San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Stringing it all together
Hausmann Quartet cellist Alex Greenbaum teaches at SDSU, co-curates a concert series and performs in multiple ensembles
Alex Greenbaum is a cellist, educator and member of San Diego’s well-respected Hausmann Quartet. But that doesn’t come close to describing the wide range of work he does.
The quartet’s members — violinists Isaac Allen and Bram Goldstein, violist Angela Choong and Greenbaum — are artist-inresidence faculty members at San Diego State University’s School of Music and Dance. The foursome runs the school’s chamber music program. Greenbaum and Allen are also lecturers and have private studios for their SDSU students.
Quartet members lead weekly jam sessions at San Diego Rescue Mission and Father Joe’s Villages, in collaboration with music-therapy nonprofit Resounding Joy.
Next Sunday, the Hausmann Quartet will perform at the First United Methodist Church in Mission Valley. And on Feb. 26, the group will open its eighth season of popular quarterly concerts aboard the steamboat Berkeley at downtown’s Maritime Museum of San Diego.
Greenbaum also plays on his own with Bach Collegium San Diego, San Diego Baroque and the Hutchins Consort. He and his violinist wife, Kate Hatmaker, are the new co-directors of Athenaeum Music & Arts Library’s Chamber Concerts Series and she heads Art of Elan. Greenbaum also plays occasionally with Art of Elan.
Hatmaker, a San Diego Symphony violinist, and Greenbaum have two sons, ages 5 and 7.
“Yes, it’s often crazy,” said the cellist, who turns 40 in mid-april and moved to San Diego in 2012. “Google Calendar and an amazing babysitter are vital to our lives. I feel incredibly lucky getting a chance to make music for a living and help other people make music.”
Born in New York and raised in Connecticut, Greenbaum started playing cello at the age of 3. In a pre-college music program at the Juilliard School in New York, he joined like-minded students who had a chamber music group called The Knights. Still a member, Greenbaum participated in a recording by the successful touring ensemble earlier this month.
Among the Hausmann Quartet’s many activities are its chamber music programs held in fall and spring, with a special summer daily program for students 12 and over.
As faculty members, they teach and guide college students. At the SDSU Research Foundation’s Community Music School, they mentor middle and high school students. The school provides private lessons, recitals and master classes, with discounts available to those who can’t afford full tuition.
“Another wonderful thing the Hausmanns do is community outreach,” said Carina Voly, director of the Community Music School. “They offer coaching, performances and presentations throughout San Diego.”
Many children have enrolled in the community school because of those school visits. Some had never heard a string quartet before.
Voly, who is also a cellist, coteaches some small groups with Greenbaum.
“A parent recently told us how incredible it is that the kids are providing insightful comments and that two musicians are complimenting each other,” she said. “We’re showing the kids what good relationships looks like. It goes well beyond moving their fingers and playing the notes.” Greenbaum agrees. “Whether they end up being musicians or not, all of us have to work in groups, right?” he said. “We need to figure out how to communicate and support each other.”
Fresh ears
Greenbaum will perform this season with several local groups. He and his colleague Allen are members of the period-instrument ensemble San Diego Baroque, which will play at downtown’s Central Library on May 23.
Greenbaum is especially looking forward to a March concert of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” with Bach Collegium, which is directed by Ruben Valenzuela. The concert was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic.
“I’m so excited we’re finally going to do it,” Greenbaum said. “This will be my first time performing it. It’s hard to exaggerate the power of the piece. Ruben assembles the atmosphere and the hive mind that comes together pretty much each time. The group is unique, and I think it comes across in performance.”
The Hausmann Quartet begins its “Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime” series next month. Resident musicologist Derek Katz speaks at each quarterly concert. In keeping with the series title, the first half of the concert will feature two Haydn quartets, written almost 25 years apart. The second half will present compositions by cellist Tomeka Reid, a Macarthur fellow, as well as Felix Mendelssohn.
“The Haydn quartets show a real contrast,” Greenbaum noted. “Reid’s piece has this very contagious groove. And the Mendelssohn has a bubbly, almost ecstatic energy, a great way to close the concert.”
At next Sunday’s Mission Valley concert, one piece — David Ludwig’s “Pale Blue Dot” — will be part of a Hausmann recording project in February. It will include pieces commissioned by the quartet, along with other contemporary music.
Also in the concert will be a Haydn composition and “Lyric for Strings” by the late George Walker, who in 1996 became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in music.
“It’s incredibly beautiful with slow, lush harmonies,” Greenbaum said. “It’s been compared to Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings.’ ”
From schools, universities and senior centers to steamboats and venues small and large, how does Greenbaum approach the many audiences he plays for?
“We go for the same level of communication, whoever it’s for,” he said. “Every audience deserves that — whether it’s their 100th concert or their first time hearing a cello or string quartet.
“We always try to have the mindset of fresh ears, but seeing it happen in front of us is really inspiring.”