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The Erato Quartet Wins Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition
 The Erato Quartet performing at the Smithsonian Institution Photo By Scott Suchman |
The Oberlin tradition of taking the top prize at the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition continues.
The Erato Quartet has won the Coleman-Barstow Award for Strings--the highest prize in the string category--at the prestigious competition, which was held April 28 - 29 in Pasadena, California. They join an illustrious roster that now includes four Oberlin top prizewinners in the last six years:
- 2000 Élan
Trio (top prize)
- 1997 eighth
blackbird (top prize)
- 1996The Miró Quartet (top prize)
Oberlin's Maud Powell String Quartet and Orion Trombone Quartet also won top prizes at the Coleman, in 1990 and 1989, respectively.
Violinists Julia Sakharova and Gared Crawford, violist Jacob Adams, and cellist Elias Suarez comprise the Erato Quartet, named for the muse of love poetry and mimicry. Adams, Sakharova and Suarez are sophomores; Crawford is a first-year student. Their coach is Alla Aranovskaya, first violinist of the St. Petersburg Quartet, Oberlin's quartet-in-residence.
Andor Toth, Jr., professor of violoncello and chamber music, teaches Suarez; he is understandably delighted with the competition's outcome. "It's wonderful that they've won," he says. "Oberlin has always had a long tradition of producing some of the leading quartets in the United States. In fact, Oberlin came in second place in the first Queen Elizabeth Competition for Chamber Music in 1958."
 The Erato Quartet at St. Albans School Photo By Scott Suchman |
A total of 16 ensembles competed in Pasadena. A number identifies the competition participants--jurors have no idea what their names or school affiliations are. The Erato was the first group to perform--at 8:45 a.m. Therefore, throughout the day, they were referred to as "Number One."
And their reaction upon hearing their name--not their number--announced as the first-prize winner? Sakharova and Adams speak in near unison: "Electric shock," says Sakharova. "Utter shock," says Adams, who continues, "I didn't think I heard correctly." Sakharova adds: "It was like a dream."
One of the jurors, David Hickman, who is the Regents Professor of Music at the University of Colorado, noted that the Erato Quartet "plays better than many professional quartets I've heard, and could have a top performing career ahead."
This past Winter Term, the ensemble performed at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History on the museum's historic Amati instruments. In fact, they performed the same works in Washington that they would submit in their audition tape for the Coleman Competition: Haydn’s "Emperor" String Quartet in C Major and Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major. They would later play the Ravel in the Coleman winners' concert, held at Caltech University's Ramo Auditorium on Sunday, April 29.
While in Washington, the group also performed and discussed music at the Washington Conservatory and several area schools, including St. Albans School, the National Cathedral School, and the Washington International School.
Sakharova says that the Winter Term experience helped the four individuals bond as a real, unified ensemble, which in turn helped them prepare for the Coleman, an exercise she defines as "a lot of hard work. Everything came together after we returned from D.C. We started to polish our playing. The Smithsonian was a great experience--not only the performing, but the presentations we gave at the schools. It was especially so for me, since I'm from Russia. It was a different experience to work with American children."
Adams had high praise for the Coleman Competition: "It was very well run," and Sakharova points out that the atmosphere "was very friendly--even among the competitors."
Adams says that the ensemble's preparation for a competition differs somewhat from its preparation for a concert. "You know your audience [at a competition] is listening for different things, and I think we make little adjustments for that."
The Coleman Auditions for Young Chamber Music Ensembles began in 1947. It was renamed the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition in 1982, and has become a nationally acclaimed competition for young non-professional musicians, offering them an opportunity to perform before an outstanding panel of nationally chosen judges.
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