about last week’s chamber music,

how could I forget to post?  First, the sextets.  Znaider is a wonderful player, which was true not only in our chamber concert but in his Beethoven concerto with the CSO later in the week.  He was also a gracious colleague and compelling leader.  We had two rehearsals, and that was just about right.  Not [...]

maiden voyage

I have never been this nervous before. The house lights dim and the applause fades, replaced with that peculiar stuffy silence that anticipates the first note of a concert. The four players on stage lock eyes. But I am in the audience, not one of them. So why is my heart pounding? Because the quartet [...]

piano and forte

An instructive comment from a quartet coaching:
A few months after I formed the Grancino String Quartet with Zach DePue, Jessi Thompson and Priscilla Lee, we were fortunate enough to go up to New York for a quartet coaching with Mr. Galimir. At this point he had stopped coming down to Curtis except for rare visits [...]