Brandeis' music department is lucky to have a group of full-time string-quartet members among its faculty. Profs. Judith Eissenberg (MUS), violin; Joshua Gordon (MUS), cello; Mary Ruth Ray (MUS), viola; and Daniel Stepner (MUS), violin, sat down with the Justice to discuss their work.JustArts: What do you, individually or as a group, like most about being a quartet-in-residence at a university like Brandeis?

Mary Ruth Ray: That's such a big question. There are so many things that are just incredibly great about being here. As a quartet, one of the things that's important for us for working is just working together, you know, hours and hours of rehearsal, that kind of growth that we get from just spending time together, and having a residency or a position here on the faculty gives us a place to do that.

Daniel Stepner: [For] musicians who want to play chamber music, there are precious few opportunities to [explore their love of music] in a sustained way. Freelancers get to do it occasionally and in some situations, but in this way, we have a stability that allows us to really explore the repertoire for our ensemble, which is very large, ... larger than any other, other than an orchestra's, ... and very rich, and I think that's so valuable as musicians.

Judith Eissenberg: Just by chance, I had lunch with three members of the Philosophy department and a visiting scholar who spoke at the last Lydian program. His topic was music and democracy, and it was just the most exciting and wonderful experience to share these ideas about how music can express ideas abstractly, how does it relate to political events, the act of a concert on a stage and what's being played on it; [it] just was fascinating, and I don't think I would have had that anywhere else. Brandeis is a place you have these discussions, and I was just thrilled and excited, saying that we've got to have this more often.

JA: So is that what originally brought you all to Brandeis, this opportunity for a liberal-arts interaction with your music?

DS: Well yes, but as musicians, I can only speak for myself, but I wanted stable work! I mean, I was reading and I had intellectual pretensions before I came to Brandeis, but stable work in a campus setting was pretty attractive, to be part of an intellectual community ... I think to say I came here first for the intellectual community would not be honest; I came here for the steady work! But it was of course a very attractive thing, this community here, which had an interesting history, a rich history.

MRR: Oh definitely, but I think one of the great things about what we've been able to do is work on our own growth as an ensemble while also teaching students our individual instruments and also the art of chamber music playing, you know; while we're developing, we're also developing this other, younger group of players. I think that's the beauty of being in an environment like this. ... But obviously, the steady work, I mean, it's a great combination of the two.

Joshua Gordon: I think also the University has influenced our own inspiration. MusicUnitesUS has been an influence on our own learning because we've been branching in directions of composers from other parts of the world that we wouldn't have otherwise been aware of focusing on the European and American traditions. This past Saturday night we did a wonderful piece by a composer who's part Peruvian, part Japanese and lives in California, Gabriela Lena Frank. That particular piece was exploring part of her background, Peruvian folk music, and it really made quite an impact on the audience. I couldn't get over how many people were talking to me about it afterward and saying what an eye-opener it was and what a riveting piece, so I think the influence has gone both ways.

DS: Part of our work here is playing new music by both faculty and grad students. That's an important part of our work. So we're playing live music written very recently by serious musicians, as well. So we're extending our repertoire in that sense, too.

JA: That leads me directly to another question: You unite all these different types of compositions, like you played the Beethoven and [Frank] at the last Music at Noon, and you did the Charles Ives at the Saturday concert. So, you're playing all these new and old pieces together. What do you think juxtaposing these styles brings to the music and to you as musicians?

JE: That was the topic of some of the preconcert talk, and you can look at it as a kind of platform to introduce different world views for now and in different places and in the past to express individuality, different kinds of values and aesthetics, and have them clash and build on each other and inform each other. What you see happening in the world across culture, across boundaries happens right on that stage, and it challenges, as well as fulfills, people.

JA: Do any of you, personally, have a type of composition that you prefer to play, either on the Mozart or the Messaien side of things?

JG: We get into pretty heated discussions about who we should program, who we like and don't like, you know, it comes up.

MRR: I think we all have many, many favorites.

JA: What are some of your favorites that you relax with, like the "comfort food" of music?

