Greetings from Brazil!

I am here with my quartet in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil.  This is my first time to travel to the Southern Hemisphere, and what a great way to experience summer time in the middle of a cold winter month in the States. Though heat is not so bad, most of the days humidity can interfere with a comfortable way of playing an instrument. The view from my hotel 6th floor room is incredible. Mountains all around! 

View from my hotel room

It is amazing how much this place resembles Zhelznovodsk, my family’s hometown in the North Caucus of Russia. The two cities are surrounded by tall, looming mountains and various greens. I hear a bird sing that I believe is a Chickadee. Tomorrow we’ll play a piece written for flute and string quartet. There is a section in the first movement in which flute and first violin respectively imitate this bird by playing exactly the same song. I cannot wait for the music to begin.

The Arianna String Quartet participates for the third year in a major International Music Festival, known as FEMUSC, which is held in Jaragua do Sul, in southern Brazil. The festival was founded by Alex Klein, a world class oboist and conductor and a former Principal Oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.   The festival involves over 800 students and nearly 100 faculty, representing 22 countries in Europe as well as in North and South America, and presents over 200 regional performances in a 14 day period.

The Arianna Quartet  is giving performances of seven different works in the course of the two-week festival, including three collaborative programs with internationally acclaimed artists, including current and former members of the Chicago Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, and major orchestras in Rio and Sao Paulo, Brazil. These performances are attended by colleagues from major universities and orchestras from both North and South America.  Our repertoire ranges from oldies like Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Wagner to modern, new age compositions by South American composers.

Here we are post-concert with Alex Klein and Andres Cardenes

In addition to extensive performing, the quartet is offering daily coaching and masterclasses to five young and really promising string quartets. All five of the groups traveled from different countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and United States and their level of playing and commitment is quite high.  Here are the quartets’ names: Sorocaba, Antofagasta, Tayrona, Naui-Kira and Mifflin.

Personally, and I am quite sure the rest of the quartet feels the same way, that the favorite time of the day is coaching these quartets. Those students are so eager to learn, so hungry for knowledge and so ready to try new things. There is an exuberant joy to make music and unsurpassed desire to grasp the information which is given to them. It’s this kind of student-teacher relationship that makes teaching so rewarding and enjoyable.  It inspires me to come up with new ideas, to create new sounds and to look for that extra special something in our playing.

The two weeks are going by very fast and although we are quite tired by the end of our stay we almost wished there was another week of intense music making in Jaragua Do Sul.  The quartet is immensely grateful for all the wonderful work that is done at the festival and all the beautiful sounds that are created. This experience and memories inspire us to continue in full force with  yet another busy season which includes a performance of all the Razumovsky Quartets in one night. We look forward to being at FEMUSC for many years to come.

                                                                        Julia Sakharova