arch form. The outer movements are big, driven and intense. The 2nd and 4th movements are stylized versions of popular older forms (the 2nd being a minuet of sorts, and the 4th actually titled "Alla marcia", or "like a march"), with unusual twists and turns, particularly in the presentation of meter and rhythm. But where this work draws its greatest power is the central slow movement, which is, without exaggeration, one of the most moving musical utterances ever created. The full title, believe it or not, is "A Convalescent's Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode". The Lydian mode is one of the ancient "church" modes, a way of organizing music harmonically and melodically back in the Medieval and Renaissance eras of music, before the advent of major and minor scales and keys. So this music, while reaching out to the divine, also reaches back in time. The third movement, often referred to simply as "Heiliger Dankgesang",  is by far the largest of the entire quartet, and reflects Beethoven's thanks and renewed energy having been gravely ill in prior months. Whatever one's view is of the Divine, it is most certainly touched in this moment.

Here's a sampling of the movement, performed by the Stradivari Quartet:


So, if you're around Newark, Delaware on Sunday (March 10th, 3:00 PM, Gore Recital Hall at the University of Delaware), come hear us as we journey together through my inaugural Late Beethoven Quartet performance. We hope to make you fascinated, confounded and moved, too. (but don't be intimidated!)

Cheers,
Larry




Musical Decision-making
Posted Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:26:00 +0000

I confess, I didn"™t learn what this was until freshman year of college. I remember a friend saying to me "oh you know when you play a certain piece a lot, and all the decisions you"™ve made seem really final, then you play with someone else and you have to make new decisions?".  I was a bit confused because I had innocently thought "you just play a piece like it"™s supposed to go."

In my mind, the great performances I had heard were just artists who "REALLY played it how it"™s supposed to go."

Obviously I had a lot to learn about communicating in a chamber ensemble!  In truth, I had been making musical decisions my whole life.  Anytime you play music, whether it"™s intentional or not, you are making thousands of little decisions about how to play it.  Anyone, musician or not who happens to hum a tune they know is making musical decisions.  These decisions about how you hear something, and eventually what makes your "voice" unique come from thousands of factors, all affecting your judgement of what seems right for that bit of music. 

Some examples of musical aspects we make decisions about are: Where do notes lead? Over a phrase, where do groups of notes lead (that is grow or move into each other), what is their overall shape? How connected are notes? Do they have stronger or more gentle articulation?  Timing: do you stay steady? Linger on an important moment, do you have a sense of rushing or moving forward?  What kind of sound quality are you trying to produce? A dark tone? Rich and warm tone?  Silky or feathery tone?  The questions are infinite, but most musicians have strong opinions about all these factors because they hear the piece as a "whole."

Your decisions might be affected by what you"™ve listened to, what you think the spirit of the music is, or what it means to you.  It"™s truly amazing how differently people can hear things.  I"™ll never forget a hilarious instance when I borrowed a colleagues part for the Bartok concerto and in a section where I had pencilled in "warm", she had pencilled in "tortured".  We joke that both markings really meant "use more vibrato."

If composers tried to mark all these details into the score, the music would be covered in ink and practically illegible.  It would also take a lot of the creativity and fun out of interpretation.
I took a wonderful class at the University of Montreal one year called "interpretation" where we listened to various recordings of great artists and literally tried to notate all their musical decisions.  We had to blow up the scores to be able to fit all the subtle details in.  It was also remarkable to see from this perspective how "plain" the music really is.

Sometimes, the music is downright illogical, or confusing.  At the end of the famous 3rd movement "Heiliger Dankgesang" of Beethoven"™s Op. 132 quartet that we will play this coming season, Beethoven writes a series of repeated notes, but ties them together with slur markings.  Usually, when you see this marking connecting two notes that are the same, it means there is no separation, that is play it like one long note.  However, Beethoven could easily have just written one long note instead of tying together smaller note divisions.  Does this mean you are supposed to make tiny separations?  Pulse each note division?  Perhaps Beethoven wanted the subdivisions of the beat felt more strongly but not emphasized under a long held note? Larry decided to research what other quartets had chosen to do and listened to a myriad of recordings from all different time periods.  He notated their solutions on a separate piece of paper and brought them to rehearsal.  There were almost as many interpretations as there were quartet recordings!  We still have not come to a final decision about how we will play that one important bar, but look forward to lively discussion and experimentation to test ideas and come to a unified musical decision. 

