Washington Conservatory Executive/Artistic Director Kathy Judd interviews WCM faculty pianist
Audrey Andrist and violinist/violist
James Stern - members of the trio STRATA.
KJ: How did STRATA begin?
AA: James and I started dating in 1987 and married in 1990. Nathan and I met in fall of 1987, when we both started the Doctoral program at Julliard at the same time. Our first concert was one of Nathan's doctoral recitals where we three played Bartok "Contrasts" and he and I played a couple of things. We have been a trio all these years, but never actually lived in the same place at the same time.
KJ: Given that you live in different places, how do you rehearse?
AA: We do a combination of types of rehearsing. We get together in the summer for a block of time. We began calling them Strata Retreats. We would hole up and just rehearse, usually with Nathan coming to us, especially when our son was little. Also we meet several days before each concert. Sometimes Nathan meets us where we live, we rehearse for a few days, then travel together to wherever we are performing. Or sometimes we meet in the city of the concert to rehearse, like we did recently when we played in North Carolina.
KJ: How do you go about choosing concert repertoire?
JS: There are few standard pieces for this combination: Bartok Contrasts, Khachaturian, Ives and Berg Adagio, and because I play viola, we can play Mozart, Schumann, Stravinsky and a few others. We have a few favorite core pieces like the Arutiunian trio - a real pot boiler - and the Schoenfield trio.
We also like building programs with duos included because audiences like hearing the component parts of our trio more clearly-like a piece by Rebecca Clarke for viola and clarinet. Sometimes we mix duos, trios and even solos. Sometimes there is a theme that unites, but there doesn't have to be. Then, of course there is the option of commissioning new works. With programing, we feel like chefs in a restaurant putting together a fine meal.
KJ: Can you talk more about commissioning new works?
JS: Commissioning is very exciting. The program we are playing for Washington Conservatory features a piece we commissioned in 2012 by Kenneth Frazelle. With commissioning, you don't always get a piece you want to play over and over again, like this one. This is not only a wonderful piece for concert audiences, it is a rare example of a full length work for our combination. Bartok, in writing his "Contrasts", set the limit for this instrumental combination for 17 minutes, and composers since then have stayed within that scale. Frazelle extended the arc of that framework. However, the piece can be broken up into component parts that fit the attention span of young people. In fact, it was written for that purpose. We asked him to write us a piece that would work beautifully, both in the concert hall, and in our school concerts.
KJ: Why is it important to perform music written in this century?
JS: When one is constructing a really beautiful concert program, the juxtaposition of old and new does wonderful things for both. Hearing the new with the standard can help our understanding of the standard repertoire; it works the other way too. There is a lot that modern music can clarify for us about the art of music making. Sometimes a modern piece will make audiences more aware of how and what is motivating them. Modern music helps us hear what is miraculous about what we might otherwise take for granted.
AA: If we don't keep creating new art, it is eventually going to die out. Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking that all old music is great. What is true is that over centuries we have culled out a lot of bad music from all that was written. Though there are probably good pieces from earlier centuries that we don't hear now, in general we are hearing "greatest hits". In the present nothing has been culled out yet; we are presenting all the music that is being written. A few will hold the test of time. So you are sometimes hearing what will not be heard fifty or a hundred years from now; but sometimes a piece is a real gem. We think the Frazelle piece will stand the test of time. As a trio we keep coming back to it; we even just recorded it. The piece is highly original but yet it makes a strong first impression. Even little kids - kindergarteners - have responded positively. It appeals to a really broad audience. It is also fun to play in a rewarding way. And it is difficult!
KJ: Is your approach to contemporary music the same as to standard repertoire?
AA: We take the same approach to contemporary music that we would take for a Beethoven sonata. We hear audiences say about contemporary music "well, if you miss notes, nobody will know - ha ha ha" seeming to imply that notes of contemporary pieces are less important than those in a Beethoven sonata. I would make the argument that, in a way, it is even more important to present an absolutely polished, prepared performance of a new piece because it is unfamiliar. You can play a familiar Beethoven sonata, and people will form an opinion about the performances, not the piece itself; the piece is not in dispute. But for contemporary music, people will say it is a bad piece, perhaps because it was not played as well as it can be played. We (STRATA) try to play with absolute integrity. Then the audience can make a fair argument about whether or not it is a good piece.
KJ: James, you switch between violin and viola during STRATA concerts. Are there difficulties in doing that?
JS: Switching between violin and viola is something you have to get used to. Generally switching from violin to viola is a little easier; in the other direction there is a tendency for the violin sound to get small. I'm not sure why. But, it could be about getting the bow back to the bridge on the violin after making bigger arcs with your arm on viola. So, that is sometimes a problem for people less experienced in making a switch. I've been doing it for twenty years, so I am used to it. Still, I prefer an intermission so I can try a few scales and rediscover the violin sound as efficiently as I can.
KJ: Audrey, unlike violinists and clarinetists, pianists can't bring their own instruments. What is your worst piano memory?
AA: I remember playing a children's concert in a middle school. I showed up to play with a violinist and discovered they only had a three octave Casio keyboard that was not touch sensitive, with no pedal and no music stand! Luckily the violinist had a lot of unaccompanied repertoire. However, I did manage to pound out a reduced version of Zigeunerweisen with what I could do in three octaves. When I take my students to play in retirement homes that may not have a great piano, I always remind them I have played on much worse!
KJ: In what kinds of venues and places have you performed with STRATA?
AA: With STRATA we have played the gamut. There was Lakeside Chautauqua near Cleveland where large video monitors were placed half way down the auditorium so the audience of a thousand could see. Then there was an art gallery in Maine with an audience of ten people. Another highlight was playing in Key West in February. We just love to perform together, to travel, to spend time together and to try new restaurants. Nathan played at our wedding. Our son still calls him Uncle Nathan. We have had endless amounts of fun traveling together over the years. And we look forward to many more of the same.
KJ: You are both wonderful teachers. How does your teaching inform your own playing?
JS: I teach a wide range of students from younger private students to university doctoral students. I often find that I learn so much from the least advanced students; they are the ones that challenge me to figure out what is the essence of music-making or a particular technique. It is usually when I am solving a problem for a less advanced student that I practice constantly and experiment myself. The least advanced students challenge my understanding and force me to construct new models of what I am actually doing.
AA: It is such a back and forth relationship. My teaching informs my playing and my playing informs my teaching. My teaching keeps my listening really sharp. When I work with my students I am listening like crazy; it keeps my ears trained. When I am doing my own practicing I am listening in the same ways and being my own teacher with constructive criticism.
KJ: What are your extramusical interests, and how do they affect your playing?
AA: I am a huge sports fan. I think it makes me a better player because I am inspired by how elite athletes challenge themselves mentally and physically. That is a goal for me. Every concert I play, I set the goal to make it the best one I've ever played. And of course that can't always be true; we are human. But I can't see any reason not to set that goal, just like elite athletes who are constantly trying to improve.
JS: My extramusical interest is reading. I read about linguistics, anthropology, evolution, math, physics, and cosmology to name a few. I don't know if it improves my playing but it informs how I teach, how I play and how I think about music. It makes me who I am.
