November 19, 2007

A lot of our new CDs have been selling (some of them even as gifts for budding young musicians), and hopefully that means a lot of people have been listening to our new CD.  If you're one of those people, and you liked what you heard, why not post a short review about it at your favorite shopping site (like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Tower)?  Just by sharing a few of your own words, you can help us get this overlooked music heard by more and more people!

September 28, 2007

"Busy as a bee" is how the saying usually goes.  But lately we've been feeling like people oughta say, "busy as a string quartet."  With a long list of new materials to prepare, new demo recordings have been at the top of the list lately.  Fortunately, between us we have enough equipment and (just enough) expertise to be our own recording engineers and producers.  Unfortunately, that means we have relentless, unforgiving producers and slow engineers.  Which made for some late nights battling these taskmasters to get something we were all happy with.  We'll have the results available soon... look for them on our "sound clips" page.

We owe many thanks to our kind friends at the First Presbyterian Church in South Bend, who let us turn their building into a recording studio for several nights!

September 17, 2007

Our journal has been lonely lately.  It's been a casualty of all the big changes that have occurred for our quartet - not least of which has been the change in membership, and the process of incorporating our new cellist.  As part of the initiation into the quartet, we asked our newest member, David Beem, to write today's entry, giving his perspective on the process of joining us.  Here's what he had to say:

EXTRA! EXTRA! EUCLID QUARTET SNOWED

UNDER IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER!!

These past few months have been teeming with activity for the Euclid Quartet.  You may have noticed that there's been a small change in the balance of X and Y chromosomes.  (Ohhhh, so that's what's different!)  Well, that and a few other things as well.

These past few months have seen a move, a new residency, new homes, all-new PR material, and demo CD's (isn't everything always due yesterday?!) and, for me, lots of new repertoire and a new career. 

On July 28th and 29th, I was in Sioux City auditioning for the Euclid Quartet, but it wasn't until August 15th that I got the call inviting me to join them as their new cellist.  That call precipitated a considerable amount of utter, utter chaos.  Five days and a lifetime later, I arrived in South Bend for a week of new faculty orientation and more chaos.  By August 24th we were giving our premiere performance together.  No chaos there.  Really. 

Not ones to suffer change lightly, my new quartet-mates quickly led me to some wonderful liquid libations at the ubiquitous pubs in South Bend.  This, as I've come to understand, is an important ritual that is not to be underestimated in its capacity for a quartet's survival.  Seems like the others taught me some saying between sips, something about the quartet that drinks together...  oh, it's just not coming to me right now.  How important can it be, right?

For my part, this has been a dream come true.  I've always dreamed of a career in a string quartet, but more to the point, I've always dreamed of being happy in a career in a string quartet.  Finding a group such as this, one that plays at the very highest level of artistry and technical refinement - one that has managed to retain the joy and wonder of the amateur musician while reaching for the highest professional goals - one that consists of three other people with the type of solid human values that promise a long, healthy relationship, finding such a group as this is very, very rare.  Amy, I have you to thank for setting the bar so high.  I have my new colleagues to thank for permitting me find my own way.

David Beem

Cellist, Euclid Quartet

May 28, 2007

It's been two action-packed weeks on the road with our students in the Morningside Camerata, and we're glad to be home again.  It was equal parts performing and sightseeing for the talented young musicians who join us to make up the Camerata.  With stops in London, Dublin, Galway, and a few spots in between, there was no shortage of inspiration from the beautiful sights and scenery.  And we learned there's no secret to the beautiful, lush green color of Ireland -- it's from the almost constant rain that waters plants and people alike.  But thanks to the ubiquitous pubs, we were never far from a quick way to dry off and warm up!

We captured most of the group (and a few extra guests) for a London portrait...

April 22, 2007

Stradivarius.  Amati.  Guarneri.  These names were the center of our world for the four glorious days leading up to our concert last week at the Library of Congress.  Performing there comes with a truly unique perk.  No, it's not the freedom to make tyrannical demands of only red M&M's, or water chilled to exactly 57 degrees.  This unique perk is the use of a legendary collection of instruments made by Stradivarius, Amati, and Guarneri.  Names, legends... but also the creators of powerful tools.  Tools that opened up for us a much broader range of musical possibilities than what's available with the instruments we can afford.  "Limitless," "Bottomless," and "Amazing" were the words that fell from our mouths, one at a time.  Because, why waste time with more than a single word, when you could try out another passage on the wide-open playing field of the "Betts" Strad, or a 350-year-old Amati?  So many notes, and so little time with these treasures...

See what a professional journalist had to say about a similar close-up experience with these same instruments, at npr.org.

April 15, 2007

There are very few places in this country that ooze history.  So it's an unusual experience for the four of us to find ourselves in just such a place without having to cross even a single ocean.  The Harvard Musical Society, in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, is History-with-a-capital-H, and an imposing place for a musician to perform.  This is the group that founded the Boston Symphony, and their building has been host to virtually all of the greatest musical figures of the past century.  Yet for all this imposing History, our performance there last Friday was received by a warm and very welcoming audience.  This group is there to enjoy the music!  Well, the music and the welsh rarebit.  (It was an unusual treat for us -- to say the least! -- to join them in their traditional post-concert gathering over baked beans, ale, and welsh rarebit.)  Altogether, what a uniquely down-to-earth trip through History.

