Oberlin

Rehearsing five hours a day for a month in a small room with the same three people, learning an entire string quartet: this was the schedule for students taking part in Oberlin Conservatory's String Quartet Intensive and Festival, which took place during Oberlin's Winter Term in January. "Intensive" is certainly an apt title. "I don't think any of us realized how intense it would be," said violist Thomas Cooper, a member of one of the student quartets.

Three student ensembles took part in the Festival, each choosing one quartet to learn over the course of a month, then performing it. Besides rehearsing, they received daily coachings from faculty and guest artists including the Wasmuth, Cavani and Jupiter String Quartets, violinist Areta Zhulla and cellist Zuill Bailey, who also gave concerts throughout the month. "The recitals were incredible. It was so inspiring to be able to listen to them and then work with those people," violinist Christa Cole said.

The Festival allowed students to delve deeply into a quartet without other distractions. "It was a good time to zero in on string quartets because during the semester it's hard to focus on chamber music," violinist Sophia Bernitz said. Violinist Clara Engen added, "It's nice to have so many string quartet concerts in a row, because we don't hear them that often during the semester."

Students were encouraged to choose either a Mozart or Beethoven quartet, because "you have to play those pieces to learn how to be a unified ensemble," Festival organizer Michael Strauss said. Those skills also apply to solo repertoire: "Our teachers always stress the fact that learning string quartets is really good for you," said Bernitz, whose quartet played Beethoven's op. 59, no. 1. "I didn't realize how helpful it would be. I've been playing a Beethoven sonata, and now a lot of things in it make more sense to me and have become so easy."

The wide variety of perspectives students received in their coachings also helped develop their musicality. "I'm really loving how we're getting a bunch of different faculty members and guests to work with," Cole said. "It's nice to have different perspectives and teaching methods." During the year, it can be difficult to schedule chamber music coachings with more than one professor. "Working with different faculty was invaluable," violinist Nathaniel Cornell said.

The guest artists were equally helpful. "It's always good to have someone from outside," violinist Dorisiya Yosifova said of working with Areta Zhulla, "because she has no idea who we are, what we do, she just hears what she hears and tells you what to fix." Zhulla and the Wasmuth Quartet, who gave a recital but not coachings, were also inspiring because of their youth. "It's fun to see people who are close to our age, and so energetic," Engen said. Even better, all the guest quartets included at least one Oberlin alum. "That's really cool. Makes us have hope!" said Bernitz. "Abigail Rojansky, the violist from Wasmuth, graduated two years ago, so she made us think 'OK, where do we want to be in two years?'" Cole said.

The students even got to play alongside the Jupiter in a performance of Mahler's string orchestra arrangement of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" quartet. That was a dream come true for students who had heard the Jupiter give various concerts in the past two years as Oberlin's Quartet-in-Residence. They found the Jupiter's sense of ensemble impressive. "They know what each other are thinking. It's amazing what they can do," Cornell said.

Despite below-freezing temperatures and an abundance of snow, Oberlin's Festival offered benefits not often found in a summer chamber music festival. "It's at home, with people we know and feel comfortable with," Yosifova said. "The fact that we got to pick our quartet, both the music and the people in it, was really nice, instead of being thrown together with three random people and an assigned piece," violist Matthew Weathers said. And in a typical summer festival, you only get to play one or two movements. "One of the big challenges was keeping up the stamina needed to play a whole quartet," Cooper said. "A lot of us haven't done that before."

Based on the success of this year's Festival, Michael Strauss's plan is to hold a Piano Trio Intensive next year. Oberlin might count on some of this year's participants to return, except that by then some of them may be already committed to a quartet for the long term. "This month made me more interested in playing in a quartet," said cellist Angelique Montes. "I can now see myself being happy doing that as a career."

Photos by Dale Preston.

The Schubert-Mahler work was performed by the Jupiter Quartet (*), bass players Tracy Rowell (OC Faculty) & Austin Lewellen (OC sophomore) and Oberlin Conservatory students of the Winter Term String Quartet Intensive and Festival. Complete roster: Violin I: Nelson Lee*, Nathaniel Cornell, Dorisiya Yosifova, Christa Cole. Violin II: Meg Freivogel*, Sophia Burnitz, Julian Sawhill, Lyly Li. Viola: Liz Freivogel* '00, Natalia Badziak, Thomas Cooper, Matthew Weathers. Cello: Daniel McDonough*, Angelique Montes, Alex Baker, Aoma Caldwell. Bass: Tracy Rowell, Austin Lewellen.