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degree and her Performer's Certificate
at Eastman in 1982; she is now working
on her doctorate.
"The first semester oflast year,"
Calvin continues, referring to the fall
of the '82-'83 school year, "Ian and
Betsy played in a quartet together. The
following semester, they decided that
they'd like to play in another group-a
group that would tryout for the Cleveland
Quartet Competition, which was
to be held in April. They asked Maria
and me to play in that. I knew Ian
because I had met him at a couple of
chamber music parties."
"I'd never met Cal," Maria interjects.
"I knew Betsy's sister," Calvin
adds.
The Meliora Quartet was not officially
formed until January of 1983,
just four months before the competition.
They didn't even have a name
right away.
"We thought about it on and off,"
reports Maria. "We'd get together and
have dinner, and say, 'Hey, you guys,
we've got to think of a name.' "
Robert Freeman, the director of the
Eastman School, was the one who suggested
the University of Rochester
motto. The quartet members liked the
way the name on the one hand related
them to the University, but on the
other hand didn't tie them to a specific
location (as has happened, for example,
to their mentors, who, although
they haven't lived in Cleveland for
thirteen years, recognize the inadvisability
of attempting a name change
in the middle of a resoundingly successful
international career).
"We can take this name anywhere,"
says Maria. "And we like what it
means-to do better, to achieve higher
goals. "
"It's a nice sentiment," Calvin
agrees.
And if the old adage about practice
making perfect is true, it's a sentiment
that couldn't be permanently attached
to a more appropriate group. The Meliora
Quartet practices an average of
three to four hours a day; they take
only one day off a week.
"If we can," says Maria.
"Sometimes there's just too much to
do," Calvin admits.
8
As students at the demanding Eastman
School, the Meliora players have
established this rigorous group schedule
on top of the individual work each
of them is engaged in.
"There's a lot to do on your instrument
apart from the quartet," Calvin
says. "And that's really healthy. If
playing together were the only thing
we did, and if this were the only time
we played our instruments, or these
the only pieces we practiced, I don't
think it would be very good for the
quartet.
"We're still learning how to play the
instruments," he continues. "We want
to become better violinists, violists,
and cellists. "
"Your own, private work is really
important," Maria says, to which Ian
adds, "You have more to bring in."
"Right," says Maria, "you have
more to bring in, and you grow yourself.
"
No one recognizes the Meliora drive
to improve better than their coaches.
"They're quite exceptional," says the
Cleveland's cellist, Paul Katz. "As
musicians, they're all incredibly motivated,
very very serious, hardworking-all
of these things. And beyond
that, there is something in each
of them ... " and here he pauses, striving
to communicate his exact meaning.
"I can only define it as 'artistic.' Each
of them, as a performer, has great
communicative ability. "
This ability, Katz adds, is specialnot
every musician has it. "It has to do
with imagination. One can teach it,"
he asserts, "only if the potential is
there."
Something else Katz finds special in
the Meliora Quartet is its depth of
comprehension. "When I'm coaching
them, I can talk to them about the
problems of quartets much on the same
level I would talk to one of my own colleagues."
His pupils, he says, "are
concerned with the same high-level
technical questions. I don't have to
simplify or water down or clarify."
The Meliora Quartet could spend
hours, in turn, praising its mentors.
"It's hard to know where to start,"
starts Betsy.
"They're great. They're wonderful"
says Ian.
"They're very giving with their
time," says Maria. "Just very
generous people, and they really care
about us. They give us coachings at
very inconvenient times for them.
They come to our dress rehearsals.
They're very supportive."
The younger players, as a group,
are visited by members of the Cleveland
Quartet twice a week. "When
they coach us," says Calvin, "they do
it individually; it's not as if all four of
them together sit around and hear us.
And that -working with each of them
separately-is very interesting."
"You get different ideas," says Ian.
"It's a real learning experience,"
says Calvin.
The Meliora Quartet appears ready
to learn from any experience it has, including
the potentially disastrous. A
favorite story around the Eastman
School concerns an outdoor concert the
quartet played last summer at the
Botanic Gardens in Denver. Some
3,000 people were gathered, an audience
far larger than most string
quartets might ever play for. The concert
was amplified-also an unusual
circumstance for a quartet-and being
broadcast over the local National
Public Radio station.
Naturally, it began to rain. The
quartet was forced to stop in the middle
of the performance-"our instruments
being worth what they are," explains
Calvin, "and water being about
the worst thing for them." As the quartet
began packing up, however, several
people from the audience came on
stage with umbrellas, offering to hold
them over the musicians so the show
could go on.
"After about ten minutes with her
arm up in the air," says Calvin, "the
woman holding the umbrella over Ian
fainted. Fell right on top of him. " The
quartet immediately feared the worst;
the woman, however, was revived after
thirty seconds or so. "We managed to
finish the concert," Calvin says.
Such a bizarre incident is shrugged
off by the quartet, which remembers
the day most for the thrill of playing
outdoors before so many people.
"It was exhilarating," says Calvin.
"It was really fun," agrees Betsy.
"We loved it," adds Ian. "We're
just trying to give what we have to give
in the music."
The music. Given the compatibility
exhibited by this talented foursome,