Until next time,
Esme




"Why We Do It - Reflections on Opening Night"
Posted Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:50:00 +0000

After our recent concert opening The Arts at Trinity series in Wilmington (DE), my quartet mates and I shared an exchange of messages from several concert-goers that was especially gratifying. It highlighted for me, rather dramatically, and certainly very movingly, "why we do it".

Why do we do it? Why do we play string quartets??  Well - for the music, for the art, for the process , of course!

But "¦let me tell you what happened this time.

Larry"™s message was from a father who is seeking the best spot for his daughter, a high-school cellist, to attend college as a music major.   The father was relating how special it was for his daughter to be there, to talk with Larry afterwards, and to hear "the wonderful music Serafin String Quartet provided". The gentleman said he drove almost 100 miles to get there will do it again in April (when SSQ will return to close Trinity"™s season). "Every mile was worth driving," the man wrote. How heartwarming for us to connect with this caring and attentive father, and how exciting that we were able to deliver an experience for his daughter, and for him, that they both want to repeat!!

Tim received a message from an adult amateur violinist who plays in the Community Orchestra. Hearing us play the Dohnanyi Piano Quintet triggered a touching reminiscence of her dear, life-long pianist friend, now in elder years and experiencing dementia. Today, her pianist friend can only poke a few notes out here and there, but at the time she "played a pretty mean piano!"  This listener was spirited back 25 years, recalling how she and her friend, with some devoted others, read through the Dohnanyi from time to time,  Hearing the quintet flooded this listener with memories of reading through the piece with this friend and their happy satisfaction at exploring this wonderful work together. "I treasure those times," she wrote, "they were some of the most valuable times of my life. It"™s what I call feeding the soul." How gratifying for us to be a conduit for this listener to recall and reconnect with "what matters".

I also received a message - mine from one of my nearest and dearest friends, who described herself as an "unsophisticated" listener, new to classical music. She shared with us her amazing experience of finding a thrilling and profound connection to her emotions while listening to the Mozart, Beethoven and Dohnanyi - each one evoking in her a different landscape of feelings, images and ideas. It was one of the most "tuned-in" expressions of the connecting to the content of the music that I have heard - and prompted me to assure her that, far from "unsophisticated", she actually is tapped in to the real essence of the music - and completely "getting it" at the most important level -  listening with a sophisticated heart!! For more than 30 years she believed she did not, would not, or could not appreciate classical music.  How thrilling for us to be part of her discovery of the varied, deep, and expansive world of classical music and the riches it delivers to the attentive listener!!

These messages spanned 3 generations - and each was dramatic, heartfelt and enthusiastic - reinforcing my confidence in the greatness of the artworks of chamber music that we are so privileged to perform. And, more importantly - it reinforced to me their inherent accessibility and ability to touch any receptive heart!   This, I must say, is why we do it!!

-Kate Ransom  






A Musical Welcome
Posted Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:43:00 +0000

Last fall, I made a big life change: moving from Canada to the US indefinitely to join the faculty of the University of Delaware.  Luckily, the first people I got to know in my new home were the Serafin String Quartet.  Before I was a member, before even beginning to teach at the University of Delaware, my first experience here was preparing for a concert with them when former violist Molly Carr had a conflict.  I was immediately drawn into their special world of music-making.  Apparently, I was also on trial for the job, and I can assure everyone that if you are going to audition for anything, it's best to be unconscious of the fact.  Much more pleasant! 

