European Travelogue in Photos

On Sunday Nov. 17 we bade farewell to Chicago and phone service with the ritual consumption of food and drink from Tortas Frontera.  Two weeks later, we're back in Chicago and moving on, but still relishing the memories of our first European tour.

Below you can see photos of our stay in Montreux to rehease with Rachel Kolly d'Alba and Christian Chamorel, preparing for our recording sessions on Chausson's Concerto.  Also, you can see our concert day in Lausanne and the Salle Paderewski where we performed, not to mention the amazing hall in La Chaux-de-Fonds where we recorded.  Then, we trekked onward to Aurelien's hometown of Nancy (through the Alps in a terribly small station wagon) to play a concert the day after our recording sessions ended.  No trip to Europe would be complete without giving an introduction to Chicago new music, so we gave the European premiere of Liza White's "zin zin zin zin" alongside Bartok, Britten, and Verdi.  Here's the story in pictures:

 [nggallery id=10]

European Travelogue in Photos

On Sunday Nov. 17 we bade farewell to Chicago and phone service with the ritual consumption of food and drink from Tortas Frontera.  Two weeks later, we're back in Chicago and moving on, but still relishing the memories of our first European tour.

Below you can see photos of our stay in Montreux to rehease with Rachel Kolly d'Alba and Christian Chamorel, preparing for our recording sessions on Chausson's Concerto.  Also, you can see our concert day in Lausanne and the Salle Paderewski where we performed, not to mention the amazing hall in La Chaux-de-Fonds where we recorded.  Then, we trekked onward to Aurelien's hometown of Nancy (through the Alps in a terribly small station wagon) to play a concert the day after our recording sessions ended.  No trip to Europe would be complete without giving an introduction to Chicago new music, so we gave the European premiere of Liza White's "zin zin zin zin" alongside Bartok, Britten, and Verdi.  Here's the story in pictures:

 [nggallery id=10]

Being Weird in Normal

As we exited the Chicago suburbs, and the corporate jungle evaporated, I found myself excited by all the shockingly open space in Illinois.  We were on our way to Bloomington/Normal for an appearance on the Red Note Music Festival at Illinois State University.  During our time there, the students were highly receptive and energetic at our master class and composer readings, not to mention the engaged and interested audience for our evening concert of works by Carter, Balter, Fisher-Lochhead, Dehaan and Thomalla.

Sometimes you're acutely aware you're arriving somewhere much different than home:

Our Monday arrival at ISU and Russ in action coaching Ligeti's solo sonata:

Backstage before Monday evening's concert, things sometimes get a bit punchy:

A view of downtown Bloomington from my Tuesday morning run:

Tuesday afternoon's composer readings included feedback from the venerable Joan Tower in the lovely concert hall at ISU.

Winter storms could not stop us from a swift return to the windy city:

Being Weird in Normal

As we exited the Chicago suburbs, and the corporate jungle evaporated, I found myself excited by all the shockingly open space in Illinois.  We were on our way to Bloomington/Normal for an appearance on the Red Note Music Festival at Illinois State University.  During our time there, the students were highly receptive and energetic at our master class and composer readings, not to mention the engaged and interested audience for our evening concert of works by Carter, Balter, Fisher-Lochhead, Dehaan and Thomalla.

Sometimes you're acutely aware you're arriving somewhere much different than home:

Our Monday arrival at ISU and Russ in action coaching Ligeti's solo sonata:

Backstage before Monday evening's concert, things sometimes get a bit punchy:

A view of downtown Bloomington from my Tuesday morning run:

Tuesday afternoon's composer readings included feedback from the venerable Joan Tower in the lovely concert hall at ISU.

Winter storms could not stop us from a swift return to the windy city:

Return to the land of Goshen

This Friday at 7:30 marks the fourth concert we've given in Goshen, Indiana in this quartet's short life.  This is no coincidence, as I was born and raised in Goshen and my parents still live there as an active part of the Mennonite community surrounding Goshen College.  We've already played Haydn's "Seven Last Words" in the College Church, as well as music by Brahms, Ades and more in the acoustically wonderful Reith Recital Hall in Goshen College's Music Center.  You can take a trip back in time to last year's trip in a blog post about our snowy drive, or read about this year's concert on their website.

