Orchestra putting string quartets through tryouts

Sunday, September 24, 2006

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

It's a string quartet Battle of the Bands.

For its upcoming season, the Western Piedmont Symphony is mixing things up by inviting four string quartets from around the nation to audition for a three-year stint with the orchestra.

The Degas Quartet, which joined the symphony after a similar tryout, completed its residency last season.
Conductor John Gordon Ross said he's both excited and a little nervous about bringing in a new principle string group, with four new musicians.

"Having those people in those front chairs will change the sound of the orchestra," Ross said. "(But) this is the best four groups we've had come to town in a single year. I think maybe this takes us a step up."

The quartets auditioning are LaCatrina from Kent State University, Kailas from Rice University, Hyperion from San Diego State University the Vega String Quartet from Emory University.

The musicians in those quartets are from all over the world, symphony Executive Director John Brown said, including Mexico, Great Britain and Japan.

"The fact that we have the four quartets challenging each other and bringing different backgrounds and cultural emphasis to the community is important," Brown said.

Each quartet will have two main performances in its audition - one with the orchestra in the Masterworks series and one in the Friends of the Quartet Chamber Classics Series.

Ross said each quartet will keep busy while here. Their itineraries include performances at schools, community centers and retirement homes, formal dinners and B-flat concerts.

At the end of the season, Ross and a committee of symphony board members, members of the community and orchestra musicians will select one of the quartets to join the symphony for the 2007-08 season.

It isn't just the auditioning quartets that make the upcoming season unique, Brown said. The Masterworks Series will hold its first performance at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center in Lenoir. Previously all concerts have been held at First Baptist Church in Hickory.

"We've become more of the western Piedmont, which we are," Brown said. "We're not the Hickory Symphony."

As in past years, the symphony will host a 6 p.m. dinner before each performance. Masterworks dinners will be held at Michael's on Fourth, and Chamber Classics dinners will take place in the north lobby of the SALT Block. Each costs $30.

Ross said he's looking forward to the season.

"I've been here 15 years, and it's always very interesting," he said. "There's a little bit of excitement and well-directed anxiety, and that makes it kind of fun."



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