Parker String Quartet At NMS

By Laurie Borst

On Monday, October 23, Newtown Middle School orchestra members, under the direction of Keith Hedin, got the opportunity to sit down with the members of the Parker String Quartet. The quartet appeared at the Edmond Town Hall the previous day as part of the Newtown Friends of Music series.

The quartet performed String Quartet in G Major, K. 387 by Mozart, Quartet No. 1 “Metamorphosis Nocturnes” by Ligeti, and Quartet in A Minor, Opus 41, No. 1 by Schumann. These three pieces were the basis of the outreach program that took place on Monday.

The students attended the Sunday concert and were prepared to discuss them with the quartet. The focus was on character and theme. The quartet would play a piece or a section of a movement and ask the students for comments.

An excerpt from Mozart elicited descriptions of “soft” or “a secret” from the young people. A second excerpt was described as “fiercer,” “stronger,” and “more accented.” This was exactly what the professionals had wanted the students to notice.

During selections from Schumann, the quartet introduced different bowing techniques, asking the students to note how the sound was affected. Students described down strokes as crisper, more forceful, more dramatic than up strokes.

At the end of the 90-minute session, a question and answer period was held. Students were curious about how many hours a day the group practiced together.

Daniel Chong, first violin, replied, “We practice together three or four hours a day, and at least a couple hours solo.”

The students wanted to know where they were from and how they got together. Jessica Bodner, viola, and Karen Kim, second violin, are from the Midwest. Daniel Chong is from Los Angeles. Kee-Hyun Kim, cello, hails from Korea. They met in Boston while attending conservatories there. All four began playing an instrument before the age of 6.

“They were really good. They showed us there are lots of different ways to play a string instrument,” said Anna Martino when asked about this experience.

Paige Olson added, “I went to the concert last night. Having them tutor me here is really cool. I hope the next string quartet [that performs] can come in here, too.”