I want to talk a little about the rehearsal process I dove into last August, as I feel that's at the heart of what makes this group so wonderful.  Quartet playing is about communication: you are all trying to craft a powerful message to the audience, and as anyone who watched the recent presidential debates can attest, there are thousands of tiny details that affect the impact and the presentation of this message. The way four different people with vastly different backgrounds, perspectives, and talents arrive at a unified concept is fascinating. Firstly, there are the raw materials.  Everyone has their own unique way of hearing the piece they are playing together.  How they hear their own line, but also how they hear the group"™s message can be very different at times.  What's amazing is that before any words are even spoken, with sensitive listening, quartet musicians respond to what the others are playing, and thus communicate their intentions.  Like good friends or family members who bring out the best in you, quartet mates challenge your ideas.  I"™m an idealist, believing that though the best product comes from experimentation with many ideas, we can still arrive at a consensus.  The curiosity and openness of this group, but moreover  the dedication to excellence when musical ideas are formed, is truly inspirational.  Right away, the Serafins felt like the best musical friends I could hope for.  

I can"™t resist taking a second here as I introduce myself to say a word about the viola.  Canadians are notoriously poor self-promoters, likewise violists, but I think I can get away with it in this, my first blog-post.  For me, the middle voices are the heart, the inner warmth of chamber music.  Of course we have our solo moments and, like all instruments in a string quartet, have to play many roles at different times.  But the essential role in much of the classical repertoire we play is a contrapuntal inner voice, representing the tenor or alto voice.  In the works of great composers (e.g.  Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, all on the menu this delicious season!) the inner voices add an amazing dimension.  They are often the parts lending subtle harmonic colour to a melody, or providing some rhythmic undercurrent that transforms the meaning of the piece"™s main line.  In the case of Beethoven"™s Harp Quartet, which we will perform October 20th at Trinity Episcopal Church, the viola provides a harrowing counterpart  to the first violin"™s serene opening melody in the second movement.   When I am an audience member and I catch myself emotionally disengaged, I take a moment and listen to the workings of the inner voices.  Usually in moments I am a weepy puddle.  In fact this technique is not recommended on dates, or any moments where you would prefer to look respectable post-concert.  However, if you are seeking an intense, overwhelming classical music experience, the inner voices are where it"™s at!

Until next time,
Esme Allen-Creighton
https://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif





Next Season: Beethoven to Beethoven, and everything in between
Posted Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:25:00 +0000
So, while it might seem that we simply left our blog on the vine to die, we are very much here, and excited to announce repertoire for our 2012-13 season! Here goes:

We begin with a couple of exciting collage concerts, one for a second annual Beethoven & Brewskies event at the Twin Lakes Brewery in Greenville, Delaware (a private affair - sorry), where we'll give a sampler of works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (and as I type this on my iPhone, it keeps getting mis-typed as "Beerthoven", which I suppose is appropriate!).

If "Beerthoven" existed, he'd look like this.

On Saturday, September 22, we take our String Quartet Time Machine to the Kennett Flash in Kennett Square, PA, giving a dash through history from Haydn to Higdon (with Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, DvoΕ™Γ‘k, Ravel and MartinΕ― in between). The Flash is a very fun, hip venue, and we're delighted to make our debut there.

This will mark our second season providing bookend concerts for the Arts at Trinity series in Wilmington, with some exciting repertoire and guests. October 20, 2012 (Saturday) will offer a delightful early work of Mozart (the D Major Divertimento), a middle-Beethoven classic (the "Harp" Quartet) and very youthful Dohnanyi (the Op. 1 Piano Quintet - with the fantastic pianist Victor Asuncion). We finish the Trinity season on April 20, 2013, with Puccini's gorgeous Crysanthemi, Mozart's g minor Piano Quartet (with our friend & colleague, the wonderful Julie Nishimura) and the thrilling a minor string quartet of Robert Schumann.

In March, we've got some very exciting university-related activities.  At the end of the month, we will be at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, for a residency.  We will be working with students, giving workshops, and presenting a performance including Haydn's "Sunrise" Quartet and the monumental Beethoven Op. 132 a minor Quartet, on March 23, 2013 (time and exact location TBA).

