Did you know...?
Cheyen rips a mean pizzicato on bass.
Jasmine is good at getting her hands dirty.
Wayne Lee Photography can be yours for the price of playing 1st violin in a Wieniawski duo.
Deborah is a master of detail. Can you spot what she adds at each stage of her DrawSomething kitchen?
Formosa’s very own Wayne Lee
and his fiancée, pianist Juliana Han
— a pair comparable to Michelle and Barack in capableness
and Elizabeth Barrett and Robert in artistic compatibility —
recently launched the first annual Piedmont Chamber Music Festival with stunning success.
In one unforgettable week, the team of 7 world-class artists
was treated to laughter-filled rehearsals,
elevated set-ups,
exquisite morsels,
and sold-out concerts which Formosa's beloved quartet "parents", Ginny and Bob Black, flew in from San Diego to attend. Three expertly crafted programs featured masterworks by a wealth of composers such as Felix Mendelssohn, Anthony Cheung, William Bolcom, John Adams, and Johannes Brahms.
Key PCMF team members also included, among others, brilliant documentarian and technician Tina Tallon,
invaluable mastermind Gray Cathrall (ignore co-Artistic Director's facial expression in background),
and host family to Meyer 09 and Lin 06, Susan Chamberlain and John Chalik.
In Susan and John’s home, Lin 06 and Meyer 09 enjoyed beauty in the form of
their hosts' own homemade strawberry jam of local strawberries
and Dutch apple pancake of local apples,
popovers just out,
blueberries hand-delivered to Lin 06 while she was practicing in her room,
two gourmand-minced, gourmand-chopped, gourmand-mixed, gourmand-boiled, gourmand-sautéed, gourmand-stirred, gourmand-fried, and gourmand-seasoned dinners,
fresh flowers in both guest bedrooms,
a luxury sewing kit containing the exact color of thread for mending Lin 06’s pants,
and Susan and John’s warmth, humor, and intelligence.
All in favor of such delights
say "aye" to attending PCMF 2017 — !
6/11 Bright-eyed Bushy-tailed
Debbie's first appearance on her first morning in Taiwan
6/12 Breakfast
Cheyen does dishes
6/13 Bottle
poised for no-good
6/15 Beauty
detail from Landis Hotel bathroom, Taipei
6/16 Backstage
after National Taipei Concert Hall concert featuring Formosa, harpists Heidi Krutzen & Vivian Chen, and the colorful Gareth Farr
6/21 Battleground
Formosa rehearsal room, NYO Canada, Wilfred Laurier University. Thanks to Paul Pulford for use of his studio.
6/27 Behavior
Jasmine awards Wayne one of these whenever he does something mint-M&M-worthy
7/2 Bartok
proud coaches Debbie and Wayne with their Bartok group at NYO Canada
7/4 Baby
former Formosa cellist Ru-Pei's baby, Ella
7/5 Bus
She drew a bus. Can you guess the answer? Gotta be really up on your Formosa trivia to get this one. Hint: It's the blue object on the left with the red X over it.
7/7 Bag
Jasmine rehearses the Brobdingnagische Gigue from Telemann's Gulliver Suite with Wayne.
7/9 Birthday
cake for Jasmine
7/10 Bananagrams
played by Wayne, Wayne's fiancee Juliana, & Jasmine after Wayne and Jasmine's Dueling Fiddles concert in Tannersville, NY. Pictured: Juliana's board
7/11 Back
Home sweet home — Wayne's kitchen doorway. Having followed us through one month, two continents, and three countries, the M&Ms allow themselves to be finished off.
Recently we, the violinists of the Formosa Quartet, flew to London to play two Formosa Quartet concerts. Because our cellist & violist had previous conflicts and a paternity leave, respectively, we were joined by subs Richard Lester and Roger Chase. It was an extra-marital affair which our Formosa spouses, Debbie and Cheyen, fully consented to and even facilitated.
What happened in London the next 8 days, however, really should stay in London. Even if your spouses allow you a fling with someone else, they usually don’t want to hear about how spectacular it was. But for the sake of documentation, otherwise known as the magnetic force of truth, we feel compelled to confess all. Fingers crossed that our spouses will never read it.
We'd been looking forward to the experience months beforehand, having been long-time fans of Richard (Florestan Trio) and Roger (Nash Ensemble and Jasmine's old friend/colleague from Chicago). But nothing prepared us for the actual thing.
We gathered at Richard’s and after preliminaries began to play. It took a mere two measures in Beethoven 59 1 to illuminate the true meaning of dolce. And the sforzandos... were played with a sound that, until then, had existed only in our realm of perfect forms.
By the end of the first movement, we were smitten. By the last rehearsal a week later, Wayne would lean to Jasmine several times to whisper “Can we keep them?” — to which she could only gleefully, wistfully smile.
Perhaps, to demonstrate a sense of decorum, we should nip this blog here. But since Debbie and Cheyen don't seem to be looking, we'll indulge in a few more details.
* * *
We lunch at Richard’s on soup he's made and a pineapple he cuts. He and Roger describe how they cut a mango. Roger: “I make a lattice.” Richard: “Do you ever make hedgehog mangos?”
Can we keep them?
How is it we've latticed / hedgehogged our whole mango lives without knowing it?
Roger stops playing many times in one passage because he's not matching Richard’s bowing. Every time the bowing is the least bit different, he's in shambles, reminding us of the princess in The Princess and The Pea. Finally Richard: “Does it really matter?” Roger, writing in the correct bowing once and for all: “Yes, it does! You've no idea what kind of crescendo is going to happen now!”
