Dear Alma, Audiences don’t like our new quartet member
Daily Comfort ZoneDear Alma,
Our quartet recently went through a personel change. It took us the better part of a year to find the best fit, and now we have been touring with the new lineup for 3 months. We are all doing our best, but are having a fair amount of negative feedback from audience and presenter (even having some dates pushed back one year). What should we do?
Worried
Dear Worried,
Having a change in a chamber ensemble is extremely tricky. Not only for the remaining members, but for the new person as well. Not to mention the old members who had to play with you while you were searching, the managers, the presenters, teaching positions and audience members. You, as original members, have also been through a lot. Worry, financial instability, and tough, fundamental work as an ensemble can be a time of frayed nerves and finger-pointing. Stay the course.
There are several important things to do.
- Patience – give yourselves an entire year to find your new balance.
- Realize that your current configuration will change your group. Don’t look to recreate what you used to have verbatim.
- Take time to make sure you yourself are in the best mental health.
- Do your best to not read reviews or listen to audience members – if you believe the good reviews you have to believe the bad ones too.
- Have regular quartet meetings to discuss both business and interpersonal topics.
- Don’t wait for a problem to pop up, anticipate it.
- Be open to the ideas of the new member.
Your manager has been through this countless times. Use that resource to help you in the coming year. They want (and need) you to succeed.
But most of all, Worried, never lose sight of the amazing joys that are inherent in a career in chamber music. It is a coveted life, and you all (all four of you) deserve the happiness that comes from a career well-deserved.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
There is always a period of adjustment and the audience loves to put in their two cents…
This is unfortunate as new quartet member appointments are always tricky. Opposite is the case for the Dover Quartet because the new violist is playing wonderfully with great reviews. It is unfortunate that the previous violist left due to fights between her and the first violinist. My colleague said the first violinist suffers from “approval-seeking behavior” (where you must be liked by everyone and care too much about what others think) and socially insecure. Good luck to all these quartets with new member appointments.
It’s an exciting time for everyone to watch the unfolding of a new element of a familiar quartet. Remember the year after David left the Emerson?
If you four get along, “make beautiful music together,” what bothers the audience?
So, which well-known quartet has had a new member in the last few months? And which of its members has sent this letter to ‘Alma’?
Having been part of many audiences for string quartet concerts over the decades, I wonder just what it means that there is negative audience reaction or feedback to ONE member of a quartet? There are no solo bows.