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Enesco String Quartet Returns From Winter Term in the Far North
Will Perform on Sunday, February 13, 6:30 P.M. in Kulas Recital Hall
Story by Claire Chase
RELATED
The Enesco String Quartet: Taking It On the Road for Winter Term
After their recital at Macalester College, St. Paul, MN
The Enesco String Quartet--composed of violinists Emily Fowler ('01, Calgary, Canada) and Beth Weisser ('03, Fargo, North Dakota); violist Adam Meyer ('02, West Des Moines, Iowa); and cellist Christopher Gross ('04, Clive, Iowa)--recently returned from an extensive performance/outreach venture in the communities in Fargo, Des Moines and Minneapolis (see related story).
As a culmination to their ambitious Winter Term project, the quartet will perform a recital featuring works by Mozart, Shostakovich, and Smetana this weekend. The performance is slated for Sunday, February 13 at 6:30 p.m. in Kulas Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.
Members of the Enesco Quartet were spotted around the Conservatory late last week, looking sleepy-eyed and drained from, as one modestly put it, "18-hour days, every day, for four weeks." Four weeks of performances, intensive coachings, lectures, demonstrations, visits to elementary schools and retirement homes, master classes, administrative meetings, press meetings, organizational meetings and endless numbers of rehearsals.
The first day of their trip, the quartet began rehearsals just before 8 a.m. and finished by 11 p.m. By the third week into their project, Enesco was visiting high schools in the morning, offering lecture-demonstrations in elementary schools in the mid-afternoon, meeting with media during mealtimes, and performing recitals in the evening.
Now, they're back in Oberlin, ready to tackle a demanding
program of repertoire at the end of the first week of
classes. Despite the sleep-deprived glaze over their eyes,
theses four young musicians appear remarkably eager to
continue the ambitious pace that they've set for themselves.
"Yes, we're exhausted, but this was just the beginning!,"
exclaims Adam Meyer. "We've got so many ideas right now we
just can't calm down."
Perusing
student comment sheets in Fargo, ND
Clearly, their ideas have already begun to take shape. The quartet managed to find fifteen minutes for an interview Monday morning, during which time each member was bursting with comments on the upcoming Mozart-Shostakovich-Smetana program. They know this music well, after months of preparation and weeks of daily performances, but their attitudes and ideas are far from stale.
"If you play a piece of Mozart for a five-year-old and an 85-year-old, they each can appreciate on different levels in different contexts," explains Gross. Weisser adds, "This music was written 250 years ago, written for aristocratic society, but we're able to play it for fifth-graders. This gives our interpretations a certain vitality and freshness. Simple things, like conversational elements, different instruments representing different characters and emotions, and different sections telling different stories, can be understood by different people at many different levels."
Reflections on the Winter Term Project
"This was a wonderful, wonderful month, and so much more valuable both personally and professionally than I could have ever anticipated. It was more than just learning to play with kids, more than just giving concerts and perfecting a program. This project was our brainchild--we did everything, from publicity to curriculum-designing to concert-booking. It was an incredible learning experience across the board," says Fowler.
"I learned about the true value of music education--that music isn't going anywhere unless you can teach it. And I learned a bigger life lesson: humanity. We played the same music for all age groups, all sorts of people, just changing our vocabulary slightly to cater to each group, and it's still the same beautiful music," adds Weisser.
Gross concludes, "This project was one of the most intense experiences of my life...We as young musicians have to make it our responsibility to continue to develop new audiences to ensure that in 50 years there still will be people who want to listen to classical music!"
So what's next on the agenda for the Enesco Quartet? After Sunday's performance, the group plans to conquer a slew of new repertoire in preparation for several upcoming performances, including a full-length recital later this month at Kendall. They're also hoping to compete in the Spring 2000 prestigious national competitions of Yellow Springs and Fischoff. And then? "Perhaps," speculates Meyer, "this will be the beginning of our chamber music career together."
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