Winter 2003
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FSQ returns to Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on January 13th, 2003, for a Showcase Performance hosted by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The FSQ is one of five groups that has been invited to participate in the Young Performers Career Advancement Seminar hosted by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters January 11th- 14th, 2003, in New York City.

Click here to read the review of the FSQ's Carnegie Hall Debut.

Fall 2002
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The quartet is the new faculty quartet-in-residence at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. The Quartet now resides in beautiful Logan, Utah, located in the northern part of the state in the Cache Valley nestled between the Rocky Mountains. Each member of the quartet has a private studio of students in addition to running the chamber music program at Utah State. For more information about Utah State University and/or studying at Utah State click here.

FSQ performs at Sweet Briar College in a tribute concert for the late Maestro Isaac Stern in Isaac Stern: A Musical Celebration. The event on September 30th, 2002, at Sweet Briar College celebrated the life of Mr. Stern. At the invitation of Linda Reynolds Stern we had the privilege of performing for the event. It was wonderful to be able to do a little something with our gratitude.

FSQ Returns to Helena, MT, for a residency and joint concert with the Ying Quartet. The Quartet was in Helena, MT from October 3rd, 2002-October 11th, 2002 where we gave two formal concerts and many educational concerts throughout the area. A highlight was sharing the first 2 days of the residency and the first formal concert with the Ying Quartet. We've admired their quartet for many years as pioneers of the first Rural Residencies Program and as a fine ensemble, so it was a great opportunity to spend time and share ideas with these amazing people and artists. Performing the Mendelssohn Octet together was a total blast! It was also a pleasure to return to Helena and continue working with their young musicians. A particular delight this trip was discovering that a student we had worked with last visit had actually composed a movement of a string quartet which we then performed for his high school music classes. Also, other students we had worked with last visit had formed their very own string quartet. The audiences were enthusiastic and engaged, and a pleasure to perform for. We love Helena and the folks at the Myrna Loy Center.

FSQ performs at Sweet Briar College in a tribute concert for the late Maestro Isaac Stern in Isaac Stern: A Musical Celebration.

Mr. Stern: Mentor and Source of Inspiration

The Fry Street Quartet had the great fortune of studying at two of Mr. Stern's chamber music workshops. The first, in Jerusalem, Israel, and the second in New York City. Before that, however, Mr. Stern had long been a presence in our musical lives. Hearing him in concert, listening to his recordings, watching him on television all made him a constant legendary figure as we grew up studying music. The two workshops were life-changing for me, and for my quartet. His mission was always to guide the students to find their own artistry, and he did so brilliantly. His method was to ask questions that lead the students to find their own meaning in the music and their own ability to execute that meaning. His intolerance of careless playing was also an inspiring example -- that alone goes far to explain his greatness. His wisdom comes into play at every rehearsal.

We've all been touched by him though - Mr. Stern was a master of the big picture, which is another aspect that sets him apart. When I stop to think about it, many of his worldly contributions have directly affected us. To name only a few, he had a hand in creating and then defending the NEA which was a major contributor to the grant which supported us for the last three years during our Rural Residency in North Carolina; this grant was the opportunity of a lifetime for us. His campaign to save Carnegie Hall was a gift to the world, and gave us the most exciting debut that we could dream of (where else in this country would it mean so much?); he opened up the musical world in China which has meant so much to Rong-Yan Tang, our former violinist, and us through her. Then there is all the musical wisdom and generosity which he shared tirelessly with the younger generations of musicians. He is someone who through his magnificent talents and generosity truly left the world a better place.

Shortly after his death we played a concert at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, to an over-packed house (nearly 800 people with people seated on the stage). One of the works we played was the Beethoven Quartet (Op. 18 #6) that we had studied with him in Jerusalem, so we dedicated the concert to him. Russell spoke a beautiful dedication to the audience which felt entirely right, and then we played one of the best concerts we've ever played. All four of us were thinking of the music and of him...He'll always be with us as a tremendous inspiration. It's now time for all of us to step up our commitment to music and the world in the way that he lived it...his are enormous shoes that are impossible to fill, but maybe with us all trying a little harder we can continue his missions.