Goshen College Music Center

We return with a program of music by vocally inspired composers: Verdi, Mozart, Wolf and James Blake (as re-imagined by Chris Fisher-Lochhead).  All these composers have an amazing imagination for musical characters: sneaky villains, beautiful heroines and comic fools will all show their face as the musical drama unfolds.

For a little taste of what you'll see at the show, you can see us in a very intimate live performance at Comfort Music this summer:

Vermont Sojourn

The folks at Scrag Mountain Music have set the bar high for hospitality.  Our week in Vermont wasn't just full of scenic beauty and wonderful people, but some of the best and freshest food we've ever had.  Bacon and eggs from around the bend on the mountain never tasted better before a marathon rehearsal day!  Mary Bonhag and Evan Premo, directors of the series, were extraordinarily gracious...especially since we had a third host, their two-month-old, Glen!

Here's the story of our week in photos.

Things started off a little slap-happy at O'Hare in the early morning Monday.

We got our stuff into our hosts' homes as the sun set over the Green Mountains.

Our second day there, we rehearsed all day...and then had another public session in the evening.  Rehearsing in front of people really makes things more productive in an urgent way if you choose something early in the learning process! Stay tuned for more of these, Mary and Evan's idea of the "Very Open Rehearsal" is a great one.

Our plan of doing a different program each day, Friday through Sunday, meant some long rehearsal days.  It wasn't always pretty.  Here's Evan, helping us set up for the day with Glen in tow.

Doyle explains the finer point of "balancing to the viola line" to Russ.

And finally in action (fueled by some deliciously Vermont-roasted coffee).

A long day of rehearsal isn't complete without some brown liquid.  We went to check out The Prohibition Pig and Aurelien got a taste of some of the local rye flavor made by Whistle Pig.

CUTE ANIMAL BREAK! Here's my new friend, Raven.  She was pretty much the best.

Our run of three shows began Friday, we played a piece by Evan with him sitting in and Mary sang a piece by Earl Kim with us.  The quartet played Ades' "Arcadiana", the Verdi Quartet and Chris Fisher-Lochhead's version of James Blake's "I Never Learnt to Share".  The greeting party didn't bother to clean up for us.  (Did you catch the theme of the week yet, as well?)

Saturday, things were a bit more refined for a church concert in Warren.  The quartet played Mozart, K. 575 and Marcos Balter's "Chambers".  Here's our warmup session with Mary on Earl Kim's "Three French Songs".

That night, it snowed.  Vermont is special.  I wish I'd taken my phone with me on my run into the countryside that morning.  The pastures of cows with no humans to be seen for miles were incredibly beautiful.  Here's the barn outside Evan and Mary's house.

Our final concert was in Montpelier, in a local theater.  An incredibly open-minded crowd laughed with us as we gave a ten minute presentation and conversation about Carter's Second Quartet, as well as playing Wolf's "Italian Serenade" and repeating Chris' "I Never Learnt to Share" adaptation.  Doyle had an intimate moment with his phone before the audience arrived.

Thanks for everything, Scrag Mountain folk and Vermont in general! One thing I won't miss: discussions of the pronunciation of "Montpelier" with Aurelien.  It's really embarrassing for all of us when we start trying to pronounce French words.

Maiden Voyage to Milwaukee

This weekend marked out first trip to Milwaukee for a concert at the Unruly Music Festival. We had a fantastic day, beginning with a workshop with students and ending with a concert at the Marcus Center's Vogel Hall.

Friday, the day before the trip.  We rehearsed from nine in the morning 'til four in the afternoon, and just before we left we discussed the last details of our travels the next day.

Saturday morning, after reading sketches by University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (our hosts) for works they'll complete for the spring edition of the festival.

Alterra Coffee for lunch! We got a little excited.

Arrival in the Marcus Center.

Diving into the ritual of setting up for tech rehearsal of Black Angels.

It's almost showtime...

We're outta here!  What's Aurelien looking at?

It's a reveler too drunk to stay on his bike! Luckily the police are here to help him.

Greetings from Deutschland

As many of you likely know, I also play violin for the contemporary music group Ensemble Dal Niente.  Starting last weekend, and continuing through this week, I am in Darmstadt, Germany with the ensemble for the (in)famous Summer Course for New Music.  You can expect more thoughts from me once I'm not in the midst of rehearsal on some of the most challenging music I've ever tackled - especially on the amazing chamber performances by the Arditti Quartet and Ensemble Recherche in works by Brian Ferneyhough.

