Quartet in the Community

Schuyler Slack, Timothy Kantor, Julia Sophia Bellingrath, and Cynthia Black of the Calliope Quartet are the BISQC 2010 Quartet in the Community.
The group has been blogging about their experience.
Photo: Don Lee

This summer, The Banff Centre is again taking music to the streets with the Quartet in the Community program. Started in 2007, this initiative sees string quartet music performed where you least expect it: a grocery store, a bank lobby, maybe even a mountaintop.

“Many people are intimidated by the whole idea of a string quartet,” explains Barry Shiffman, director of BISQC. “We want to break out of the ‘four guys in tuxedos and an audience afraid to clap’ mystique.”

Quartet in the Community is part of the Melba and Orville Rollefson Residency, for a quartet who did not apply to compete at BISQC. Following a week of informal performances throughout the Bow Valley and Calgary, Cleveland’s Calliope Quartet will attend all BISQC events and be coached by celebrated musicians in attendance at the competition.

With the intent of developing emerging musicians who aspire to reach the level of musicianship of the competing quartets at BISQC, the residency will help the quartet learn to connect with their audience and will bring music to many members of the local community — even those who would never think of attending a classical music concert. “And hopefully BISQC itself will inspire them by introducing them to an audience that lives and breathes chamber music,” adds Shiffman.

The Banff Centre and the Banff International String Quartet Competition thank Susan and Robert Larson for their generous support in establishing the Melba and Orville Rollefson Residency. For their support of the “Quartet in the Community” portion of this residency, we would like to thank the Sylvia and Jack Chetner Endowment Fund, the Banff Community Foundation, Banff Lake Louise Tourism, Banff Lodging Co., and CodaBow.

• Julia Sophia BELLINGRATH, violin
• Timothy KANTOR, violin
• Cynthia BLACK, biola
• Schuyler SLACK, cello

The Calliope Quartet formed in August 2009 at the Cleveland Institute of Music. At its inception, the quartet was chosen to participate in CIM’s Intensive Quartet Seminar under the guidance of Peter Salaff and the Cavani Quartet, and received additional coachings from Robert Vernon and Paul Kantor. This past summer, they participated in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Banff Centre Chamber Music Residency, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar at Stanford University. Later this summer they will return to Banff as the Quartet in the Community during the 2010 Banff International String Quartet Competition.

The quartet has performed in master classes for Robert Mann, Mark Steinberg, Biava Quartet, and Deadalus Quartet. Other meaningful studies have been with members of the Belcea, Cleveland, Miami, Orford, and Schoenberg Quartets. The quartet recently performed the Brahms G Major Sextet with Barry Shiffman and Denis Brott in Banff, and performed at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University.

As strong believers that classical music belongs equally outside the concert hall, the Calliope Quartet is active in the Classical Revolution scene and has performed in bars, hospitals, and nursing homes around the Cleveland area. The quartet's name is inspired by Calliope, the Greek muse of epic poetry. The quartet enjoys cooking and hiking together.