-- Rebecca McFaul, September 2002

Summer 2002
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Russell's Balkan Journal: Recollections from the quartet's summer 2002 tour of the Balkans as Carnegie Fellows, sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the U.S. State Department

SLOVENIA
Our first stop on our tour of the former Yugoslavia was in Ljublana, the capital city of Slovenia, where we were to stay for several days at the Hotel Slon (Elephant) as a home base, and travel 1-2 hours for each of four run-out concerts. During our drive from the airport, the gorgeous Slovenian countryside and the majestic Austrian-looking city of Ljubljana defied most of my cold-war preconceptions of Eastern Europe, and I started to feel that perhaps Slovenia was a bit of an isolated utopia, which was confirmed for me with each day of our stay there. Rural Slovenia proved to be immensely beautiful-lush greenery and rugged hill towns connected by tiny, well-kept roads and uniformly cute stucco houses dotting the landscape and adding to its charm. Every house is adorned with lovely flower planters, and we heard from an audience member that the Slovenes can get quite competitive with their neighbors about their gardening. Our first three concerts were in beautiful rural settings, two in old, stone catholic churches amid hilly farmland and forest, and one at a two-week international string orchestra camp for high school and college students, located in the middle of Slovenia's wine vineyards. Hospitality in Slovenia was excellent, and each night we were shown great attention or sat down to a wonderful three hour traditional meal after the concert.


It was fun to see some old friends at one of the concerts: the Slovenian Fegus String Quartet and their former teacher, Brian Finlayson, all of whom we had seen at Isaac Stern's Chamber Music Seminar at Carnegie Hall last summer. Brian is an incredibly inquisitive, creative and inspiring teacher, and it was fun to share at dinner old stories (he was also with the Fry Street Quartet in Jerusalem for Stern's Seminar in 2000) and to discuss new ideas-in this way, the Stern Seminars continue, and there's already talk about the 'next time' we see each Brian and work together. The Fegus Quartet came later to Ljubljana to eat with us, and brought stories of their recent studies with Milan Skampa, the world's leading expert on the string quartets of Leos Janacek. They even brought us copies of their parts for Janacek's 1st quartet, with Skampa's notes in them-a wonderful gift, considering that the Fry Street Quartet recently performed Janacek's 1st Quartet at Carnegie Hall, and recorded it on CD, all using Skampa's edition. Also, the Fegus's gave us the score to their father's string quartet, written for them, and we are looking forward to a reading of this quartet and the Fry Street's first experience with a Slovenian composer. Although we were unable to speak with Mr. Fegus about his quartet, we have the common language of music with which to communicate and get to know each other.


Many thanks are in order to the organizer of our 4 Slovenian concerts, Matej Zupan, an incredibly energetic, worldly flutist, teacher and philosopher who, in our time with him, gave me many inspiring ways to look at music, teaching and life. It was also interesting to meet members of the Slovenian 'Tartini" Quartet, and the organizers from the concert series in Cerknica and the music camp at Doljenske Toplice.

The Slovenes that we met were interesting and active for their cause, and it was hard to believe that this country had only recently won its independence in 1991 in a 9 day war with Yugoslavia, and that it is still recovering economically. Interestingly, one Slovene told me (we continued to hear this throughout the trip at all of the places where we traveled) that the Eighties were the heyday of economic prosperity in Yugoslavia. The only evidence to me of the economic challenge in Slovenia today, was that the leaders of the artistic community all seemed to share a sense that progress in the arts moved very slowly, and there were not too many opportunities for artists to make a living in Slovenia. This pessimism accompanied by a sense of difficulty in breaking through old 'lack of opportunity' mindset was a theme that was to keep popping up throughout the tour, although with the least negative affect in Slovenia, which had the healthiest economy of the countries that we visited. It would not surprise me if Slovenia were to win acceptance into the European Union in the next few years.

BELGRADE
To get to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, we took the train all day through Croatia, and on this trip, we began to notice along the way the bullet holes and bombed out buildings that had not yet been repaired from the recent war, along with many new buildings that stood where old ones had been leveled. The border crossing into Yugoslavia had the feeling of communist intimidation and beaurocracy that I had forgotten to expect while in Slovenia, as all foreigners on the train went from office to office waiting grimly in lines for their visa to be processed by cigarette smoking police guards.