Earlier in March, we will present our annual concert celebrating our ongoing residency at the University of Delaware. We are delighted and honored to be Quartet-in-Residence again at UD's Department of Music, where we will continue to work with students in chamber music and give on-campus concerts and "informances".  Our formal UD concert will be in the lovely Gore Recital Hall on Sunday, March 10, 2013, at 3:00 PM, featuring the Beethoven Op. 132 and the hauntingly beautiful Il Tramonto of Respighi, with the wonderful soprano NoΓ«l Archambeault, who serves on the UD voice faculty.

Other concerts will be popping up from time to time, and members of the quartet have interesting individual and joint projects planned, but we'll save all that for another post.  Hope to see you at our concerts this coming season!

Cheers,
Larry



How Tweet is is
Posted Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:44:00 +0000
So, earlier this season, we in the quartet were trying to think of interesting ways to present ourselves at our new concert series, called "ClassicAlive!" at Wilmington, Delaware's newly refurbished Queen Theater (run by World CafΓ© Live). Kate had put together a wonderful script for our first concert in December (the title of which was "Quartet Time Machine"), but we were trying to think of yet other ways to connect with our audience in this less formal, more intimate setting than an average concert.

Earlier that year, during the Super Bowl halftime show, I had a wonderful time following many people on Twitter who were making fun of the band The Black-Eyed Peas (good band, bad halftime show - still trying to wrap my head around what the heck the box-headed dancers were all about).  For some reason, the fun of this popped into my head when we were discussing the Queen Theater concerts, as did a senior recital of one of my students at the University of Delaware, who had her audience tweet about her program.  So, I said, "Hey, I could 'live-tweet' the concert while you guys are reading the script!" To my great surprise, my colleagues thought this was a really good idea. To my greater surprise, they seemed to understand what I was talking about.

So, I was off on the concept. As a trial run for the first concert, I decided to cheat a little bit.  I mostly pre-wrote my tweets to correspond to where we were in the program, adding extra tidbits like:
While Debussy loved Ravel"™s 4tet, Gabriel FaurΓ©, for whom it was written, hated it, called it a failure. Can"™t please everybody! #SSQatWCL
and
In addition to being a truly wonderful composer, Jennifer #Higdon is also a truly lovely person. Double win for us! #SSQatWCL
And, some commentary about my fellow Serafins:
I promise not to tweet while Kate and Molly are playing their glorious #Mozart Duo! If you see me doing it, throw some food at me. #SSQatWCL
and
No, Kate didn't suddenly get taller. That's Tim sitting in the 1st violin seat. They share that duty - some 4tets do, most don't. #SSQatWCL
If you're unfamiliar with the weird, wacky world of Twitter, it is a site where individuals do what is called "micro-blogging", with individual "tweets" containing no more than 140 characters. The "#" sign, called a hashtag in the Twitterverse, can draw attention to a word, or comment on a tweet (in the above tweets, the hashtag simply labeled the concert).

As this concert went on, I started to feel just a bit more confident to tweet more spontaneously, and added brilliant gems like:
Yep, Kate's socks are pretty cool, indeed. #SSQatWCL
Pure poetry, huh?

The Twitter experiment was fun for me, and was sort of an exhilarating challenge, making sure I could do this stuff on my iPhone and still get myself ready to focus and play. So, I was ready to try it again for our second concert in February, a Valentine-themed concert we were calling "Romp through Romanticism". Little did I know that the idea would draw the attention of journalist Peter Bothum of the Delaware News Journal, who featured SSQ in a huge article profiling the concert and (more so) the tweeting.  Now, with pictures of the quartet, and me with my phone onstage, were all over the paper, the stakes were raised. I needed to tweet like I'd never tweeted before.  Okay, not really, but I did feel that I should be at least as active as I was the previous time out.

