Interview with the JACK Quartet

Abstract

INTERVIEW WITH THE JACK QUARTET JOHN PICKFORD RICHARDS, ARI STREISFELD, CHRISTOPHER OTTO, KEVIN MCFARLAND, AND JOSHUA B. MAILMAN INTRODUCTION N THE OCCASION OF THIS CELEBRATION of Robert Morris’s seventieth year, this interview was prompted most specifically by recollections of a memorable event: a concert on November 3, 2009 at The Tank, in mid-town Manhattan, featuring compositions by Robert Morris and Christopher Otto, performed by the JACK Quartet.* (Among those in the audience were Joseph Straus, Jon Forshee, Jeff Myers, Hannah Lash, Ben Boretz, myself, and of course Robert Morris, who partook *John Pickford-Richards (viola), Ari Streisfeld and Chris Otto (violins), and Kevin McFarland (cello). O 120 Perspectives of New Music in an onstage discussion with Otto during intermission.) There were three world premieres that evening: Otto’s Algol and Dovetails, as well as Morris’s Allegro Appassionato, all composed that year. Also a highlight of the program was Morris’s Arc (1988), which, although an earlier work, had just received its world premiere a couple of weeks prior, when the JACK Quartet performed at University at Buffalo. (They subsequently performed Arc again in 2010 and 2012.) JACK members Chris Otto and Kevin McFarland had studied composition with Morris while attending the Eastman School. And all four members were well acquainted with Morris and his music, having performed a number of his indoor and outdoor compositions during their time in Rochester. Each has a long standing professional and personal relationship to Morris—or Bob as we call him. I too have known the members of the JACK and fondly remember their performances and other activities during my time at the Eastman School. So it was a pleasure to sit down with them to discuss Bob and his two string quartets.1 The interviews took place in the seminar room of Columbia University’s music library and in Ari Streisfeld’s apartment, where JACK was rehearsing for a much anticipated all-Lachenmann concert the following evening at the Morgan Library and Museum. —Joshua B. Mailman (JBM)† †I thank Ana Ochoa and Columbia University’s Center for Ethnomusicology for the use of recording and transcription equipment as well as Nick Patterson of the Music Library for the allocation of space for the interview. Thanks also go to Danielle Y. Robinson who assisted with procedural guidance, transcription, and moral support. Interview with the JACK Quartet 121 ORIGINS OF JACK JBM: Before discussing Bob’s quartets, could you tell me something about your initial experience going into the Eastman School of Music, the new music scene there, and how you formed the JACK Quartet? KEVIN (cellist): Sure. So building on my interest in Ligeti, Carter, and the Second Viennese School, I was composing before arriving at Eastman—I expanded my knowledge of contemporary music, mostly through composition instruction actually. And so, arriving at Eastman, it was as a composer as well that I came to be interested in performing contemporary music. The other composers would know me, knew I played cello; and I eventually earned a reputation for being able to parse some pretty difficult scores and learned their pieces relatively quickly. So it just came natural to me; it seemed like a sort of give-andtake within the community. I didn’t even really intend for it to be a career; it was just sort of a service I could provide, helping people to realize their scores. I really enjoyed it quite a lot. I think I said yes to everything. That was my policy. I was just a freshman and knew people performing, and I was thinking: how do I get into this scene of new music? So I decided I would offer my services to everyone and play anything and I basically did that. I eventually starting saying no but it took me until senior year to do that. I used to joke about Chris that way because he was pursuing a math degree on top of this and was playing more contemporary music than even the rest of us. He was seemingly everywhere. There were jokes of Chris clones wandering the multiple campuses. There was a kind of gravitational force toward the contemporary music scene at Eastman. We...