Can we keep them?
Princess and Pea. What can be better than a dashing English violist with fairy-tale sensitivity?
Roger to Richard: "Are you just being excessively cautious there in that entrance?"
Richard, to us: "That means, Why the fuck were you late?"
Roger, to us: "Didn't you know the English invented passive aggressiveness?"
Can we keep them?
For Roger's guitar strums in Hungarian Folk Songs, Richard suggests, "How about doing it like you're wanking?” Did we hear that correctly? And is he really making accompanying gestures as he's saying that?
Roger: "Why does an Irishman need 2 condoms?"
(with Irish accent) “To be sure, to be sure."
Richard says of a large colleague that she needs to buy “an extra seat for her breasts”.
In one phrase we daringly tell Roger to be "less flaccid”. After 5 seconds of impassiveness he says, “What’s the difference between an eskimo and a eunuch?”, then virtuosically rattles off this linguistic string:
“An eskimo is a frigid midget with a rigid digit, and a eunuch is a placid vassal with a flaccid tassel.”
Can we keep them?
eskimo
eunuch-about-to-be
When we play Grappelli, Richard makes an extraordinary sound. It's as if he’s picked up the whole room and set it down again, a dozen yards away. Where did that come from?
Can we keep them?
Richard cheek-kisses Jasmine after the concert. When she apologizes for being sweaty, he says, "I like the taste of salt".
On the train Roger and we co-compose a poem in iambic tetrameter. Roger’s lines contain the words "he's a poof!" and "piddling purse".
Can we keep them?
Roger inputting his lines
Our concert at Mill Hill Music Club is among the most magical we can remember playing. It's experiences like this that make life worth living and, once they've happened, make us unable to remember what life before them was like.
How lucky can a quartet violinist get?
Can we keep —
Er — that is — keep them as page turners to irreplaceables Debbie and Cheyen, ahem.
Do we feel guilty featuring a liaison, and hankering for the perpetuation of its delights, on a website that publicizes and promotes our marriage? Yes yes of course. We'll wrap up — after we share one more memory.
During a conversation about spouses (literal ones), we asked Roger and Richard what the secret to a successful marriage was. They said, "Marrying the right person — or not marrying the wrong person".
We think we Formosa-married the right people. How do we know? Well, for one thing, we will methodically lattice and hedgehog anyone who engages in even the most piddling string-quartet behavior with Debbie and Cheyen. To you irresistible violinists out there: don't give it a wanking thought.
They're not for sale either.
Formosa Quartet cellist Deborah Pae talks to Formosa violinist Jasmine Lin about her cello, her passion for cooking, and other subjects human and alien.
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It is with great pleasure that the Formosa Quartet announces its new member, cellist Deborah Pae.
An internationally acclaimed artist, Deborah has built a rich and varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, teacher, and pioneer of new music. Her numerous awards include grants from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund, DoMusica Foundation, and National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, as well as the silver medal in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition with Trio Modetre, the ensemble she co-founded. She has been a featured artist at renowned festivals including Marlboro, Ravinia, Crans-Montana Classics, and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove. After three years as Artist-in-Residence at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium, Deborah has recently returned to the United States where she continues a full concert season of solo recitals and chamber music appearances in Europe, Asia, and North America. Hailed by Gramophone as "exceptionally gifted" and "breathtaking", Deborah has shared the stage with many of the world's celebrated artists including Itzhak Perlman, Miriam Fried, Pamela Frank, and Kim Kashkashian, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Cleveland Quartets.
The Formosa Quartet is thrilled to welcome both Deborah and her Vincenzo Postiglione (c. 1885) cello, generously on loan from the Arts and Letters Foundation, and looks forward to an exciting musical future in its new formation. Deborah begins playing as a part of Formosa immediately commencing with a 4-day residency at UCSD from April 18-21, 2016, during which Formosa will record Lei Liang's Verge Quartet as well as perform Liang's Song Recollections, a piece based on aboriginal Taiwanese folk songs — whose premiere, presented by Art of Élan in San Diego, was recently given by Formosa with Deborah as cellist. This June Deborah will make her inaugural trip to Taiwan with Formosa to premiere a commission by New-Zealand composer Garreth Farr for harp and string quartet.
Deborah succeeds cellist and founding member Ru-Pei Yeh, who remains in the Formosa Quartet family and whose warmth, humor, and artistry will be much missed by Formosa's audiences. Formosa extends its heartfelt thanks to Ru-Pei and celebrates her artistic contribution with its new CD on the Delos label (released April 6, 2016), featuring Brahms and Gernsheim piano quintets with pianist Reiko Uchida.
Winners of the First Prize and the Amadeus Prize at the London International String Quartet Competition in 2006, the Formosa Quartet is “one of the very best quartets of their generation” (David Soyer, cellist of the Guarneri Quartet). Its debut recording on the EMI label was hailed as “spellbinding” (Strad Magazine) and “remarkably fine” (Gramophone), and the quartet has given critically acclaimed performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Caramoor Festival, the Library of Congress, the Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Rice University, San Francisco State University, and Wigmore Hall in London. Formed in 2002 when the four founding members came together for a concert tour of Taiwan, the Formosa Quartet is deeply committed to championing Taiwanese music and promoting the arts in the land of its heritage and the world beyond.
FORMOSA QUARTET | Meet Formosa's cellist Deborah Pae!
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ROBERT CINNANTE
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+1 631-678-1636
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