40 YEARS AS A FOURSOME
String quartet celebrates with friends
Sunday’s performance by the Emerson Quartet shines a spotlight on three very long and very productive associations. Friends of Chamber Music is poised to celebrate its 70th season of bringing chamber music’s best to Vancouver, while the Emerson Quartet celebrates its own 40th anniversary. Meanwhile, the Friends and the Emerson Quartet have been collaborators almost since the quartet’s inception. Clearly this relationship shows there’s much to be learned about commitment and compatibility.
Earlier this month I enjoyed an extended conversation with violinist Eugene Drucker, who alternates violin roles with Philip Setzer in the quartet. The Emerson got its start, like so many chamber ensembles, back in music school; in this case, Juilliard in the early 1970s. Did they have a strategy? “To have had a game plan at that time ... would have been presumptuous,” says Drucker.
“It was several years on before we really decided to get professional management, for the 197778 season.”
As it turns out, there was a Vancouver/Emerson connection even in those early days.
“Our cellist at that time was Eric Wilson, who left in 1979 to accept a job at the University of B.C. He’s remained a good friend.”
The early stages of creating a viable chamber music brand are far from easy.
“It was after those embryonic student years that we really doubled down on our commitment to professionalism,” says Drucker. “Freelancing kept us just barely solvent, and on the horizon was the knowledge that we needed financially stable lives, just to be able to rehearse at a professional level. It wasn’t until 1986 that we got a residency with a pension plan and dental benefits.”
Was there ever a temptation for a different sort of career in music? Drucker considered his options.
“I went to Marlboro for some years, and did some solo violin gigs, and wondered if I should try to become a concertmaster with a symphony.”
But the Emerson commitment won out.
The music business is one of continual change and a certain insecurity. Having recently judged FOC’s annual competition for young musicians, I can tell you there is no shortage of promising ensembles here. Does Drucker have any words of advice for would be chamber players?
“Frequently, when asked how I would advise a young quartet, I would say the first five years are the hardest — all the hurdles you have to clear,” he says.
“It’s a given that you won’t be making a good salary, because the fees aren’t large and the bookings aren’t frequent. You have to accept that as a reality.
“The other part of the challenge is on a personal and instrumental level. You will naturally have different ideas in approaches to particular pieces. You must try to play the way the other people want you to, and hope that they will reciprocate. And, of course, a sense of humour doesn’t hurt. It allows us to take a step back and laugh at things that happen.”
It helps as well to develop longterm relationships with presenters. Series events, like the Emerson’s Smithsonian concerts in Washington D.C., have been a big part of the Quartet’s agenda. Just as important are presenters like Houston’s Friends of Chamber Music, California’s Orange County Performing Arts Centre, and, of course, our own Friends. (“We’ve played in Vancouver almost every year since 1979”).
For the latest Vancouver gig, the play list starts with Mozart, then Shostakovich and Grieg.