Dover Quartet
PHOTO BY ROY COX
musical mentoring Started in 2019, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival’s Spring Institute brings together young musicians with the best in the business to learn and perform.
BY MANDY HAYNES • PHOTOS BY SHERRY CARTER
T
wenty years ago, a cellist vacationing on Amelia Island and a group of Fernandina Beach women had a vision. Their love of chamber music and passion for music education was the perfect combination. Together, with help from the community, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival was born. Since its humble beginning, it has grown into one of the largest chamber festivals in the southeastern United States. Staying true to its passion for music education, the Festival launched the Spring Institute in 2019. The primary purpose of the Spring Institute is to provide young students with the opportunity to be trained and mentored by some of the best musicians in the field. This year, the esteemed Dover Quartet, the Festival’s quartet-in-residence and one of the most in-demand quartets in the world, were able to share their knowledge with students from the Meraki and Jennings quartets. I had the opportunity to interview the students and arrived at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church as Bryan Lee and the members of the Jennings Quartet were in the middle of a coaching session. Eric Sakurai, Executive Director of the Festival, appeared and whisked me off to another room to meet the Meraki Quartet. 33 AMELIA ISLANDER MAGAZINE •
It was obvious that Eric is great at time management, which no doubt came in handy this week. When I asked the Meraki Quartet what their favorite thing about the Spring Institute has been, they were unanimous: to have a week of instruction by the Dover Quartet was something the students would never forget. “We love the Dover Quartet, and to get to meet them and work with them has been incredible,” says violinist Sofia Matthews. “It’s so nice to get to work with a quartet on the younger side because it feels like our dream is attainable. They’ve shown us that if we keep working hard and working together, we could possibly get there too,” adds cellist Isabelle Nichols. It was time to run next door and get an interview with the Jennings Quartet before they left for lunch. I asked the same question: “What’s been the best thing about your week at the Spring Institute?” “The sessions with the Dover Quartet, the feeling of satisfaction of getting to know how they work, and getting to use the knowledge they’ve cultivated and shared with us so we can be a better quartet,” says Louis Parra Elkhouri, cellist. “The Dover are like these mammoth players, my favorite quartet in the world. It was like meeting celebrities, but they continued on next page JULY 2021
www.AmeliaIslander.com