Some tweets from the Romanticism concert, again clearly inspired genius in 140 characters or less:
Holy cow, that Mendelssohn movement *was* fast.  My fingers are almost too tired to tweet! #repetitivestress #justkiddingimfine #SSQatWCL
Fun fact: this Ravel quartet was debuted on Tim's birthday (March 5). But Tim's not 108 years old. #SSQatWCL
and, returning to the well:
Not related to Schumann, but Kate is wearing those fabulous socks again! #SSQatWCL
The Twitter response during this concert was amazing, with people at the concert tweeting along with me, and I even got into a couple of Twitter conversations. Luckily, I always was able to get the phone down in time to play!  All in all, I had a great time doing it.

So, if you want to come and see me tweet on Sunday, March 11 at 12:00 noon at the Queen Theater (with doors opening at 11:00 for brunch), we'd love to see you.  Even if you don't come, you can always see what we're doing during the concert by following us on Twitter: @serafin4tet (you're also welcome to follow yours truly: @larrystomberg). I'll do what I can to be entertaining and informative, and maybe just a bit silly (except after we play the Barber Adagio on that concert - I'll likely be too sad to tweet).

Cheers from the quartet's head "Twit",
Larry



The Devil Is In The Details
Posted Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:42:00 +0000

The process of "study" is a wonderful journey. As familiarity with a subject becomes more intense, its meaning becomes clearer and richer. And as performers work into the details they find the essence of the style, structure and coherence that lies within every great work! I always took that saying "the devil is in the details" to mean that the most challenging part of playing a piece well lies in getting the details to speak and be heard!

I have equated this the experience, on some more simple level, to doing a jigsaw puzzle that replicates a great work of art or a photograph of an intricate scene. When I begin, I am primarily just matching color schemes, or connecting the most obvious and distinctive lines. But, as I get further into the process, I find myself studying the subtle nuances of the subject and getting to know the painting or photograph in great detail. My appreciation for its elements increases and my understanding of it becomes more complete. I see things to which I was initially blind - textures, figures, lines, shades of color.

Studying and mastering a musical work has something in common with this process. As I get to know a work and become more and more familiarized with the details of its elements of construction, it jumps to life at a whole new level! The process of understanding a work more and more in its intricate detail is enormously gratifying!

It is as if time slows down and I can hear the piece with more and more attention to the smallest figures. It feels as if my ears get bigger in the process - equivalent to seeing something through a magnifying glass - and I hear the elements in greater detail and I tune-in more keenly to the turn of a phrase, the articulation, the intonation of chords and scale patterns, and the unique structure and inflection of each motive and line.

Whoever it was who famously said, "the devil is in the details" (and later someone modified to say "God is in the details"), they made a compelling point. I think this is the "artist"™s comment" about how attention to the intricacies elevates one"™s experience of studying, playing, performing and/or listening to music! The sharper and closer is one"™s perception of its elements, the more intimately we "know it", the more deeply we experience all that it has to offer.

When a teen-ager listens over and over to his favorite song, I am sure it is not with the idea that the song is being "studied". But I would maintain that it is exactly what is happening - with the result that the more one intently listens, the better one hears! The better one hears, the more one experiences the universe within a single musical selection.

Whether formal and "serious" or casual and for the "hobbyist", "study" is what leads to a more and more thrilling understanding of a work of music. Familiarity is key to comprehension. So - the moral of the story is: listen often and listen intently - with your ears wide open! And, enjoy the journey to the center of each musical universe!!

-Kate






HOW DO I LOOK?
Posted Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:49:00 +0000

As musicians, we often spend 95% of our effort on how we sound.  But for the average audience member, a concert consists of both a visual and an audio experience.  When this involves a small ensemble looking coordinated is also a challenge.

What you wear says a lot about you. To some people, wearing jeans and a T-shirt to a performance says you do not care about the concert. But to other people it might be a "hip" statement. Pianist Awadagin Pratt often soloed with major symphonies in jeans and a T-shirt (however, he did not do this until after he won the Naumburg Competition). The Kronos Quartet also wears "non-traditional" clothes such as leather jackets and jeans. In the case of Awadagin, his fame at winning a major competition took some (but not all) of the edge off of the criticism of his dress code, and gave him a persona of an "edgy" performer. In the case of the Kronos Quartet, their dress really reflects their choice of programming, which is mainly contemporary music.

