In an interview with KGNU’s Sanford Baran, Harumi Rhodes, the second violinist of the Takács Quartet, discusses her inspirations and role in the quartet. Rhodes expresses her lifelong passion for chamber music and the joy of performing within an ensemble. She shares insights into the preparation and collaboration involved in the upcoming world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Kachkaniraqmi” at the Colorado Music Festival on July 21st.
Sanford Baran: Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Harumi Rhodes, the talented second violinist of the renowned Takács Quartet. Takács will be performing at the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder on July 21st, featuring the world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s composition Kachkaniraqmi, written for string quartet and orchestra.
Welcome, Harumi. Thank you so much for being with us.
Harumi Rhodes: Thank you for having me.
Sanford Baran: To get us started, I thought I would ask, what inspired you to choose the violin as your instrument? And who were some of the key figures that influenced you during the early stages of your musical journey?
Harumi Rhodes: I started the violin when I was seven years old, and I grew up in a family of musicians. Both of my parents play string instruments. My mother was a violinist and my father’s a violist. So I grew up with the sound of the violin and the viola in my house. I think as a child, I secretly wanted to be a singer. And my sister is a witness to this too, because she tells stories about how I was constantly singing. Sometimes probably very loudly at the top of my lungs. Every time something would happen that I was happy about or sad about, I would sing about it. I was really drawn to the idea of vocalizing. And I think I was drawn to the violin because I felt like it was a way to sing through an instrument.
When I was a little girl, the violin was small and it felt like something I could bring with me everywhere I went. It felt like such a friendly instrument. I told my parents I wanted to play the violin. My mother, who’s a violinist, was a little nervous at first. She said, Harumi, can’t you pick anything else? I think she was thinking maybe it was a little bit too close. But eventually I convinced her. It probably made me want to play the violin even more. I think my biggest influence other than my parents was my first violin teacher. Her name was Shirley Givens. As I was studying with her, she was writing and composing and illustrating a new series of books to teach the violin called “Adventures in Violinland”. It was so exciting going through these books with her. Each character in the book explained a different violin technique. So I still think about that today: the illustrations and the images of each character teaching me how to play the violin. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that I think about some of the characters in that book every day.
Sanford Baran: And can you briefly describe the path that eventually led you to the Takács Quartet?
Harumi Rhodes: Yes. I’m someone who’s loved chamber music my whole life. I was the music student at school who was playing in everyone’s composition recital and I was the one that had a piano trio and a string quartet and was part of the new music ensemble. I loved working with other people and I always felt like the whole point of being alone in the practice room was so that you could be a better collaborator. I made so many of my close friends through chamber music. So it’s always been a dream of mine to be able to be part of a string quartet or an ensemble that brought chamber music to the world and was in a position to premiere new works and to collaborate with exciting organizations and composers.
In 2015 I moved to Boulder, Colorado where I was teaching violin at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where the Takács String Quartet has been in residence for many years. My office was across the hall from them. I collaborated with all of them on faculty recitals and also co-teaching of various ensembles and students. When my predecessor retired, I was asked to join the quartet and I was just absolutely thrilled.
Sanford Baran: Now, as the second violinist of Takács, what unique role do you play in shaping the overall sound and interpretation?
Harumi Rhodes: That’s a great question. Being a second violinist is an exercise in flexibility in every possible way. Your position allows you to elevate other voices, but it also asks you to come to the fore and be in a solo leadership position at the drop of a hat. You have to be able to navigate those roles and many more instantly at any given moment. Hopefully with not too much attention brought to that actually, to do it seamlessly in ways that make the greater good really shine. I think there’s something about that role that I’m extremely attracted to. That sense of responsibility is very empowering. To be inside the group as an inner voice, the second violin and viola are the inner voices. We can shape the momentum from the inside, the inner mechanics of how the entire beast moves.
In many ways we’re often in a supportive role where we can change the texture of the music. We can make it richer. We can make it darker. We can make it lighter and effervescent. To be able to navigate and flow through those roles is extremely fun and a wonderful way to contribute to the overall sound.
Sanford Baran: In a small ensemble like a quartet, how do you balance the collective sound of the group with the individual expression of each musician? Is the primary focus on the whole ensemble over individual performances?
Harumi Rhodes: Yes, I think sometimes it’s a matter of putting it aside for the benefit of the whole, and I think other times it’s a matter of whipping that skill out at any given moment and being able to really be in the spotlight, and then instantly be able to hand over that spotlight to the person next to you or across from you. So there’s this constant interplay and exchange, which I think in a string quartet or in any chamber music ensemble is very nimble and flexible and exciting. That feeling of being in the moment is something that I think keeps the music fresh and alive, whether you’re playing something that literally has been written yesterday, or something that’s been written a really long time ago – to keep that sense of discovery and exploration. Part of your technique and part of something that you want to share with audiences and celebrate with the world.
Sanford Baran: You have a strong vision for commissioning and programming contemporary music. How does the quartet balance performing the classic quartet repertoire while also incorporating contemporary works?
Harumi Rhodes: That’s a great question. We think about that a lot. We think about programming. We think about how we’d like to present music together, not just what piece we want to play, but how we want to combine them on the stage. There are lots of groups out there that tend to only play older music. That might be their specialty or maybe their preference. Then there are other groups also that really focus only on commissioning and new music. That might be their vision or also their preference. We are a group that loves to do both. We find a lot of meaning and a lot of joy in the combination of presenting newer and older works together on the same program and seeing how that conversation works. One of the things that we’re always talking about is how one piece can influence how we play and how we see another. That might seem like an obvious thing to say, but to actually experience that, especially as you’re creating new works, how that influences the way you think of an older work or how you might want to shape a program in the future is something that the quartet has always been interested in.
