Meet our Artist of the Week, the talented violinist Rhiannon Banerdt!
We sat down with Rhiannon to get to know her a little better and this is what we learned:
MT: How did you begin your musical career? Do you come from a musical family? Was violin your first instrument?
Rhiannon: I was lucky enough to have older siblings who studied music and parents, who were not professional musicians, but very supportive and enthusiastic about music. I started playing the piano at first and then added the violin a year later. I played both for many years, but I ultimately decided violin was my instrument.
MT: What are some of the joys and difficulties of playing in a quartet?
Rhiannon: One of the great things about playing in a quartet is never having to go through the difficulties of music making alone. All the hard work and stress that we as musicians often have to do by ourselves: practicing, competing, performing, I am privileged to share with some of my closest friends. I find performing particularly exciting too, because we inspire and challenge each other in the moment to always search for new and interesting qualities in the music. Our quartet is very close, but being very close personally and working together intensely can cause frustration as well, especially when part of our job as quartet members is to constantly challenge each other.
MT: Any fun or interesting anecdotes about your quartet? How did you form?
Rhiannon: The music world is a pretty small world. I played in a quartet with Colin at the Castleman Quartet Program in Boulder, CO almost ten years ago, and we subsequently lost touch until endeding up at Kneisel Hall, a chamber music festival in Maine, with Tina. We didn’t all play together there, and it took a few more years before we all ended up in the same city and came together as a quartet.
MT: What is one of your most memorable musical experiences?
Rhiannon: Many of my memories are tied with music, so it’s difficult to pick out one in particular. I guess one moment that stands out for me is one that didn’t involve my own performance. While in high school, my youth orchestra traveled to Venezuela and while we were there we performed as well as attended performances by other musicians our age. One group we saw was named the Chorus of the White Hands, because one section of the chorus was made up of deaf students who wore white gloves and performed choreography alongside the singing. It was a beautiful and deeply moving performance and really reshaped my ideas about what music is and what it could mean to people.
MT: Who inspires you? musician or otherwise
Rhiannon: I would have to say Pablo Casals. He had such an incredibly intense and unique musical personality, as well as a real earnestness behind his playing. I always imagine that being in the room with him playing must have ignited a fire inside any musician. If that isn’t enough, his passion extended beyond performance within a traditional concert hall, and encompassed various methods in which music and art could change the world and touch the lives of its inhabitants.