For now, I hope you enjoy my photo-blog...since my phone is mostly useful as an mp3 player and camera here.  Clicking a photo makes it bigger!

The opening concert of the festival, with Ensemble Modern playing Cage.

The amazing Arditti Quartet with Brian Ferneyhough after performing his String Quartet No. 6.  More on this later.

A side-street in Darmstadt, that I discovered en-route to my and Jesse Langen's Shangri-La of espresso drinks.

Daniel Vezza plays the hero as well as the composer at Dal Niente's composer workshop by killing a Godzilla-sized spider.

Dal Niente's workshop concert got a bit crowded when extensive piano preparations moved us into a small chamber hall.

The view from my hotel room balcony.  I'll see you and the quartet soon enough.

Repeating the Performance

Walking on stage at Ripon College's Demmer Recital Hall at 3 PM last Friday, Doyle and I were in good spirits. We had just spent the car ride past Milwaukee and Fond du Lac listening to some wild segments of the Walking the Room podcast and a little Buena Vista Social Club.

Having come in a separate car, Russ and Aurelien arrived a bit later and we got down to the business of getting comfortable in the space. While we bring our own stands to our concerts, the chairs were a little unusual.  So, we all sat on big wooden piano benches. (A decision I would later regret when my tailbones were nearly bruised by the end of the show.) I love halls with acoustical curtains, and we were afforded that luxury here, being able to pull them at will.

Once we settled into a sound we liked, sampling large sections of Brahms' A minor Quartet, we covered all the standard spots we like to have in mind for Thomas Ades' Arcadiana and Haydn's Op. 77 No. 2. We know these spots because we've played this program several times before. While this is nothing remarkable to ensembles with more mileage than us, having a run of performances on a major and unchanging program has been a revelation for the comfort level it provides.

In fact, we were so ready for that night that we rehearsed for our following evening's show. We still had some sounds to unify in Marcos Balter's intricate Chambers, so while we had a stage to utilize we figured out our articulations in a rhythmic canon and our bow speeds in an infamous section.

I have to say, that night may not have been the most electricity we've ever had coming from an audience, but it's the most limitless I've found myself to be in performance. We took risks that I would've thought ridiculous just weeks before and didn't fall on our faces. We were able to express the big picture in Brahms while reveling in the details and play whisper-quiet in the Ades.

And the next day we played a wonderfully revised and contrapuntally rich piece in front of a most generous Chicago audience without fear. For us (and the audience members I talked to), Chambers is a work that feels 10 minutes long, but lasts 16. There are few greater compliments for a piece than that. The moving parts all fit into place so snugly and the sounds are so vividly colorful that the ear simply follows along without concern for the passage of time.

But, I'm clearly interested in the passing of time. Things are changing in the way I look at performing with each concert the quartet gives. I'm becoming more aware of the constant learning process that I'm a part of and finding new ways to free my mind to be a part of this ensemble we're building to present on stage.

Plus, what better way to learn how to live the performer's life than keeping yourself awake with the killer dubstep of Skrillex while flying down I-94 to get home from rural Wisconsin?

Photo Gallery: Miami in February!

The Spektrals are apart this week, with Doyle and I down in Miami to play the Bach B-Minor Mass with an amazing choir called Seraphic Fire and their sister organization, Firebird Chamber Orchestra.

The organization brings players and singers from around the country for 4 to 5 concerts a season. Doyle has been playing with them for quite some time, and he has graciously wrangled invitations for Aurelien in the past, and for me this time around. (Thanks, Doyle!)

As you might imagine, I jumped at the opportunity to spend a week in Miami in February, and already it's been quite a trip. The orchestra has put me up with a host family here in Miami, and not just any host family. I'm lucky to be hosted by Ruth and Marvin Sacker, who for many years have been avid and thorough archival collectors of typographical art, amassing one of the largest collections in the states with over 50,000 different works! Their home, a penthouse aparmtment formerly owned by latin superstar "El Puma," (no joke) is a museum of sorts, and I have spent the better part of the last 48 hours examining some truly beautiful and inspiring pieces that are on display.

Here's a little photo album with some shots of Miami, the Sackner apartment, and some of the phenomenal art in their home. Enjoy!

[nggallery id=4]