Whatever you or your group decides to wear, there are two important things to remember: 1) It needs to look like you care and 2) It needs to be true to the individual and/or the group. I personally despise performing in a tuxedo or even a suit. For me, it adds a barrier between me and the audience that I strive to remove. However, there have been times that I do perform in a suit with my quartet, because as groups there are times we want to portray a very conservative look. At other times we might perform in jeans, because the venue is different and we want to portray a different feeling. But whatever I wear, if I think I look good I will go into a concert with more confidence and security then if I am embarrassed by my dress.

-Tim Schwarz





LISTENING
Posted Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:08:00 +0000

In my last blog I talked about the power of silence. Another powerful tool is listening. Like silence, there are different levels of listening. Think about two people having a conversation. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and feel like they are really hearing you? Contrast that with someone who is just waiting for you to stop talking so they can say what they want to say. Or talking on the phone with someone and knowing they are typing an e-mail to someone else while "listening" to you.

Music, and especially chamber music, is very similar. If I am sight-reading a piece, I spend most of my effort counting to make sure I am not off rhythmically. While this basically keeps me in the correct spot, obsession with counting can actually make me listen less. Likewise, when I really begin to listen, then it is possible I might miss-count a phrase at first. But the rewards are much greater in the end.

In order to truly listen, you have to have some knowledge of what your partners are doing. Are you with them rhythmically or tonally? What is the function of the chord or rhythm? Are you the most important voice? If not, who is? Going into a rehearsal with all of that knowledge can free you to hear the individual style and playing of the instrumentalist. And then you are truly free to communicate with each other in a meaningful way.

-Tim Schwarz




THE POWER OF SILENCE
Posted Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:03:00 +0000

On September 9-10, Serafin String Quartet held "quartet camp" at the University of Delaware, which was a series of seminars and playing exercises for quartet training. Our new violist, Molly Carr, talked about some of the things she does to prepare for a quartet rehearsal. One of the first things she mentioned was circling all of the tutti rests. I thought this was a fantastic exercise and really got me thinking about the power of silence.

All silence is not the same. The silence after a dissonant forte chord is going to be very different from the silence at the end of a piano phrase in Mozart. One of the most powerful silences I ever heard was with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the end of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6. That moment of complete stillness and awe in a hall filled with 2,000 people is something that can never be reproduced on a CD.  And the silence before a piece begins is equally important, and can also vary tremendously. 

One of the reasons silence is so powerful is it is something both the audience and the performers participate in equally. The performers have to set up the silence well, but the audience has to participate in it fully for it to be truly effective. Silence is always the time that I know if the audience is "with" me or not.

So the next time you are performing a piece, don"™t just think about the notes. Think about those moments of silence which are so incredibly powerful.

-Tim Schwarz




Truckin' Through the South
Posted Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:39:00 +0000
Long time, no blog.  Well, after a long, crazy couple of months, we're back online, and will be sharing some fun tidbits about our upcoming southern US tour!

We'll be spending a few days in beautiful and bustling Atlanta, Georgia, for two performances at Emory University.  Our concert on Friday, April 8, will be introduced by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra maestro and new head of the Aspen Festival and School, Robert Spano.  We'll also be playing a children's concert, on Sunday, April 10, featuring the animals Webster the Musical Spider and Ferdinand the Bull, at Emory's Carlos Museum.

From there, we travel to Spartanburg, South Carolina, for a Monday evening concert (April 11) at Wofford College, presenting some meaty repertoire of DvoΕ™Γ‘k and Beethoven.  Then we'll be on the way back home.

So, stay posted, as we'll hope to blog about our travels, with some fun pictures to boot.  Okay, off to go pack and put gas in the car...

Cheers,
Larry & SSQ




Copyright © 2024, Serafin Ensemble. All Rights Reserved.
Site designed at 15WestBellamy.com