Before I joined, I remember hearing about a lot of exciting collaborations that the Takács was doing with poets and actors. So again, this sense of exploring and discovering things, whether it’s an old piece or a new piece, has always been part of the Takács ethos. Since I’ve joined I probably would venture to say we’ve done more commissioning and more premiering of new works in the last stretch. I’m very proud of that. I love the fact that I’ve had some influence in that direction. And also it’s the nature of the times. We want to be more forward looking in some ways, and I can’t think of a better way of doing that in a string quartet than promoting new voices and premiering new works.
Sanford Baran: Speaking of which, what’s it been like working with Gabriela Lena Frank, the composer of the world premiere piece, Kachkaniraqmi, that will be performed by Takács, along with the strings of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra?
Harumi Rhodes: Gabriela has been a friend of mine for years, and the idea that Gabriela and I are leading this collaboration between the Colorado Music Festival and Takács is very exciting for us. She is a fantastic composer and more than a composer. She’s like a novelist. She’s a storyteller and she happens to write music incredibly beautifully. To be able to work with her is really empowering and really inspiring. We feel very lucky to be able to bring together all these different groups, this joining of forces with Peter Oundjian and CMF and the CMF Orchestra. And to expand the repertoire, there aren’t that many pieces written for solo string quartet and string orchestra. And so the idea of expanding the repertoire and joining forces with Gabriela is very exciting.
Sanford Baran: Can you tell us about any particular moments or elements in Kachkaniraqmi that stand out to you or hold special significance?
Harumi Rhodes: Yes. The piece is in four movements and each member of the string quartet is featured both as an individual, unique voice. We take on different personalities or different personas. Also in other movements, we join forces with the orchestra and become leaders of the section. So I feel like the way that Gabriela uses this orchestration is incredibly beautiful. Not only does it make space for all of our sounds to live and to be heard, but it also speaks to this beautiful, poetic analogy of what we’re doing, that we can be individual voices in the community and also be extremely collaborative and lead and have this idea of call and response. She takes several Peruvian folk melodies and she makes them her own and she makes each member of the string quartet an extremely vocal, lyrical character, where there’s a lot of beauty, but also pathos at the same time.
She combines this idea of tragedy and celebration in ways that are both festive and extremely evocative and emotional. The storytelling is incredibly beautiful and joyful in some ways and also very crying and wailing and other ways. It’s an extremely human experience and we’re loving how she’s using the string quartet and the orchestra together.
Sanford Baran: What’s your take on the story that is being told?
Harumi Rhodes: In some ways it’s abstract and in other ways it’s specific. I don’t think she wrote a story that correlates specifically to any particular moment, but I think there’s a lot of lyrical poetry that she’s thinking of in her mind. She’s done a lot of research on her own heritage, this Peruvian heritage, and she combines that with a lot of the imagery of the landscape of the Peruvian mountains and the windscape. For example, there’s one movement in the piece that is full of scary winds and craggy mountaintops. In the midst of this harsh environment, this harsh weather and jagged edges, there’s this beautiful solo voice, singing on the top of this mountain. So there’s a lot of imagery and history and the celebration of the landscape. There’s a lot of pathos in the storytelling, combined with this idea of a culture that’s been very resilient, the indigenous peoples celebrating their future through the next generation.
I think there’s this deep sense of awareness of her heritage, but she takes it a step further and makes it a musical landscape that everybody can love. She’s interested in bringing people together. If you read the program notes or if you listen to this interview, that’s fantastic, but you also don’t have to be a scholar on her works in order to sit in the audience and just absolutely have a wonderful time and to have the music touch you in some way. I think Gabriela is someone who takes that imagery and that beauty and makes it really tangible for the listener.
Sanford Baran: I’m curious about the process that leads up to the performance of a world premiere. How do all the disparate elements now come together to allow this piece to be born in front of a live audience?
Harumi Rhodes: There are many moving parts. I would say the core foundation of the whole project comes through the friendship between me and Gabriela and the idea that we’ve worked together in several different capacities, whether it’s been recording projects or teaching projects. Then the next part of it is the distribution of ideas. We received the solo parts and the score and so did Peter. They came in the mail and we’re looking through all of it and just very excited learning everything for the first time and getting that first layer of experience under our belt. Then comes a series of interactions. Gabriela and I have been in touch and the quartet’s been in touch with Gabriela and we’ve asked her a series of questions. I’ve had some Zoom calls with her. We had a Zoom meeting just the other day. She’s going to be coming here to Boulder and we’re going to have a rehearsal with the quartet, Peter and Gabriela together before We join forces with the orchestra and that’ll be really fun. We’ll get to hear the solo quartet parts. We’ll get to discuss with Gabriela and she’ll get to hear it for the first time. So that’s also a part of this process that a lot of people don’t think about is that when a composer hears their music for the first time, what is that like? I’m sure it’s both scary and exhilarating at the same time, just as it is for us to play for her and to bring Peter into all of this. He is the person who will literally be bringing all of us together on stage. He’s the glue and the person that we’ll all be looking to for leadership on stage in many ways. That’s also part of the process. And then I think the most joyful part of the process is when we all start rehearsing together. We’ll have several rehearsals in the Chautauqua Auditorium, a beautiful space. And we just can’t wait.
Sanford Baran: I can’t wait either. Harumi, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights into the world of quartet performance and the upcoming premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Kachkaniraqmi. It’s been a real pleasure talking with you and thank you again for taking the time to be with us.
Harumi Rhodes: Thank you so much.
