LUNCHTIME MUSICAL MEAL TO FEED THE SOUL
An immense sense of calm washed over musician Rainey Weber as her bow gracefully glided across the strings of her viola.
It was a few weeks into the shutdown, and her schedule, as both a performer and an educator, had become increasingly unoccupied due to the catastrophic cancellations that swept the local arts scene in response to the pandemic. To overcome feelings of futility, she began practicing a few of Johann Sebastian Bach’s four-part chorales, finding peace amid the solitude of the coronavirus and its threat to the livelihoods of artists everywhere.
“For me, just remembering that playing is important to me, it feeds me, and I know that when I’ve talked to nonmusician friends, listening can do the same thing for them,” said Weber, who performs alongside cellist Sonya Matoussova and violinists Eugeniu Cheremoush and Laura Cividino — hailing from Russia, Moldova and Italy, respectively — in the Carya String Quartet.
On July 26, the small Houstonbased ensemble will launch “Meditations on Bach,” a virtual series of lunchtime interludes in collaboration with the artistowned Archway Gallery. Throughout the program, the quartet — named after the genus of the pecan tree, which was designated the official state tree of Texas in 1919 — will provide listeners with brief moments for reflective pause to center themselves and ease anxiety fueled by the sea of ambiguity in the world today.
Released at noon for 14 consecutive days, a time span representative of the mandatory quarantine period if exposed or sick, each musical meditation will showcase a piece of artwork by one of the gallery’s artist-members accompanied by one of Bach’s approximately minutelong chorales, prerecorded individually by the four musicians and then digitally assembled.
In line with its focus on the benefits of mindfulness, the series will begin with a free preconcert talk with Catherine Boswell, a former metal worker and visual artist turned psychologist. A founding therapist at Psynergy Psychological Associates, Boswell will discuss educational materials, share expertise and answer questions to raise awareness about mental health, a cause that the quartet has embraced since it was founded in 2018.
“Anxiety and depression are becoming more prevalent as people are dealing with the uncertainty of the pandemic and social isolation,” Weber said. “We knew that we wanted to use the project not only as a way to give people this opportunity to take a break in the middle of each day but also to give them some more resources if they are struggling with mental health.”
The livestream will also feature John Slaby, a member of Archway Gallery since 1993, whose oil painting titled “Kool Aid” will accompany Bach’s “Heut’ist, o Mensch, ein grosser” on Aug. 5, and the quartet members, who will speak at greater depth about their artistic process behind the collaborative project.
While some of the chorales that they selected are uplifting, others emanate an aura of reflection, Weber explained, and although the juxtapositions are up for interpretation, they all portray personal choices made by the ensemble.
One of Weber’s favorite pieces is a setting of the popular German hymn “Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele,” which translates to “Rejoice
greatly, o my soul.” For the July 31 program, the ensemble paired the sunny disposition and simplicity of this harmonization with “Pulsed,” an energetic abstract painting by Liz Conces Spencer featuring a speckled pattern of colorful acrylic that seems to pitter-patter across the canvas.
Other artists who will have work featured in the two-week series include Larry Garmezy, Harold Joiner, Laura Viada, Sherry Tseng Hill, Silvia Pinto Souza and more.
“Reminding ourselves that there’s beauty in the world is so important,” Weber said, “especially when you’re stuck inside and when there’s so much negativity and so many things need to change. Music can connect you when words don’t.”