Free But Happy – Inspirational Musical Friendships

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

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

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!

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 20° 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

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], Bartók 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

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