Volume 25 Issue 7 - April 2020

JEREMY BENNING
unQuartet: After my
exchange with Sara
Constant, I also had an
engaging three-way conversation
with two members
from unQuartet, violinist
Meghan Cheng and cellist
Cheryl O. The unQuartet
ensemble began in 2017
originally as an improvising
string quartet, they
explained, but when their
violist had to move back to
Los Angeles, Nelson Moneo
took over the violist role,
and they decided to remain
as a trio rather than find a
new member. (Moneo was
self-isolating in a remote
region of British Columbia
and unable to join us for
the chat.).
We began by talking about the impact that social distancing was
having on them as performing musicians, beyond the gig cancellations.
Cheng began by quoting the phrase, “there’s no art without
an audience.” As a performer, she said, “you need someone there to
witness and experience everything that a live concert has to offer – the
connection and the energy. I wonder if doing online concerts has the
same impact as a live event.” Cheryl O. picked up on this, speaking
about how important live performing is for her own growth and how
she is changed by the interaction with her colleagues. “Not having
an audience changes how we hear and how we return the energy to
each other.” During the rehearsal process, she said, the other group
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unQuartet
members push her to practise
different things in order
to be able “to meet them
individually. You get qualities
from each other that
drive me to heights.”
Not being able to be
together has heightened their
awareness of how much they
miss each other, Meghan
Cheng said, going on to muse
that this time may even turn
out to be a great thing for the
arts. “Maybe we will have a
new appreciation for coming
together and experiencing
music and art.” Cheryl O.
gave the example of how her
own brother was beginning
to see the value of the arts in
a new way, especially now
that it’s all currently gone.
“Tell us what we can do to help,” he offered. “Once this is over I think
there will be a treasuring of artistic life,” she said.
As an ensemble, unQuartet takes improvisation very seriously, and
as trained musicians their classical technique serves them well. And
it’s more than just technique, O. said. “We’re really talking about
listening. Inter-listening, which you don’t have a lot of opportunities
to do when you’re playing someone else’s music, where you’re
listening for perfection, entries, blending and colour, but not listening
for personalities. “That’s what I love about this,” she continued.
“There are three generations in the group at different stages of life.
It’s amazing to come together with our diversities. We’re not one
homogenous personality at all.”
Cheng described the group’s approach to improvisation as being
very spontaneous. At times they have used graphic and open scores,
even played using a painting as inspiration. But generally their improvisations
are unplanned, without preset parameters or themes.
“Because we are all classically trained and have this classical form
ingrained into us, we often have form to our improvisations with
different movements and themes that grow throughout the improv.
Our pieces often sound as if they have been composed.”
For their scheduled concert at the Music Gallery on April 25, they
were planning to perform an improvisational set along with visuals,
and a collaborative set, possibly using an open score, with the Vaso
String Quartet (Aysel Taghi-Zada (violin), Hua-Chu Huang (violin),
Peter Ayuso (viola), and India Yeshe Gailey (cello), a Toronto based
ensemble striving for innovative programming that juxtaposes the
standard string quartet literature with the equally valuable works of
underrepresented composers, and “seeking out working relationships
with artists and composers of different mediums to further expand
the definition of contemporary music.”
As O. said, as we ended our conversation, performing and improvising
gives her and unQuartet “the opportunity to learn patience,
grace and compassion,” qualities we are all having to call on right
now. “Having creative compassion for each other is what makes us
a group,” she says. For now this planned encounter between the
two ensembles will have to wait for some socially distant future
moment. (And I look forward to being able to tell you when that
moment comes.)
Compared to the connection and energy of live performance,
waiting for this alienating moment we are living through to run
its course is about as exciting as watching grass grow. Perhaps best
to think of it instead as new tendrils arising, pointing beyond the
immediate crisis towards new values, for the world of musical
performance and creative engagement with sound.
Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto-based composer and electrovocal
sound artist. sounddreaming@gmail.com.
16 | April 2020 thewholenote.com