- Many times as a professor of cello here,
and also Chamber is a coach at Rice,
and also, my work at Tanglewood.
I'm asked by a lot of people, what does it take
to make a successful group?
And, uh, the first thing that I would say is
that it is necessary to have a shared vision,
and that people understand what it is that
they're getting into, and that it takes a tremendous
amount of sacrifice, and that people will glorify
the more visible aspects of what it is to have a career
as a chamber music player.
But the amount of work that it takes, and the
amount of sacrifice that it takes is really enormous.
- It's very true, being in the middle of it right now.
But it's worth it.
- Yeah.
- Definitely.
- And other sort of misconceptions about what it is;
I tell people that there is no such thing
as a matched group, in the conventional sense.
That everybody has to be equally gifted in the same way
on their instrument in order to have a group.
I mean, this is a little different with a woodwind quintet,
when they're playing different instruments.
But with a string quartet, where they're playing
the same family of instruments, you tend to notice
these differences more.
And people that don't understand this will say,
gee, I wish my violist could play faster,
or I wish that the second violinist had
this other sort of thing.
Instead, one needs to...to look at the gifts in a
positive way that each person has to offer.
When a group has really made sacrifices to get themselves
together, they start discovering that what creates a
successful group is providing an environment of respect
and understanding for one another.
That allows each member to be vulnerable, to be able
to allow their gifts, even if they're hidden, to emerge
and be supported by the other members of the group.
And sometimes, what you find is a surprising level
of artistry, uh, that comes out as result of that.
That may, you may not have seen before
when a person was trying to be correct,
or trying not to screw up, or something like that.
And, uh, I have to say that in the case of the
kiara quartet, this is a fantastic embodiment of
exactly that.
This is a quartet that really cares a lot about
each other, spends a lot of energy in not only
respecting one another, but also in actively making
that apart of what they do in rehearsal,
and outside of rehearsal.
- Thanks!
- Oh, you're welcome!
- That's very nice.
- But it's true!
I mean, and the other things that's interesting
about this quartet is that, uh, they have longterm
relationships and friendships that have gone back
many, many, many years.
- That's important because the quartet really
is like a family.
I mean, just adding to what my father is saying,
which I totally agree with.
Um, a quartet, your quartet becomes your family.
If you're talking about shared respect and that
kind of thing, you're going to have disagreements.
You're gonna have problems, but the most important
thing that you have is this shared vision,
and this commitment to doing what you really care about,
and that there's a love between you.
There's this respect and kind of unconditional knowledge
that you're gonna keep going.
You're gonna keep doing it.
And I think that that's probably the most important
reason why groups don't stay together.
It's because they don't necessarily have that vision.
It's not the same, and they haven't
committed to it fully.
Um, and then, you know, your family breaks up then.
But hopefully, our family is staying together.