Part 3: The Bell Quartet
Meet Erik, Rebecca, Hannah and Joe who met as new students at the Royal Academy of Music and formed the Bell Quartet.
What first got you interested in music?
Erik: My Grandma taught me the piano and took me to symphony orchestra concerts. My cousin learned the violin and inspired me to start.
Rebecca and Hannah: Running around the living room to Hall of the Mountain King at full blast with our parents.
Joe: My first memory of doing anything musical was playing an Early Learning Centre triangle to ‘April Showers’ from Bambi. A couple of years later my school asked if anyone wanted to play the cello as they had some spare and I fell in love.
How did you come to play together?
We first met as new students at the Royal Academy of Music. After bonding over a shared passion for silliness, shows, and of course chamber music, we decided to play through some quartets together. The rest is history!
Which quartets inspire you?
The Doric String Quartet - with their boldness and ingenuity. The Belcea String Quartet - with their passion and ferocity. The Danish String Quartet - with their character and folksiness.
How would you describe the music that you typically create or perform?
Eclectic and wide-reaching - we like to include the unusual alongside the traditional.
What is your creative process like?
Well, it usually involves a lot of tea and biscuits! We like to keep things fun and we particularly enjoy using singing and quirky stories to explore our ideas.
What has been your favourite of your performances so far?
This is a difficult one! We love any chance to perform, but a particular highlight was our performance at a care home as part of Brundibar Arts Festival in Newcastle. Although we were in an unusually cramped performance space, we felt truly connected with our listeners and it was a really moving experience.
What is the best advice you’ve been given as a musician or performer?
Always have a Haydn Quartet going - it’s the foundation of all string quartet playing!
Have you been making music during lockdown? If yes, what have you been doing?
Although it’s been difficult to make music during lockdown, we’ve made sure that we’re individually preparing our parts for when we are reunited. We’re also working on a number of virtual performances to spread some remote joy!
What’s been the hardest thing about lockdown for you as a musician?
The best thing about being a musician is making music with friends and, as a quartet, most of our rehearsals are full of laughter. Not being able to see each other in the flesh, play our favourite pieces together and bounce off each other’s witticisms has been particularly difficult.
What’s been the best or most surprising thing about lockdown for you as a musician?
One of the best things about lockdown is the time it’s given us to practise. Life as a musician can be pretty hectic; running to different rehearsals across London or jumping onto a train to take you to anywhere in the country. This period has given us time to prepare, practise, and really hone our craft. Surprisingly, lockdown has also seen creativity flourish and there has been a real thirst for the arts in this difficult time. With few resources, musicians have created some incredible online performances and it’s amazing to see how appreciative people truly .
What’s next for you?
We’re looking forward to travelling to Mexico for a festival this summer. We also have plans to tour Wales next spring. More generally we’re excited to start competing internationally and to add to our collection of arrangements of popular and musical theatre pieces. ·
Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?
Touring the world: we love to travel and to bring our music to new audiences. Nowhere too hot though - some of us struggle to function beyond 20 degrees! Also, having our own chamber music school would be great.
About this piece:
Britten’s Three Divertimenti is one of our favourite pieces to perform. A divertimento is typically a light hearted piece and while this is definitely the case for this piece, it also has it’s own Britten twist that has moments of anger and mockery. It also gives every player in the quartet a chance to shine as all the parts bounce off each other. We chose the Golijov because it’s such a remarkable piece; both heart-wrenching and peaceful in equal measure. There’s so much fantastic contemporary music that isn’t showcased often enough and we’ve found that Tenebrae always ends up being a favourite of the audience.
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