By Mark Taylor

New music is about to premiere on the SFCM stage. Ensemble-in-residence, The Telegraph Quartet (TQ) is joining forces with Canada’s St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) for the debut of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ever Yours in one of the first concerts open to the public this year. 

Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov worked together with the musicians in creating the music right alongside rehearsals, trying out new ideas and incorporating new parts to what was already written, “He is willing to take ideas from us as performers and consider them in a way that has in part affected both the form and the character of the work,” said Joseph Maile, one of the violinists in TQ. “The process has shown me the art of composition as a living, breathing organism, gestating before our eyes and ears,” he added. 

The final product has been described as fresh, intense, and fun, “The work really seems to reflect, as its origin in Haydn's Quinten Quartet suggests, both the heartfelt intensity of that work along with the pure fun-loving flair of Haydn,” Maile said. The violin player describes the whole process and resulting music as wonderful, “It’s a true gift considering all that we have been experiencing these past two years as performing artists and citizens.”

In addition to Maile, the TQ consists of Eric Chin on violin, Pei-Ling Lin on viola, and Jeremiah Shaw on cello. The SLSQ includes Geoff Nuttal and Owen Dalby on violin, Lesley Robertson on viola, and Christopher Costanza on cello. The two quartets have worked together in the past in various different capacities, but not for a world premiere at SFCM, “St. Lawrence has always been a quartet that to us in TQ were renowned for thinking outside the box and daring to do something different in their interpretation while other quartets may have been sometimes towing a more traditional line,” said Maile. Ever Yours is a co-commission by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, and the Clarice Smith Center at the University of Maryland at Columbia. 

The unique concert included several last-minute changes due to safety concerns related to the pandemic, but the musicians call it a whirlwind time and are excited to finally perform it on stage, and Maile looks forward to sharing Golijov’s music with the world, “While I know he would be abashed at me drawing this comparison, as he is a humble guy, it feels like working with a modern-day Mozart or Haydn, with new copies arriving hot off the press daily!” 

The Telegraph Quartet and St. Lawrence Strings Quartet will perform February 10th inside the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall. This free event is open to the public, tickets can be reserved in advance.