Four Ohio University graduate students will bring their diverse styles together on stage tonight for the last time at the Graduate String Quartet concert.
The quartet is made up of four musicians, James Farley and Andrew Uhe on violin, Katherine Thompson on viola and Desiree Miller on cello. The group has been working together since the start of this school year and will perform works by Mozart and Mendelssohn.
I hadn't had very good experiences playing with groups before. But we all really want to make something beautiful
and we all believe that the rest of us are capable of making beautiful things. If someone doesn't believe than it is impossible for you to create Uhe said.
Sometimes that goal to create can lead to disagreements because each of them have strong views about how the piece should sound.
Desiree likes things fast James likes things lyric
I like chromatic lines and we are all pulling for our favorite thing
Thompson said.
Miller spoke up after that, protesting her preference of fast tempos. She said despite their differences, the group has stayed strong out of mutual respect.
(In) this group
we all have respect for ourselves and for each other. Both inside and outside the quartet
and that's why we work. In past (groups)
I felt like the respect wasn't there
Miller said.
For Marjorie Bagley, an associate professor in the School of Music, the respect and willingness to debate made the group fun for her to advise.
It is not just me telling them what to do; we really do get to talk about the music
and this allows us to make a lot of decisions about how they want to handle thing; and we have a good relationship in that way
she said.
The excitement and love for classical music that the group shares is something that Farley would like to share with others.
I think people have this stigma about classical music that it is bow ties and tuxedos and it is really not. Look at us
