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coming to Eastman hoping that I could
work with the Cleveland Quartet for
even one semester," says Maria. "So
we've gotten awfully lucky."
Maria may call it luck. But to the
judges of the international competition
it was rather more than that. "They
simply happened to be the best," says
one of the jurors, J on Engberg,
associate director for academic affairs
and associate dean for graduate studies
at the Eastman School.
Dating back to 1976, when the
Cleveland joined the school, the competition
reflects that well-established
group's desire to nurture younger colleagues,
something it believes in
strongly.
Eastman stages the competition
biennially, when it invites quartets
from around the world to audition.
The winning ensemble, which receives
tuition remission and a stipend, is invited
to the Eastman School for a twoyear
period to study with the Cleveland
and other members of the string
faculty. "The winner comes as a
quartet," says Engberg, "and its first
order of business is to study, rehearse,
and perform as an ensemble. This
group occupies a special place at
Eastman."
More than equal to the task, the
Meliora players have, by the end of
their first year, rapidly blossomed into
one of this country's most promising
young chamber groups, which means
three things: They have talent, they
have a flair for performance, and they
get along with each other. The value of
that last part cannot be overestimated.
"Successful, professional chamber
groups are very hard to keep
together," Engberg notes.
"There's an old cliche," says
Cleveland Quartet cellist Paul Katz,
"that says that a quartet is like a fourway
marriage, with all of the disadvantages
and none of the advantages. "
"You get to know somebody musically,
and that individual's personality
is going to come out too," is the way
Calvin puts it.
"That's what the rehearsals are
about," says Betsy. "Just as much as
they are about learning the music and
understanding the composer, they're
also about understanding the people
you're playing with well enough so
that all four of you can understand the
composer."
Playing, therefore, isjust part of
what being a quartet is about. Yes, the
Meliora Quartet won the Cleveland
Quartet Competition; yes, it has twice
been accepted to participate in the
Aspen Music Festival's Center for Advanced
Quartet Studies; yes, it tied for
top place in the Fischoff National
Chamber Music Competition in South
Bend, Indiana, in April of this year
and then went on to win the Coleman
Chamber Ensemble Competition in
Pasadena later that month; and yes, it
will make its New York City and
Boston debuts this fall. But kudos
alone does not a quartet make. In
many ways, the Meliora Quartet's
most notable achievement is the
maintenance and development of the
positive chemistry existing among its
members.
"They have an attitude and enthusiasm
that is consistent among all four
of them, which is unusual," says
Engberg. "Very often, you will find
one or more of the people in a group to
be somewhat of an outsider. But everybody
in this group is really dedicated to
one another. "
Their spirited interrelationship is
best on display in rehearsal, where
they might be playing only half the
time, discussing and critiquing individual
and group performances the
other half. Give and take is fluid, comments
and suggestions readily requested
and received.
"Did the tempo seem slow?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, I liked it. "
"J ust a touch faster-the whole
thing. "
"But it has a grace to it. "
Short, explosive instrumental examples
punctuate many of the discussions
about particular passages. Likewise
anyone of the group members may
spontaneously sing a bar or two to illustrate
a musical point.
The playing itself is dynamic, energetic,
assured, even in the rehearsal
room's inevitable fragments. Heads,
shoulders, forearms, elbows dip this
way and that. First violinist Ian is
animated facially-his eyebrows darting
up and down, his eyes and mouth
evincing the effort of playing, as if he
were yanking the notes he plays from
somewhere deep within. On all four
faces is written one word, in bold letters,
and underlined: concentration.
For in a quartet, you must not only
play-you must listen to three others
play at the same time.
"You're always reminding yourself
to listen," says Maria.
Betsy elaborates. "Sometimes you
find yourself getting so involved in
your own part that you realize you're
not playing with the other people. At
other times, you're sort of sinking in
with the sound of the group so much
that you don't really play your own
line as convincingly as you could."
This constant playing off from one
another extends beyond the strings and
bows. Even in conversation, sentences
are sometimes started by one, completed
by another, and interpreted by a
third, each member's voice intertwining
with and augmenting other voices
much as their instruments do when the
talking stops. One might wonder if this
compatibility developed gradually or if
it just clicked.
"There's always something of an adjustment
time," says Maria.
"I think there really should be,"
adds Calvin.
"But there's both things happening
all the time," Ian points out.
"There's also a click, there really
is," concludes Betsy.
Call it harmony at first sight-just
an old-fashioned boy-meets-girl-meetsboy-meets-girl
story. Calvin attempts
to unravel it.
"Two summers ago, at the Aspen
Music Festival [a summer music
school held annually in Aspen, Colorado],
Maria and Ian and Betsy
played in a string quartet together.
The following year, Ian and I both
came here to Eastman, where Maria
and Betsy were both already
studying." Ian, originally from Pearl
River, New York, transferred from
Juilliard, joining Maria, a Missoula,
Montana, native, in the junior class.
Calvin, from Grand Rapids, Michigan,
went to Eastman for his Master
of Music degree, after graduating from
Oberlin College. Betsy, the celloplaying
pride of Sacramento, California,
received her Master of Music