by Melanie Wong
As the Amphion String Quartet gears up for their Carnegie Hall debut this month, violinists
Katie Hyun and David Southorn, violist Wei-Yang Andy Lin, and cellist Mihai
Marica sat down with Feast of Music to discuss
who they are, where they’ve been, and where they’re going.
Comprising recent graduates of Yale University and the Juilliard School, the
foursome were among the winners of the prestigious Concert Artist Guild’s
Victor Elmaleh 2011 Competition. Now with artist management in tow, ASQ
have recently gained residency at both the Caramoor Festival as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS2 program.
FoM: So what exactly is
"Amphion?"
David: Amphion
was actually a Greek demigod. It’s a name I stumbled on when I was
reading part of a history book. [Amphion] played a four-stringed
instrument, the lyre, and when he
played this magical instrument, it would move stones into place. His
brothers were supposed to build a wall around the city of Thebes, but while they
were doing that, he strummed on his lyre and moved all the stones. We really
liked the metaphor and the imagery.
FoM: Tell me, how did you all meet?
Katie: When I was
at Yale, I had a chamber music requirement on my graduation recital, and I asked
these guys to play a Bartók quartet with me. It went over so well that
we were encouraged to pursue it seriously, so we gave it a shot in the fall
after going our separate ways over the summer. Since then, a lot of things have
happened so quickly and we’re suddenly here.
FoM: Are you
excited about your Carnegie debut?
All: Yeah!
Mihai: Especially
since David Shifrin is going to be joining us, as he’s been one of our great
supporters. We went to his festival [Chamber Music Northwest] for the past two summers, where we were able to perform in quite an array of
venues and receive coaching with the artists that were doing the festival. It’s been
really great for us and we’re happy to have him.
FoM: So would you
say David Shifrin’s been a real mentor for you?
Katie: He’s been
one of our biggest supporters. I think he and [Ani Kavafian] have really been
doing a lot for us over the years. Ani has been recommending us to a lot of
festivals. She recommended us to Paul Neubauer, who took us to OK Mozart two
years in a row.
David: Katie and I had, at one point, played in
the New Haven Symphony and [Shifrin's] the principal there as well. One day
during a break, he came us to us and said, “I hear you guys have a nice string
quartet. How’d you like to come to my summer festival?” and that was based on a
recommendation from Ani. We got to play the Mendelssohn
Octet with the Tokyo String Quartet! It was their last year, so that was really fun.
FoM: And what would you say is the most exciting thing you’ve gotten to do together so far?
Katie: We played in Jeju Island, which is an island right off of Korea. Geum
NanSe is a really well-known conductor in Korea and he started his own
festival on Jeju Island. He sort of makes a connection between business people
who don’t get much exposure to music and musicians, and makes it somewhat
accessible to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to have concerts in their
schedule.
Mihai: And all
the collaborations that we get to do through all these traveling experiences
with the quartet have been very exciting. We got to play with Edgar Meyer,
David Shifrin…
Katie: …Deborah
Hoffman, Michala Petri…she’s a really awesome recorder player.
Mihai: Their
teacher [Ani Kavafian] also invited us to play on her concert series that she runs with Carter Brey, so we got to play with both of them. We’re also in residency at Caramoor this year and part of the residency involves helping
us to commission a work, so this summer we’re going to be premiering a work that
was written for us by Yevgeniy Sharlat—a great friend of ours and a
fantastic composer. I can’t wait to hear it.
FoM: Is there anything specific you do as a group to prepare on the day of a
performance?
Mihai: Ha, David
drives us there.
[Group laughs]
Katie: I try not to
get sick.
David: Yeah,
[Katie] tries not to get car sick, Andy tries to navigate, Mihai has his music
on, and then we get there and play the concert! No, I mean, it really depends,
but we’ve been playing so much lately. Usually we have an hour onstage to do a
sound check, but sometimes we don’t and we just get up and play.
Mihai: I think
the minimum requirements would be getting a good night’s sleep, make sure you
eat at a proper time, and test the hall.
David: But, we
don’t have any funny rituals or anything. I know some groups do.
Katie: No, no
yoga moves, no stretches…
FoM: What do you hope to achieve as a
group?
Mihai: What’s
been interesting for me is that we manage to play concerts not just in big concert
halls. Especially in Portland, [we played] at a bar where there
were people our age having drinks and some of them were hearing classical music
for the first time. You would think it’s a difficult introduction, but they
really liked it. That’s something that I think is quite special: to
include an audience as broad as possible into what we do.
Katie: I think we
all feel the same, really wanting to share what the quartet has to offer to
people. I remember when I was little and I first heard the Beethoven quartets for
the first time and I was like, “This is awesome! Everybody should know about
this!” Now I feel like we actually have a chance at getting people to hear
what amazing music was written during his time. It’s keeping the music alive.
FoM: What advice do you have for aspiring young musicians?
Katie: Scales!
When I was little I did not understand the purpose of scales. I was like, “Why do I have to do this?” You familiarize yourself with the instrument in doing that. It’s gotten me through the years playing violin. You don’t realize how much difference it makes until later.
Mihai: My first teacher was very adamant about scales every lesson. The point is, when you’re young you really want to play all the
repertoire that attracted you to the instrument, but it’s very important while
you’re doing that to remember that it's the period when you’re most
flexible and you can really get the basics down. On the road now, when you
don’t have time to practice scales every day, you’re not going to fall apart.
Mihai: Another
good thing to learn when you’re young is how to practice efficiently. So, not
to spend hours on end just playing. It’s
quality over quantity.
David: You know,
I think we’re lucky. We’ve had great teachers. You know [Katie and I] studied
with Ani and
basically in the two years I studied with her, she taught me to be my own teacher. Now that I’ve left, I feel that I’ve learned a lot. That’s the sign of being a good
teacher: giving your students the skills to teach themselves and making them
think critically about what they’re doing.
Katie: In one of
my first lessons with Aaron Rosand at the Curtis Institute of Music, he taught me everything I
know about violin when he said, “My job is to put myself out of business.”
David: Continuing to look for inspiration as well—continuing to look for great
concerts, great chamber concerts, great soloists, watching great orchestras. I probably wouldn’t have continued if I hadn’t, at a
really young age, been somewhat exposed to [great music] on a regular basis. That just keeps you
going—feeds the creativity and the thirst to go more and more. Expose yourself
to as much great music as you can.
Be sure to see the Amphion String Quartet perform the works of Adolphe, Mozart, Schubert, Wolf, and Janácek with special guest clarinetist David Shifrin on April 23 at Weill Recital Hall. Tickets and additional program information can be found
through Carnegie Hall.