The Violin Channel had the chance to catch up with VC Artist Rolston String Quartet, to get their perspective on what it takes to be a successful string quartet.
This summer, after concerts at Canada’s Elora Festival, they will perform a riveting program at An Appalachian Summer Festival on July 26. Tickets can be found here.
What are your most significant words of wisdom for up-and-coming chamber groups hoping to build a thriving career?
-Agree upon a vision for the future of the ensemble.
Being a musician/artist means constantly searching for what can be done better. Make sure you are all on the same page about your commitment to that search and the philosophies that drive it.
-Build a social media presence as soon as possible.
-When you hit a few bumps in the road, figure out how to navigate them in a constructive way. Rather than get discouraged, look at the challenges as a springboard for the group’s development. Keep a clear head and see everything as an opportunity.
What are your favorite parts of traveling together? Any tips for groups that are embarking on their first tour?
Exploring different food scenes is a fun perk for us! When you first start to travel in a group, it’s easy to choose rehearsing over exploring a new place. Of course, it’s important to sound good, always. But what’s also important is creating memories other than rehearsals and concerts. The amazing meal you had together or the beautiful gallery you all saw will be the things that stick in your head. Creating experiences makes the tour feel a little more alive.
How important do you think winning competitions is in regards to a quartet’s success?
We think it’s very important. Regardless of the success, you grow as a group. Entering a competition forces you to craft an identity as a group, one that is so crystal clear. You want a jury or audience member to walk away and say, “I understand what that quartet was about. I understand their unique take on music.” You also get exposed to audiences and presenters, and it’s always good to just put yourself out there.
When you’re preparing for a competition, you’re super “in shape” musically. Your ears are at an all-time high, as you come in contact with many other groups who have also pushed themselves to the brink. It forces you to constantly evaluate yourselves.
Although it’s not a natural situation of any sort, it’s beautiful to hear all these different people playing things they’ve prepared. They’ve gone through a similar scenario and it forces everyone to go through a state of hypergrowth.
Would you say it is a similar situation at a summer festival?
It’s a similar place where you can get a lot of work done. At a summer festival, you spend quite a lot of time together and really hone what you’re about. Competitions and festivals are similar in that they are goal driven, but with festivals, there is a little less pressure and competitive spirit. You can set goals and enjoy yourself at the same time.
This will be your first time at An Appalachian Summer Festival. How do you go about choosing a program for a summer festival such as this one?
Firstly, we pick music we like. We are currently working through all of Hayden’s Op. 33 String Quartets. At this concert on the 26th, we chose to play No. 2 and 4. From there, we tried to pick music that fits with those two works.
Often we’ll choose pieces that are structurally similar. All of the pieces on the Appalachian program seem to sprout from a seed. Each piece has a central, unifying motif that the entire piece sprouts out of. The A. R. Thomas and Beethoven employ a really crafted, structural approach to compositions, almost architectural. We think great composers populate their music with a lot of details and a sense of realism, but they’re all in the same framework of physics. There is a sense of verisimilitude. When we work on pieces like these, it makes our rehearsal process really joyous.
You’ve included a piece by living female composer Augusta Read Thomas. Can you tell us about that piece and how you found it?
August Read Thomas is a good friend of ours! She composed this piece for our quartet a few years ago. It is a musical depiction of the mosaics by award-winning mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar. It’s a really good distillation of what we like to do as a quartet, which is very crafted phrasing. She creates these cells and, just like a mosaic, puts them together like puzzle pieces between the different voices of the quartet. It starts out super fragmented, but by the time you get to the second movement, it becomes somewhat like a fanfare.
It was being written during the pandemic, so when we did collaborate with her on the piece, it was over Zoom. She made some adjustments based on our playing, but for the most part, her first draft didn’t need many changes.
When we talked with her about her compositional process, she said that she used other art forms. She dances to her music, paints it, etc.
How important do you think it is for a younger quartet to be working with living composers?
We think it’s really vital. There are so many different ways that music can sound and composers really have such a wide range of possibilities right now in terms of like the type of music that they’re writing. So when you work with a lot of composers, you learn a lot of the different ways that music can exist.
Also, you learn the certain musical language of the composer and each one teaches you something different about your instrument, or about the way phases can put together, notes combined, intervals used, etc.
Then, you can apply this new knowledge to your readings of Beethoven or Brahms or Haydn. You can use what you’re learning from the contemporary composers to better understand the older ones. As a musician, it can be a meaningful interaction to go between these eras, yet understanding that the music is crafted from the same basic tools.