March 24, 2007

A little bit of star treatment goes a long way...  For our recent concert in West Palm Beach, Florida, we had an entire production staff at our disposal.  A whole array of fruit, cheese, and snacks to keep us stated.  We should have felt like kings (well, 3 kings and a queen). 

But we were brought to our musical knees by a fearsome force of nature: dampness.  It's a sly little force that seems, at worst, like nothing more than a mildly uncomfortable afterthought in the weather report.  But when "damp" meets the horsehair of a violin, viola, or cello bow, it's wreaks havoc.  Hair gets longer and longer, as it plumps up while absorbing more and more moisture from the air.  Musician tightens the bow more and more, trying to keep at least a little tension on the hair.  But inevitably, "damp" wins out, when the screw at the end of the bow is fully tightened, and hair still keeps getting longer and longer.  Bye-bye, bouncing bow.  So-long, spiccato.  Sayonara, sautille.  We managed to pull through, and reinvent some of the bow strokes we'd planned on, but we were eager to get our bows back to drier climes!

March 11, 2007

Is this Amy's new car?!

Well, no...  But she was recently in the Motor City for the American String Teachers Conference.  It was a great event: music teachers were there from all over the country trading information, stories, and advice.  Amy did a bit of "trading" herself -- she brought along our "Garbage Pail Strings" trading cards, to let people know about our educational activities.  ...and it seemed like they were a hit!

March 2, 2007

The recent scourge of snow and ice in Iowa has left us wondering:

Will we ever see

the yellow sun and green grass?

We hope it's still there...

Fortunately, Florida beckons in just a few weeks.

February 19, 2007

Many concert organizers offer various perks when we visit for a performance.  Some provide accommodations in beautiful homes, some offer dinner at a fabulous restaurant.  These are greatly appreciated, but not very unusual.  However, one of our recent concerts came complete with a package of beautiful accommodations, a fantastic dinner at a unique local restaurant... and an elephant seal.

The elephant seal wasn't to take home with us... (Certainly the TSA has rules against carrying on 12,000-pound marine mammals.) On our first trip as a quartet to the Redwood Coast of California, the presenter treated us to a stop at the mouth of the Russian River, where a lone elephant seal has taken up residence.  The beautiful haze of a Pacific mist hung in the air, and cast a lacy gauze over the craggy, rocky shore.  And even the stench of giant pile of blubber and flippers didn't diminish the beautiful sunset we enjoyed.  It was definitely the most unusual perk we've had so far.

February 3, 2007

From the "sunset" shores of Naples, Florida, to the swirling snows of Utica, New York, our latest trip showed us the glorious extremes of our nation's weather! 

From our frosty home in Sioux City, we ventured off to Florida for an all-too-brief stop in Naples. We were certainly prepared for the warmth. And the humidity. But what do you do when you arrive in the middle of the night, and your hotel has closed for the night? And what if it's a mere 12 hours before your concert? As a quartet, we didn't have a policy on that situation.  But it seems the only thing to do is to wake up some people. Some very kind, unfortunate people.

So our late arrival turned into a very late night. We were all feeling a bit less-than-well-rested for our concert the next afternoon, but with a program that includes Ginastera and Beethoven, how could we NOT perk up? Caffeine is nothing compared to that stuff!

It's a good thing we still had that jolt of Ginastera flowing through our blood the next day.  For we were headed into the snow-infested land of upstate New York.

Why do blizzards and bad directions seem to go hand-in-hand? Whatever the reason, the two together can go a long way toward lengthening what otherwise would be much too-easy of a drive... This was something that occurred to us as we tried to find our accommodations on the outskirts of Utica, New York.  But as usual, once the travel troubles were over, our visit was quite enjoyable.  Hamilton College boasts a beautiful campus -- even in winter -- and a wonderful setting for chamber music, in "The Barn." 

No photos of us in the snow, but here's a drawing of us outdoors, wearing white, in upstate New York:

January 22, 2007

No clever stories today, because we've been busy with some very important work!  We've been expanding our website, adding on a HUGE section about the educational programs we offer.  So instead of reading about our trials and tribulations, why not read about what we're doing to help children and adults explore music?

See it for yourself by clicking here.

January 2, 2007

The end of a year, and the beginning of a new one, inspired us to create the following list: some of our most (and least) favorite things as a quartet...

What's HOT	What's NOT
Low Thirds	Wide Fifths
Late Beethoven	Late Entries
Standing Ovations	Long Flight Durations
Indian restaurants open late	Finding a bug on your plate
Strong coffee	Weak phrasing
Local brew-pubs	Local brew-pubs that went out of business

Journal Archive

Dig deep into our past by visiting the Journal Archive.