USC's New Sounds Quartet Concert is set to take place on Friday. The concert will feature four USC graduate students who have worked all semester towards this concert. The quartet is made up of two violinists, a violist and a cellist.
Calvin Green is the violist in the quartet and is a second-year doctor of musical arts student. The viola is the middle voice of the strings group. Green said each member of the group was assigned to be in the quartet last year.
Three musical pieces will be performed at the New Sounds Quartet Concert. The composers include Caroline Shaw, Witold Lutosławski and Jürg Frey. Green said the Shaw piece is about six minutes long, the Lutosławski piece is a little over 20 minutes and the Frey piece is about 36 minutes.
The quartet performed the Lutosławski piece at Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea a few weeks ago.
Kai-Yi Zhang is a second-year graduate student in the doctorate program for violin performance and is a violinist in the quartet. She said the Lutosławski piece is the most unique piece they are performing.
"[In the Lutsławski piece] we play our own parts. It's not like a traditional string quartet, where we have to absolutely play together," Zhang said. "Actually, it's even harder to not play together."
The quartet decided to perform the Caroline Shaw piece after meeting her earlier this year.
"We fell in love with her music and the way she expresses herself through music," Green said.
The Lutosławski piece was chosen for them by their coach, Ari Streisfeld.
"He just thought it would be a great piece for us to work on individually and as a group to grow as an ensemble," Green said.
The quartet will be collaborating with the USC Experimental Music Workshop ensemble for the Frey piece. Greg Stuart, the director of the Experimental Music Workshop ensemble, chose the piece.
Isabel Ong is a third-year graduate student in the doctorate program for violin performance and a violinist in the quartet. Ong said she enjoys playing each song they will be performing at the concert and does not have a favorite piece.
"I think each piece gives me something, you know, and because of that, I equally enjoy performing each piece," Ong said.
The quartet first started working together at the beginning of the semester. While Zhang, Ong and Green are continuing with the program from last year, Alberto Pelisier, the cellist of the quartet and a first-year graduate student earning his doctorate in performance, only began working with the group in August. This will be his first big showcase with New Sounds.
Green said all of the members of the group have different ways of expressing themselves with their instruments since all of the instruments have different sounds.
"The violins are very bright and very clear, very articulate. The cello is more deep and has a lot of resonance, and the viola is kind of a mix, an awkward mix of the two," Green said. "It's always our goal to create something that is a unified project."
All of the songs that the quartet will be performing have their own personalities.
"It's a real exploration of different sound worlds," Ong said.
The New Sounds Quartet Concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 6. The concert will be in the School of Music 206 Recital Hall and is free to attend.