Additionally, it is keeping the tradition alive of working with composers. Composers like Beethoven and Brahms would work with the violinists and musicians of their time. By interacting with composers of our day, we are creating the artistic language of the time we live in.
It’s the same as any great art form. The composers that are alive today are part of a tradition of composition that takes place over centuries. We’re lucky to be living in a time where we can look at very, very old and then very new music, and then find commonalities/differences.
You recently released your debut album “Souvenirs.” Any “Do’s” and “Don’ts” for up-and-coming ensembles getting ready to record their first album?
-Find a good recording engineer!
-Sometimes, you can get bogged down during a session, so find ways to keep things fresh.
-Listen back to the recording that you just made while you’re still in the studio so you have time to make changes if you want. For example, if you hate how the mics are set up, it’s better to know and change it right then, rather than have the CD come out and realize it later.
-Be very involved with the editing process. In a lot of recording studio situations, you can get self-conscious and nervous about doing everything right. But don’t worry too much, because lots can be edited.
-Once again, it comes down to having a shared vision with your quartet-mates. Recording music that means a lot to you as a group is important. Just have fun with it!
What is your social media strategy? It seems like you try to balance the serious things with more fun posts!
One of us runs the social media accounts, but it is definitely a collaborative process. Anybody can post whatever as long as everyone else is okay with it. And usually, we know what the others will and won’t be okay with posting.
In general, social media is a great way to engage with people even if they’re far away. We try to mix up the content for our followers and post stuff that we’d enjoy seeing on our own feeds.
What’s one of your best memories together?
Our recent tour to Germany was a lot of fun. It was seven concerts in about ten days. After not traveling as much due to COVID-19, it meant a lot to us to be able to spend a substantial amount of time on the road. Also, it was right after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and we were meeting some Ukrainian refugees that had made their way to Germany. We included a Ukrainian hymn in the program and it made the whole experience a lot more personal and real. Some of the refugees we met were actually living in the same hotel that we were briefly staying at.
Being able to play music amidst the atrocity of the current situation made us realize the power of music and the distillation of what music is capable of. For the refugees attending the concerts, we hope they got something positive out of it.
To check out the Rolston String Quartet’s upcoming engagements, click here.
The Mountain Times
by Derek Halsey
BOONE — By all measures, due to hard work, perseverance and an opportunity that popped up at just the right time, actress and singer Renée Elise Goldsberry has made it in the worlds of stage and screen.
For many entertainers, especially on Broadway, you are lucky if you are associated with one hit show during your career, as that well-earned notoriety can carry you throughout your performing life. In the case of Goldsberry, however, she has virtually run the table in recent years with appearances in multiple hit shows.
Goldsberry performed in the original Broadway run of “The Color Purple,” she inhabited the role of Nala in the hit Disney production of “The Lion King,” and she portrayed the character Mimi in the very popular show called “Rent,” which ran on Broadway for over a decade.
Goldsberry is perhaps best known, however, for her original cast role as Angelica Schuyler in the enormous Broadway success known as “Hamilton.”
While the shows “The Color Purple, “The Lion King” and “Rent” all have their passionate followers “Hamilton” became a modern-day theater phenomenon. Goldsberry’s performance in the musical resulted in a Tony Award, a Grammy Award for the soundtrack, a Drama Desk award and the Lucille Lortel Award.
On Saturday, July 16, Goldsberry is following up on all of that success by presenting her own show at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m. A presentation by the App Summer Series, tickets range from $50 for adults to $25 for students. More information can be found at appsummer.org.
There are thousands of actors and actresses who seek out a career in the theater after attending a school for the creative arts, after building up a reputation in Summer Stock productions or after graduating with a degree in Theatre Studies at a university. That makes the theater world and the movie, TV and music industries very competitive.
As for Goldsberry, she first headed to California to make her mark in the entertainment business yet almost gave up on her dreams as time went on.
“I grew up in Houston, Texas, and I love the South,” said Goldsberry. “I have been auditioning for musicals since I was eight years old and I just really fell in love with it as a child. Later on, when I was older, I was living in Los Angeles where I had a lot of singing and acting jobs. I did pretty much anything that I thought could move me forward and that felt honest and was something I could tell my parents about. I did a show called Ally McBeal on television and I was in a movie called “All About You” in 2001. I also had a band and I sang and wrote songs. So, I did the same things that I do now, just at a different level. On “Ally McBeal,” I sang backup on that show so I was in close proximity to a lot of very talented people who were blowing up with stardom, and it was wonderful to watch them navigate through the world of entertainment, and it was very helpful when it came to my own career, even now.”
