That looks like the appropriate amount of music & scores to be out in rehearsal, yes?!The quartet recently took a much needed 3 day retreat into the woods. Why is a retreat so important? For three days, we each removed ourselves from our normal environment with its constraints, responsibilities and demands (in addition to city noise!) and threw ourselves into long days of quartet rehearsing and the occasional blackberry picking. It gave us time to prepare for the start of this season as well as brainstorm lots of ideas for the coming years. Often times in "modern society" we want to squeeze the most into the smallest amount of time - in an hour meeting, we often are supposed to not only articulate our artistic dreams and ideas but figure out how to implement them perfectly as well. These days gave us some beautiful space to just let ideas - both musical and practical - sit and ferment. The lack of internet access turned out to be a nice way to unplug and connect with each other (even if certain members of the quartet were eager to check their e-mail!) The quiet beauty of the area, the star-filled night skies, and the plentiful pears, apples, and berries made the whole quartet feel incredibly blessed and rested at the end of those days! Until the next retreat.....
