Coachings with Gabriel Le Magadure
Quartet playing is a wonderful intersection between preserving art and technique from the past while also discovering and expressing our own creative voices. A large part of that process is learning from musicians who are a few steps ahead of us. This year we have had the privilege of working with Quatuor Ébène’s second violinist Gabriel Le Magadure at the Sergei Rachmaninoff Conservatoire in Paris.
Quatuor Ébène have been prominent names in the world of chamber music for around two decades, during which years they have amassed an impressive number of awards and are known for their ability to not only perform the great works of the classical quartet repertoire, but also their cross-genre collaborations and compositions. Quatuor Ébène have long been an inspiration to each of us and getting to work so closely with Gabriel has been an amazing experience.
In a coaching session a mentor will help us in many different ways, these could include: tips on string playing technique, suggestions for how we can better express our own creative ideas, information on the historical background of our repertoire and it’s composers, recommendations for recordings to listen to, and sharing first-hand experiences when playing this same repertoire.
So far with Gabriel we have worked on:
Janáček String Quartet No.1 ‘Kreutzer Sonata’
Beethoven String Quartet No.16 Op. 135
Fanny Hensel String Quartet in Eb Major
Jonathan Dove ‘Out of Time’
It has also been really fun exploring Paris. As musicians we are extremely lucky that our work can allow us to travel to such beautiful parts of the world. So far we have seen Monet’s ‘Waterlilies’ at the Musée d'Orsay, visited Notre-Dame, rummaged in the Marche aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves flea market, had a picnic under the Tour Eiffel, attended a concert by Quatuor Modigliani at the Maison de la Radio de Radio France, watched a performance at a local jazz club, experienced part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Paris Opera, and taken many walks around the city.
For each of our trips we have been kindly hosted by fellow musicians and arts lovers, reminding us how generosity lies at the heart of what we do. It is very comforting for us to know that wherever we travel, there will most likely be fellow creatives looking out for us, and we hope we can be that same support for others. This creative venture was also kindly sponsored by Help Musicians UK and the Albert and Eugenie Frost Trust, without whom we would not have been able to take up this incredible opportunity.
