Students the music group and gained insights from their perspective and approach to professional music
Music is much more than simply playing notes according to the award-winning Danish String Quartet. Fredrik Sjolin and Frederik Oland shared their insights on bringing music to life and seeing music as a conversation in a masterclass with students from the School of Music.
Oland and Sjolin heard from a student string quartet and quintet during the masterclass. Both groups performed and received feedback from the musicians. Zachary Adamson and Cymrie Van Drew say the experience improved their skills and gave them new insights into music.
“Sjolin helped the other group phrase better by telling them to think about music as a conversation,” Van Drew added. “I love the idea of having a discussion within music.”
“It’s conversation with different emotions and ideas,” Adamson added. “It’s still abstract, there’s no one interpretation of a musical piece, but I guess that’s what makes it art, that’s what makes it so human.”
The performance aspect of the masterclass alone was a blessing, according to Van Drew. “I’m just grateful for any performance opportunity,” Van Drew said. “Every chance that I get to perform pushes me to a higher level professionally. A performance gives me a deadline and higher motivation to practice, and the more I practice, the more professional I become.”
The string quartet shared their approach to playing music with students. “Yes, playing string quartets is our job, and yes it is hard work, but we mostly do it for pleasure,” the quartet’s website states. “Music is a way to hang out with friends, and we hope we can continue to hang out for many, many years.”
Witnessing Oland and Sjolin interact with music also helped Adamson see more reasons to be involved in music professionally. “There can be a culture in college music programs and out in the music world of shame, criticism and comparison,” he said. “Experiencing the Danish String Quartet coming to BYU and getting to interact with them as human beings helped me realize that they’re not doing this to be better than someone else and compare themselves to other string quartets out there. They’re doing this because they have a unique idea and they are bringing it to life.”