Laundry and Op. 132

It is sometimes the strangest thing in the world to work on a great piece of music. Outside of the work, life goes on, laundry is washed and folded (eventually), bills are paid, children are dropped at daycare. But while the trappings of normal life continue, an amazing work of art is gradually but insistently [...]

One week as cellist of the Chiara Quartet

Monday, Feb. 8

Still basking in the glow of a review from yesterday.  Last night was fun – after performing in Brooklyn, we rushed to JFK in time to catch a 10:40 PM JetBlue flight to Boston, arriving at our hotel in Cambridge at 1 AM.  Today, we begin the first day of a 1-week residency [...]

Four plus two

Six is the number of Chiara Quartet members that have been traveling to play concerts recently.  But there are four members in a quartet you say?  Yes, but we have an unusual situation right now where two women of the quartet each have a baby under one year of age.  Becca has a wonderful 11-month [...]

Ah…life and travel

Few things in life are predictable, and traveling is certainly not one of them.  Traveling as a string quartet we have learned several things that make the experience smoother: try to leave on the first flight out because you’ll have a better chance of getting to your destination, never argue with the flight attendants when [...]

Playing a Beethoven cycle – for the first time

Welcome to the first post of the Chiara Quartet’s new blog! As we near the Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, the quartet is also preparing to embark upon a massive journey, performances of all 16 string quartets that Ludwig van Beethoven composed in his lifetime. This is a milestone in any quartet’s development, one [...]

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