- How would a young player
pursuit chamber music as a career?
Starting, let's say as an undergraduate and looking forward.
And as a career, it's a fascinating, wonderful one.
I've done it for many, many years myself.
It's also deeply involving, in fact consuming.
So almost a key element is to find
other people who share that passion with you
and to the degree that you do.
It takes so many hours to create your own sound
to find the repertoire
and to just learn yourselves
much less the music itself within a group.
And this can start when you're looking
for your own undergraduate ensemble.
You really need to find players
who share your style of music making.
It doesn't have to be identical, that would be very boring.
But it might be good to be in the same quadrant
rather than 180 degrees away.
So a similar musical approach,
similar technical ability.
Again if somebody is much advanced
or somebody is lagging far behind
it becomes very frustrating
then trying to make the ensemble itself work
for technical reasons that are interfering.
And eventually it becomes very, very important
to have a similar personal goal.
In undergraduate school it's not quite as critical I suppose
because everybody is just striving and learning
and perhaps thinking graduate school and so on.
But when you begin thinking of a professional career,
some people would like to have a family
and stay close to home.
Others would like to barnstorm
and just get out and about and travel all the time.
And that can be very divisive
if part of a group want one and part wants the other.
So it's important at a certain point
to be very frank with each other
about what you think you want as a person.
So really musical, technical and personal have to align.
And it's hard enough to get one of them
much less two or in this case three.
So it's a great ensemble
especially we're speaking string quartet here
which is what I played,
but very delicate balance to make it all fit.
When you're working together, it's not like an office.
You have no boundaries between desks.
You sit together for hours and hours every day,
every week, every month, all year long,
right next to each other.
So actually a hint of diplomacy
is not a bad thing to have also.
Groups find many different ways to deal with each other.
My two groups were very, very welcoming
in that kind of language they used.
We rarely blamed each other
and always asked things of each other.
Some groups are frustrated by that.
They like to go head on
and just fight it out and then they go have lunch.
So it depends again on your own personality
how your group works.
Something, if you find a group let's say
where the chemistry is good.
And by the way chemistry is also
a really vital part of this.
It's not luck.
We can create our own luck.
You seek and seek until you find the person,
the people who fit with the right chemistry
to work exceptionally well together.
The way I think of it is a little bit like
your old high school chemistry.
You know that you could put certain elements together,
stir them with a wooden spoon
and nothing's gonna happen.
And when you add that catalyst, that one last element,
it goes up in a huge cloud
and this is what chamber music can be like.
You can have four wonderful players
who simply lack that catalyst
and it just won't work.
I've played with wonderful people
and it doesn't quite get off the ground.
And then suddenly one other person adds in
and it's a whole new ensemble, very thrilling to do.
So, the chemistry of it is a huge part.
So be looking for those people
that you have this chemical reaction together with.
Let's say you have an ensemble now.
It could be a woodwind quintet,
it could be a string trio,
it could be piano trio, string quartet,
all kinds of ensembles.
Then be seeking out the best teachers, the best coaches.
In the summertime find summer festivals
that focus on chamber music
where you can bring your own ensemble.
I'm thinking of,
well, Marlboro is a wonderful chamber music place
generally it does not encourage formed groups, I believe
but fantastic resource for chamber players.
Norfolk does.
You can bring in ensemble there
and work six weeks together all summer.
And I think Taos as well.
Aspen has an advanced quartet studies program
for groups that have been formed for awhile.
But seek out all of those opportunities for your age group
for your ensemble age to explore.
And then as you grow,
you discover first of all your tolerance for each other
and you need to make room for each other at all times.
And then when you begin thinking about graduate school
there are many, many programs for a string quartets.
Well, I might be exaggerating.
There are many programs.
Rice of course has a master's of music in string quartet.
The Juilliard quartet has one at Juilliard.
Paul Katz, my friend and colleague
has one in New England Conservatory.
The Vermeer quartet, also good friends
have one at Northern Illinois.
Guarneri quartet is at Maryland.
So there's some wonderful opportunities going on.
[Indistinct] quartet is in Syracuse.
So, be hunting for those opportunities.
Too often there are good scholarships
and opportunities when you are in those programs.
And then it allows you as a group
to refine what you know, what you do
and move forward in your career.