Goldsberry’s shot at fame almost didn’t happen, however, until fate stepped in. A phone call changed everything and soon she was traveling 2,700 miles from LA to New York City.
“The folks with ‘The Lion King’ had auditioned me a few times in Los Angeles and as soon as I got engaged and was ready to pack it up and be a wife, I got a call asking me to star on Broadway in New York City,” said Goldsberry. “That is what brought me here almost 20 years ago, and I’m still here. Right before that call happened, I was able to cobble together enough money to pay my rent just by singing and acting in LA. It was a bit of a challenge at times, but I was able to do it by the grace of God. I did gigs in clubs and did small parts in TV shows. I also sang backup for other artists and I would record music for the Disney theme parks. I did an assortment of things.”
Goldsberry is a firm believer in being prepared and perfecting your craft at all times so you will be ready in case that big opportunity knocks on your door.
Once Goldsberry was performing in “The Lion King” her talent showed through. “Rent’ and “The Color Purple” followed and she was on her way. When the musical “Hamilton” blew up, however, the response was overwhelming as the show changed Broadway in a lot of ways.
“People talk about those other plays all of the time, but ‘Hamilton’ definitely got the most attention,” said Goldsberry. “But, for sure, ‘The Lion King’ isn’t going anywhere because you have to bring your kids to see ‘The Lion King.’ It is timeless and it’s universal and there is always going to be new kids and they are always going to want to go see it. What happened with ‘Hamilton’ is that new generations of people will also embrace it in the same way people do today. When you tell people what ‘Hamilton’ is, as in a show about Alexander Hamilton who is a person that a lot of people have never heard of who don’t know their history, and that the story is going to be told by this assortment of people with a lot of different kinds of music with the main one being rap music; I don’t think anybody was thinking it was going to work. The beauty is that it shocked us all.”
Work it did as “Hamilton” created by Lin-Manel Miranda, is still as popular as ever. At the outset, while Goldsberry was a bit unsure about “Hamilton,” she remembered seeing Miranda’s previous play In “The Heights” and realized how brilliant both the play and Miranda would be and jumped onboard with this new, unique and counter-intuitive musical.
The cool thing about winning multiple awards and being in multiple hit musicals as Goldsberry has done is being able to do what she is about to do in the Schaefer Center in Boone on Saturday, and that is create a show based on her own creativity.
“Being in ‘Hamilton’ has given me the opportunity to travel the country with the best band I have ever had in my life,” said Goldsberry. “It is daunting to venture into this space as just myself when I have played so many characters that have been larger than life. But when you come to see my show, my goal is to bond with the audience as myself and it has been a joy to do. The first half of the show will be songs that you know and love that has nothing to do with my career. I do a lot of soulful music and inspirational music, pop and classic songs that people love and that feel really good. We do the best of the best of many genres of music, and then in the second half, we find ourselves right at home in the end with music from ‘The Lion King,’ ‘Rent’ and ‘Hamilton,’ singing the songs that people came to hear. By the time we’re done, we will all feel like family.”
WataugaDemocrat.com
By Derek Halsey
BOONE — Esperanza Spalding is an acclaimed musician who tries to incorporate the world around her, and the experiences that surround all of us on this small planet, into her music.
Known as a jazz artist — an important genre that explores the possibility of music in some of its highest forms yet amazingly ranks the lowest when it comes to popularity these days — Spalding began as a classical musician in her home of Portland, Oregon.
Motivated by seeing the great cellist Yo Yo Ma perform and converse on the infamous children’s TV show “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood” as a kid, Spalding knew what her path would be at an early age. As a teenager, her obvious talent and growing abilities would lead to scholarships at schools such as The Northwest Academy and the Berklee College of Music located across the country in Boston. Mentored and encouraged by jazz legends and Berklee instructors Pat Metheny and Gary Burton, Spalding also cultivated her impressive multi-octave singing voice while expanding her bass playing style.
When Spalding graduated from Berklee in 2005, she was asked to be an instructor at the school. By 2011, with three albums under belt, she won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, an honor usually reserved for pop artists.
As time went by, Spalding’s artistic curve showed no signs of veering into stereotypical repetitiveness. Even now, boxing her talent into the confines of the jazz genre does not tell the full story. She continues to combine other kinds of music into her compositions, singing and playing as well as the sounds of the earth mixed with a spiritual essence that keeps her unique grooves fresh and flowing.
