What does music mean to you? That simple question, asked of the Borealis String Quartet and Professor Gilbert de Greeve after their performance at the Stanthorpe Civic Centre, received an equally simple answer … and then some.
“It is our first language,“ said Patricia Shih, first violinist for the quartet.
“It is all of us – all we have ever known. We all grew up with music. It can have different subtleties. It can be sport, maths, history and science. Music encompasses so much. It’s truly our best way of communication.“
Along with Patricia, the members of the Canadian group that has cemented its place on the world stage are violinist Yuel Yawny, violist Nikita Pogrebnoy and cellist Sungyong Lim.
The Borealis String Quartet has been performing since 2000 and has garnered a reputation for dynamic performances that bring an irrepressible energy to a broad range of music. The quartet has performed across a variety of media including stage, television and radio and has headlined at sold-out performances in New York, Washington, Rome, Shanghai and Montreal and many other major cities. The group is the quartet in residence at the Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the Langley Community Music School in British Columbia.
Gilbert de Greeve, with his own virtuosity on display during the performance of his work at the Stanthorpe concert, said the role of a performing musician was like little else, even in the artistic world.
“A painter will paint in his workshop and if he makes a mistake he can paint over it. A book writer will write a chapter and then edit the words before it is published. But on stage you only have one chance. If you make a mistake it’s there for all to hear. And the other aspect is that what you’re performing has usually been composed by someone else. So you have a dual role – to play what the composer wanted but also to make that clear to the audience.“
“Still, performing musicians are happy in their work, second only to surgeons, according to research.“
He said he has always impressed upon the parents of music students that there is great value in a person who goes on stage and plays in front of an audience.
“I always say that person is to be admired,“ he said.
“And I admire these people [the Borealis]. What they do is intense, and they are world class.“
Professor de Greeve also had compliments to throw Dr Cuskelly’s way for the two-week Brisbane summer school arranged through the Cuskelly College of Music.
“I have been to 80 per cent of the summer schools in the world. Nothing has been better than this one for scope and content,“ he said.
