“The length and impact the Parker Quartet has had on the School of Music is unique. The level of commitment they have to us is unparalled.” - Dean Tayloe Harding
“Although I know these works well, this will be the first time in my life that I’ve heard the complete cycle live. For our community and our students, this is really a once in a lifetime experience.” - Dan Sweaney
Photo by Beowulf Sheehan
It is an impressive feat to complete and perform a Beethoven string quartet. It is even more impressive when you perform all 16 of them in the span of one week. Despite the daunting task, the Parker Quartet are up to the challenge.
Founded and based in Boston, the Parker Quartet are the current quartet in residence at the University of South Carolina’s School of Music. Founded in 2002, the group currently consists of Daniel Chong (violin), Ken Hamao (violin), Jessica Bodner (viola) and Kee-Hyun Kim (cello). This year marks their tenth year of working with the music department, providing masterclasses for the dedicated students of USC and concerts for all audiences across the Midlands. They have grown so close with the music community and capital altogether; according to School of Music Dean Tayloe Harding, it is evident among the faculty and staff at the School of Music that the Quartet thinks of the city “as a second home.” Everyone at the School of Music has enjoyed getting to see the growth and development of this quartet alongside their own Gamecock musicians. “The beautiful thing about this quartet is that they’re young, but each member plays like they’ve been playing for decades, like the Emerson Quartet,” Harding said. “They play like they have been together as a group their whole lives. There is a unique symbiosis within the group and with the school that makes the residency so easy to sustain.” Associate Professor of Viola Dan Sweaney and his students have gotten to work extensively with the members of the quartet, and to him, all the members “have really become like family.” Alumni of the University continue to attend the concerts and often invite their own students to attend with them. Other projects that the Parker Quartet have accomplished through their residency include visiting schools in the area, working with the USC String Project and performing for the inmates at the DJJ Juvenile Detention Center.
To the untrained ear, this concert series may not sound so intimidating. In the past, the School of Music has conducted series of musical cycles for individual composers; one such cycle presented 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas as a concert series with Dr. Scott Price, the School of Music’s Coordinator of Piano pedagogy. Harding said, “That kind of series is way more common than the complete quartet cycle. It is rare for something on this scale to be done since the quartets make up a half, quarter, or full concert length on their own.” There have been other cycles of concerts for other famous composers at the School of Music, like a community Mozart festival back when Harding first arrived at the School of Music. There is a poignancy that this Beethoven cycle has that is incomparable to anything the department has ever done in the past, which automatically sets this series above any expectations audiences may have. The rarity of this Beethoven series is unmatched and a major incentive for audiences to attend. Beethoven’s string quartets are considered the pinnacle examples of the genre, and Carnegie Hall’s short guide to the group separates the pieces into three groups: Early Period, Middle Period and Late Period. The tones vary from the “introspective and tempestuous” Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 to the “humorous” Quartet in F Major, Op. 59.
The School of Music and the Parker Quartet are partnering with Historic Columbia to host four of the six concerts at historical locations around the city. Each of these concert venues-Rutledge Chapel, the Robert Mills House, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and the Seibels House-all existed during Beethoven’s lifetime. “Chamber music was originally meant to be played in the home and later in small venues,” Sweaney said. “The historic homes are precisely where chamber music would have been played during the classical era.” This cycle bolsters relationships between local Columbia organizations and departments within the University umbrella and develops the foot traffic among the involved facilities further.
The venues and lack of price tag for tickets all contribute to the mission of making classical music accessible to audiences across Columbia. The growth in accessibility provides a pathway to a newfound appreciation for the genre, which is exactly what Sweaney and Harding want audiences to experience. “We hope to reach people who love chamber music and some people who’ve never heard a string quartet before,” Sweaney said. “They might just become chamber music lovers after this.” According to Harding, even though several of the venues have already sold out, the larger venue performances are located on campus-specifically in Johnson Hall of Darla Moore School of Business and the School of Music Recital Hall-and there will be livestreams available for each performance.
You can reserve seats for any or all concerts online through Eventbrite. For more information or if you have any questions, contact Audra Vaz, the Assistant Dean for Advancement for the School of Music, at audra.vaz@sc.edu. If you want to read more about the quartets, check out the Carnegie Hall’s guide.