Our young driver, Igor, whom we came to like very much, had a pride and seriousness beyond his years, and as he took us to our hotel, he pointed out various large buildings and skyscrapers that had been precision-bombed by NATO in 1999. A city of 2 million, "Belgrade," or "the White City" is anything but white-its pollution coated buildings and occasional bombed-out government and business centers give the city an ominous feeling, which was enhanced by the driving techno-beat blaring in most cabs and clubs. The economy doesn't stop the stylishness of the cities' inhabitants, who walk up and down the main walking streets like models on a runway, and frequent the many open-air coffeehouses. Belgrade struck me as the proud center of Serbian Orthodox Christian Yugoslavia -defeated in its war effort to keep greater Yugoslavia and the Serbs together, with refusal to concede to the widely held western belief that the Serbs with leadership in Belgrade were responsible for the war and atrocities against humanity. In this setting, our manic and energetic American string quartet by J. Marc Scearce, entitled Y2K, took on particular meaning for me. It is interesting how a setting can shed light on a work of art. Had Y2K been the catastrophe we feared, maybe American cities would have an energy similar to that of Belgrade today.


MONTENEGRO
Our two contacts in Montenegro: Roz, the public affairs officer at the American Embassy, and the Bishop of Montenegro, made our stay and concerts in this region of Yugoslavia an adventure of nightlife and politics for me.

Both Roz and the Bishop are exceptionally worldly and educated. Both are politically and socially in touch with the Balkans in all its complexity, and dedicated to the region's growth, while cynical about the speed and direction of progress. Roz brought us after our concert in Podgorica to a Jazz Club opening: performing was a good Latin-jazz band (like one might expect to be from Miami) from Belgrade.


The Bishop, a highly educated and well-traveled musician and catholic priest who considered himself 'the last of the Mohicans' among his church in his appreciation for classical music, showed us the club scene in Kotor (gorgeous seaside getaway of Yugoslavia, although, to my amazement, everyone says that it is even more beautiful on the Croatian coastline), and explained that many of the region's youth are hopeless about their future and wasting their present on drugs. I couldn't help but think that the Balkans need more educational and artistic leaders like Stern and Carnegie Hall (and how lucky we are to have them) to give its youth some hope and trust in themselves and their possibilities.


BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
The place on our tour that seemed to have the most hope despite its overwhelming challenges was Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Sarajevo, which I remember fondly from the 1984 Olympics, was under extreme military Siege from all sides for nearly four years ending in 1995, which seems almost like yesterday, as one can't help but notice the bullet and mortar damage which still mars nearly every square foot of pavement in the city.

The reason for the civil war is hard to grasp by talking to the locals, a flavor which is demonstrated well in the Academy-Award winning film, 'No Man's Land,' which was done by a Bosnian, and was recommended so often while we were in Sarajevo, that Rebecca and I rented it the day after we returned home. Our first day in Sarajevo included a tour of the tunnel which was secretly dug by hand by Sarajevans during the siege to connect the city with humanitarian supplies.


Despite huge sacrifices during the siege, when there was no electricity, barely enough food for survival, and the constant possibility of death by the surrounding army that targeted civilians freely, and despite the present economic crisis which comes from the need to rebuild EVERYTHING, the Sarajevans we met exuded a tremendous feeling of hope and gratefulness. Maybe this hope came from the impossible situation of the siege, when each day, we were told, one would be happy simply to be alive at all. The American Embassy is a very big and busy operation, with a large staff of both Americans and Bosnians working together to make political and social improvements for the inhabitants of the city and the greater country, most of which is war-torn. Our concerts in Sarajevo seemed to have the most impact of the whole tour. The publicity was incredible, the concert was packed, and we got a wonderful sense at press events and receptions that the embassy and the Sarajevans were working feverishly together to bring about programs of educational and artistic value.


Community leaders, artists, and teachers in the city came and talked with us and thanked us for coming and we left with the desire to keep up these relationships and to look for future possibilities for exchange between our cultures. Music, in this way, is an extraordinary means of communication. I think that Mr. Stern would be very proud to see his Carnegie Hall and his State Department working together to promote such communication, and to see one of the groups that he encouraged so much to begin following in his path, using music as a way to bring people of the world together in friendship.

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