It’s not unusual for the USC School of Music to bring in impressive, visiting artists to work with students, but this week's arrival of the Parker Quartet, the University’s quartet-in-residence, is rousing an exceptional level of excitement among music students.
The internationally famous, Grammy award-winning string quartet, comprised of Daniel Chong, Ying Xue, Jessica Bodner and Kee-Hyun Kim, is also the full-time quartet-in-residence at Harvard University. The quartet will spend the next six days at USC, participating in a wide variety of events.
The concert will take place in the Darla Moore School of Business at 7:30 p.m. Audiences can expect an emotional experience. A second concert will take place in Johnson Hall on Sunday, March 22 at 5 p.m.
“The pieces on [Tuesday's] program are tied together by the theme of The Hunt,” Bodner said, “because the Mozart piece is nicknamed ‘The Hunt Quartet,’ the Widmann is called ‘The Hunt Quartet,’ and the Brahms that we’re playing also has hunting themes throughout, so the program features different pieces but is held together by that theme."
The Parker Quartet has been associated with USC since 2013, so students and faculty members have worked with them before. The quartet's week-long stay includes two public recitals, chamber music master classes, individual instrument master classes, seminars and coaching chamber music at USC.
“In just one class, I probably learned a month’s worth of knowledge,” said Jordan Bartow, a first-year music student who has worked with the quartet twice before. “All I can say about it is that it’s unlike anything that I’ve ever been able to do. Whenever I get to work with them, it’s always the best day of the year. I look forward to the day months and months in advance.”
The quartet’s four musicians’ passion for teaching and mentoring is evident from the amount of time they spend working with students.
“It’s really worthwhile for the students,” said Dr. Robert Jesselson, a cello professor who has worked closely with the quartet. "They get a glimpse into the life of a touring, internationally famous, Grammy award-winning quartet, and so that’s a great thing for students. While they’re here, it’s an incredibly intense week. We work with the quartet really hard while they’re here.”
In addition to Tuesday and Sunday’s concerts, they’re spending the week with college students, high school students and even students from the Department of Juvenile Justice completing outreach programs.
“I actually wish we could have talked to some of the [DJJ] students there more,” Bodner said, the quartet’s violist. “I felt like the ones that had experience with music really latched onto it, like it was something that they felt was also theirs, which was really nice. They were all respectful, but hopefully at the end of the day we gave them something that they can think about and that they can hold on to.”
In general, the string quartet is one of the more emotional musical media. The repertoire is vast, and the interaction between the small group of musicians tends to add an element of intimacy to the repertoire.
“So many wonderful composers really chose it as their medium for either exploring what’s possible in their writing, or for writing the most personal things that they’ve ever written,” Bodner said. “Beethoven, for example, wrote 16 quartets over the course of his life, and you can really feel in the quartets the exploration of his own writing, and also the exploration of his own soul of who he was.”
For anyone interested in an introduction to string quartets, or for longtime fans of the Parker Quartet, Tuesday’s concert will provide a great sample of the quartet repertoire.
“First of all, they play on such a high level technically and have so much to say musically, so I think any listener hears them and is completely drawn into their sound world,” said Jesselson. “It’s very special.”