N.Y. C. string quartet, piano soloist perform for students

HARLINGEN — About 500 Harlingen students enjoyed a rare performance Thursday from a New York City string quartet.
Along the way, the Aiana String Quartet and a piano soloist gave little music lessons for the middle and high school orchestra students at First Baptist Church.
Artina McCain, the pianist, opened the performance with a prologue, explaining that it is a piece that prefaces the main performance.
The quartet, two violinists, a cellist and violist, performed Mozart’s “String Quartet No. 17,” nicknamed “The Hunt.” Each member of the quartet spoke about each section of the piece and compared it to “Alice in Wonderland.”
They told the students that in music, as in literature, there is a beginning, middle and end. The musicians played each portion separately so the students could hear the differences in the sections.
At the end, students were given the opportunity to ask questions of the quartet and pianist.
One student asked how long it would take before the students can get to the quartet members’ level of playing.
Violinist Roseminna Watson answered that it takes many, many hours of practice to be a good musician. She said when the quartet members were in middle and high school they were practicing about three or four hours per day.
Another student asked if the group are friends outside of their musical careers. Another violinist, Hanna Herwitz, said the group practices and works together four or five hours a day, and they might have arguments, but they do like each other and are friends outside of work.
Harlingen school district Director of Music Sabrina Quintana said these musicians are artists in residence at the University of Texas at Austin, where Quintana has been collaborating with the College of Fine Arts.
“We are trying to help students be inspired by professional musicians and to see that they have college options in the arts and in music,” Quintana said. “They can pursue that dream.”
This is the first year HCISD and UT-Austin have partnered in this sense. UT-Austin’s College of Fine Arts Dean Douglas Dempster said, “We know that Harlingen and other schools in the Valley have great arts programs. I visited the Harlingen High School South today and I was so impressed with what I saw. We would like more of your students to apply to the UT fine arts program and are trying to be proactive about bringing that message down here.”

daltenburg@valleystar.com