JE: Well, you ask that, but it's a very different question. Music as comfort food, ... it happens with my own family, people I know, that you take a piece that I find stimulating and mind-blowing and find a student studying to it because they find it comforting. Now, what is the reality of that piece? So, I don't think I use music for that reason. It irritates me.

DS: Sometimes the University will ask us to do background music, and we don't do that. Charles Ives has many wonderful quotes that came out of his irascible personality, and one of them was that he doesn't like music that "lets the ear lie back in an easy chair." For all of us, I think 80 percent of our repertoire is wonderful music that is so stimulating, as well.

JA: So you're performers, you're listeners, and you mentioned that you all teach here at the University. Do you think that today there's enough emphasis on music education in primary, secondary and university education? I know there's been a lot of debate about this recently, about the emphasis it may or may not be receiving. What do you think on the matter?

DS: I think the real problem is the lower levels. There are just not enough serious opportunities for music-making in early education. And then kids come here, and really there's more opportunity here, so the ones who are really interested will finally get a chance to do something. There are ways in which it could be improved here, certainly, but there are so many kids who really find classical music here.

MRR: There are a lot of students coming in who want to start taking lessons at a beginning level, too. It's kind of surprising, people who say, "I've always wanted to play piano, but I never had the lessons," or they want to take classical guitar or violin.

JG: I ... look back on the town I grew up in, and when I was in high school in the late '70s and early '80s, there were no string programs in my town at all! ... I would take the bus and go [to the Juilliard School in New York City] every Saturday, and that's where I got all my lessons and orchestra and music theory. I think it can still work in communities if there's a sufficient level of interest and support, and it's just a matter of how to create that level of interest and support on a more national level. I heard recently that Barack Obama enjoys listening to Bach suites, so I'm hoping if he gets elected, there might be some leadership on music education there.

JE: It's not going to be enough to say, "Let's just do an intro to world music," and that's all there is to it. What Western European classical tradition has to offer and other classical traditions throughout the world, like the Indian tradition that's coming here next week, is depth, and that requires discipline and commitment, and that's what I understand a classical tradition to mean. So getting below the surface, schools can't possibly offer that for every culture, so a school needs to look within its culture and what it has to offer, its own resources, and decide how it can teach music with depth, and it may not be Western classical music in that sense.

JA: You mentioned MusicUnitesUS. The goal of the program, according to the Web site, is to unite different cultures through diversity. ... Do you have any other ideas for how people can use music for deeper cultural appreciation, either for Brandeis or on a national or international level? How can people use music to seek a greater depth of cultural understanding?

JE: Well, I think the next step, and it won't just be in music, is to open up portals, for example, in between Brandeis and, for example, India, Internet portals for live back-and-forth so that we have a space here at Brandeis that students might go to to play a rock band concert or a quartet or poetry and start to spread these portals so that we develop a culture that is not restricted by physical boundaries or culture. We exist in the atmosphere of the Internet and are able to share what otherwise we might not be able to, and that will open up our commonalities and our differences.

JA: So, I have to bring this up. It's on everyone's minds lately: the financial issues we're having right now. What do you think that heralds for the arts? It's, in many communities, a struggle to get funding for arts programs. Do you think that new programs and the ones we already have in place can perservere despite the problems that people are having in donating, in finding funding?

MRR: I think at Brandeis, there's a very strong support for the arts. I think people feel that it's integrated with existence here, the mind, the body and the soul. I think there will be effort to keep things flourishing, to help nurture it during these hard times. I think we'll all have to find ways to be creative, but it can bring people together. The arts are known for doing that. I think it will take courage for the University to keep supporting at the level it does, and I think it will.

JG: I have to say that the enrollment for our music courses is up this year.

DS: This happens when there's a downturn in the economy. ... I think because kids who formerly would have gone into a profession which their parents thought they would be secure in realize it's not as secure as they thought and they'd rather do something that they'd rather do. I've talked to a couple students about it who give that as their reason. I thought it was a fluke the first time I noticed it back in the late '80s, early '90s, but it really is a trend. Not that they'll necessarily become professional musicians, but they want to absorb more while they can of the arts because the school is about that.


All the members of the quartet closed by encouraging students especially to come to concerts and to participate in the arts at Brandeis.