Spalding’s latest album is called the ‘Songwrights Apothecary Lab,’ which is officially described as, “Half songwrighting workshop, and half guided-research practice, the Songwrights’ Apothecary Lab seeks to develop a structure for the collaborative development of new compositions designed to offer enhanced salutary benefit to listeners.”
Recorded in three locations and divided into 13 compositions each known as a “Formwela” with the added numbers 1 through 13 attached to the constant title; each song on the album is accompanied by a highly-creative video, which you can view on Youtube here — tinyurl.com/SpaldingBoone.
Spalding’s ““Songwrights Apothecary Lab”” album won the Grammy Award several months ago for Best Jazz Vocals.
Esperanza Spalding will perform at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts this Saturday, July 9, as a part of Appalachian State University’s Summer Series. The concert begins at 8 p.m. and tickets are $45 for adults and $25 for students. The Schaefer Center is located at 733 Rivers Street in Boone.
Joining Spalding onstage will be Matthew Stevens on guitar, Morgan Guerin on sax, keyboards and bass, and Eric Doob on drums along with Sasha Ishmel-Muhammad on vocals and Vuyolwethu Sotashe on vocals.
Along with the musicians, Spalding has incorporated dance into her live show that will feature choreographer/dancer Antonia Brown along with dancers Kaylin Horgan, Christiana Hunte and Tashae Udo. All of the performers will be working with wardrobe designer Marion Talan De La Rosa, lighting designer Kate McGee and sound engineer Fernando Lodeiro.
The previously-mentioned idea of Spalding bringing the essence of her natural surroundings into her music is something that purposely appears on her new ““Songwrights Apothecary Lab”” project.
The first three cuts were composed and expounded upon while Spalding and fellow artists spent time in Wasco County, Oregon, which is west of Portland and south of the Yakama Indian Reservation. Spalding and collaborator Corey King combined to create music in Portland, Oregon, and for the final six cuts, she went east to Lower Manhattan and New York City where she combined her creative forces with those of Leonardo Genovese, Francisco Mela, Matthew Stevens, Aaron Burnett, Grant Jones, Nivi Ravi, Ganavya Doraiswamy, Britton Howard, Marisol Norris, Héloïse Darcq, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and The Clemente Soto.
“I’m sure (outside natural influences) are always happening, whether or not we intend for them to, because the place that we are in informs the way that we play and what we hear and compose,” said Spalding. “When we were in each location of the “Songwrights Apothecary Lab”, we were very much incorporating the sensation of being in each locale into the song. It was one of the guiding principles of the Apothecary quilt; that we really want the place, the people in the place and the atmosphere of the place to inform the music and to be legible through the music. We clarify where each piece was created (in the liner notes found at songwrightsapothecarylab.com) partially to augment the connection with the place and partially hoping that people can tune into the atmosphere of that place and hear how that is resonating in the music that we created there.”
At this point, Spalding’s recordings all seem to be what some refer to as “concept albums,” in that the musical pieces enclosed are cohesive, connected, and more than just a collection of individual, stand-alone songs grouped together to form an album.
“I’ve never used the phrase ‘concept album’ before, but I guess to me every album is a concept album because it has a title and it does have an intention, even if the album is based on snippets that we wrote over the last however-long period of time,” said Spalding. “In my case, and in our case, these albums are a record of what we are interested in at the time. But, you have to organize the information in some kind of way, so the shape they take is of an album. Albums, however, are a very arbitrary format, with 12 songs on it. It is just what we have at the moment. If there was another format available to offer a portrait of what we are working on, I would use it. I wish there was another format that was funded or supported or distributed the way that albums are, but there isn’t one yet. So, albums are the format that I have to use. It will be cool when another, maybe more-multi-sensory format becomes available.”
Spalding, with her appreciation of nature always in the mix, is thrilled when told that these western North Carolina Mountains are the highest east of the Rocky Mountains. While she has been to Asheville before, Spalding has never been to Boone. Thankfully, Spalding will get to spend more than one day here in the High Country as along with her concert at the Schaefer Center on Saturday, she will also be spending some time with the students in the Hayes School of Music at our own Appalachian State University. Whether her spare time enables a visit to Linville Gorge or the top of Elk Knob Mountain is unknown.
“Oh cool. I didn’t know that,” said Spalding, when told of the uniqueness of these Blue Ridge Mountains. “I’ve been to Asheville, of course, but I haven’t been to that region before. I love the mountains. I love that I am coming to those mountains. And, this concert in Boone will be the first performance for this particular exploratory project, so that is really special. We are also actually going to be there for a few days with the university, so I am excited about it.”
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