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mentally very different from you. Thcy have to stick it out and figurę out a way to make it work. And vou know, they do just that, and very well.”

Yery well indeed. At the half-\vav point of this past summer, a quartet of fifteen- and sixteen-ycar-olds played SchuberEs Death and the Maiden with a maturity and sense of

ensemble that suggested ycars of sea-soning. not a mere three-and-a-half weeks. A slightly older group gave an account of Bartók's Fifth Quartct as gripping and technically surę as that of many a profcssional quartet.

Yet students at the Quartct Program are hardly closetcd, anti-so-cial musicians who do nothing but practice. Thcy pack the volleyball court virtuallv cvcrv aftcrnoon (“a great way to rclievc tensions.” says one), and most nights thcre are hearts games into the wee hours.

The daily regimcn, howevcr, is intense: roughly seven hours of pri-vate practice and quartet rchearsal are schedulcd, and students fre-qucntly put in even morę time on their own. Rules are fcw and appar-ently unncccssary, for the program attracts students who are committed to the discipline of hard work. “Be-sides.” says Castlcman, “the kids really police themselves far better than we could. If someone isn't puII-ing his weight, the rest of his quartet will see to it that he shapes up fast.”

Faculty

Faculty in addition to Castleman (who teachcs at the Eastman School of Musie during the academic year) include his violist-wife Heidi (who divides her time between Eastman and the New England Con-servatory) and ccllist Richard Kapuściński of the Obcrlin Conservatory. Ali three make themselves available daily during private practice sessions, should problems arise. (juartet coaches currently include husband and wife Renato Bonacini and Jean Tai of the Hartt School of Musie. Jeff Holm of the Eenox Quartet, and Euisc Yosgcrchian of Harvard Uni-

Heidi and Charles Castleman versity. Occasional master classes and coaching sessions by other prominent performers are scattered throughout the summer. Interestingly, Castleman makes a point of having sonie coaching done by musicians who are not string players (“1 fecl it adds a di-mension: a pianist, say, rnay provide a broader perspective on a quartet sińce he isn't caught up in the mc-chanics of string playing”).

Alumni of the Quartet Program—all of them still under thirty— already display imprcssive credcn-tials: thcy include members of many Professional quartets (two of which, the Chester and the Dakota, werc spawned during summers in Troy); members of several prominent cham-ber orchestras both here and abroad; and finally. string players in sym-phonies from the New York Philhar-monic and Boston Symphony on down.

Matchniaking

\j'irtuallv everyone who has spent a summer in the program agrees that dircctor Castleman has a rare gift for matchmaking when it comes to putting together quartets. Does he have sonie sort of a system? “Not one

thafs foolproof, but Fve been doing this for twclve ycars no w, so 1 have a pręt ty good idea of what works. Whats essential for a successful quar-tet is that at least one member be a forccful and vocal personality. One is all it takes to bring out the others. Four shy, non-vocal people will just wastc a summer being quiet and po-lite. Of course, you put scveral asser-tive people together in a quartet and sometimes you get morę fireworks than you bargained for.”

A student violinist from New York City elaborates: “East year my quartet fought all the time: our rc-hearsals werc vicious, even though outside of them we all got along pretty well. But ovcr the winter, I re-alized that 1 had learned an awful lot about dealing with people. l've grown a lot, thanks to that summer, and it shows in the dynamics of the quartct Fm in this year.

“Charlie Castlcman, further-more, is a shrewd judge of playing, and it‘s interesting that he selects rep-ertoire that in virtually every instance is unsuited to a quartet’s natural tend-encies. For cxample, heli have a dcli-cate Mozart violinist playing first in a robust Dvorak quartet, or vice versa. Obviously, thats not coincidental, and that’s precisely how people grow as musicians, by playing what theyYc not good at.”

Another student, a cel list from Wyoming, has perhaps eonie away with the most of anyonc during his first Quartet Program summer: “This has been one of the greatest musical experiences of my life. 11's been won-derful to havc been surroundcd for the first time by players who are better than mc, and Fve become con-vinced that Pd love to devote my life

to chamber musie. 1 consider it one of the highest musical art forms, due to its intimacy. 11's like a very good con-versation with three friends—only better.”

Morc scholarships

("A astleman's hopcs for the futurę of what isclearly a highly successful venturc include making morę schol-arship money availablc: a l)enefit concert by Quartet Program alumni on Decem ber 20 in Lincoln Cen ter's Alice l ully Hall will be a first step in that direction. And he drcams of cut-Continued on page 38

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