Deer Valley Music Festival 2013

We had such an amazing time in Park City, Utah studying with the Muir Quartet and Joan Tower, playing the music of Beethoven, and working with and performing a piece commissioned for us from our new friend, Devin Maxwell. The Deer Valley Chamber Music Festival was such a great, focused experience for our development, while still rejuvenating with lots of hiking, hot tubs, fires, and scenery!

After the final concert with Skyros Quartet, Battery Quartet, Muir Quartet, Devin Maxwell, Haruhito Miyagi, and Paula.

We road-tripped to Park City, and traveled through rugged/beautiful Wyoming...

 This is the lovely condo we all stayed in, rehearsed in, had coachings in during our stay!

Our rehearsal space.

The fireplace...we used it most nights as it was chilly in the evenings!

This hiking trail was right next to our condo! Gorgeous views!

We were visited by a yearling moose in the yard!!

Beautiful Park City.

We visited Mirror Lake, and saw incredible views from 10,000 feet up!

We also hiked Guardsman Pass during our time in Utah.

Working with Joan Tower was an incredible experience that we will never forget! We were able to enjoy private coachings, lots of talks, and evening gatherings with her and her husband.

We also had daily coachings and weekly masterclasses with the Muir Quartet. They were all fabulous mentors and we learned so much from our time with them! This is the view from a house concert they gave while we were there.

We are incredibly grateful to the Utah Symphony, Joan Tower, the Muir Quartet, and all of our new friends for all of the fantastic experiences of a lifetime!

Tour to the Pacific Northwest

We just returned from the beautiful Pacific Northwest! We were fortunate to receive a Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Student Presentation of Scholarly/Creative Activity Grant this spring to perform concerts, hold masterclasses, and present workshops in Washington and Oregon. We had so much fun meeting new people, creating new connections, and of course doing what we love best! We also did some sight seeing, and went camping with Sarah's parents' camping gear! Here are some photos from our adventures!

View of Seattle from Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill.

Fire time in Sarah's parents' backyard.

We checked out Folklife Festival downtown...

...and the Fremont Troll!

We took a little trip to camp at Deception Pass on Whidbey Island!

Beautiful beach at the campsite.

This is our new mascot, Ernest the Dragon, enjoying the campfire. We acquired him at the Fremont Farmer's Market.

Here is a concert program from one of our concerts!

The Edmonds Ferry.

Edmonds Beach. Edmonds, Washington.

One of the places we were fortunate to give a masterclass: Seattle University! Dr. Quinton Morris has been developing such a fantastic strings program here! We really enjoyed coaching these lovely groups.

While we were in Oregon, we visited one of the most beautiful beaches in the world: Cannon Beach!

Back in Seattle area, this is the forest behind Sarah's backyard growing up.

Sarah's brother, Joe, is an artist. Here he is working away on a new piece.

We visited the famous Museum of Flight, and toured inside this B-17 bomber.

We played a concert at Queen Anne Christian Church thanks to Willie's uncle. It was a great space!

Sarah's mom, Pam, took us paddleboarding/kayaking on Green Lake.

A big thank you to the Hixson-Lied Grant, Sarah's parents for hosting our stay in the Seattle area, Sarah's grandparents for hosting our stay in southern Washington when we performed in Oregon, Willie's family for inviting us for meals out, and the many venues where we were fortunate to perform and coach! This trip was very special for us!

Seattle Great Wheel.

Skyros Quartet travels to...CHINA!!! Part II: Xi'an

As we mentioned in our last post, we will be sharing special stories from our trip in the coming months, but here is a quick glimpse of pictures from the second part of our travels: the ancient and wonderful city of Xi'an!

This is a city park in Xi'an. The vibrancy and activity was truly amazing!

These ladies are practicing traditional dance.

There was a large market in the middle of the park. This was a stall of fresh steamed rice buns. Ovens are very uncommon in China!

Fresh fruit and veggie vendors.

These boats are for floating on the large lake in the center of the park.

There were plenty of carnival stalls all around the park.

Stone dragon at the foot of a stone bridge.

There were many instrumentalists practicing all over the park!

Community choral practice.

Temple in the park.

Xi'an is home to the famous Terra cotta Warriors! This UNESCO site definitely lived up to the hype; it was incredible!

Findings at a local grocery market.

Durian! Justin and Sarah tried it! It is also the source of a sickly sweet, strange smell in most markets.

Stone Dragon in the city.

Backstage shot at one of our concerts! We will update with more concert pictures in the coming months!

On our morning off, we took a bike ride around the top of the historic city wall. It was amazing!

That little orange cat wanted off the roof but I think he/she was stuck up there!

Many buildings resembled this one in more historic sections of Xi'an.

A nod to the city's most famous people in an ex-pat bar.

Another activity at the local park.

One of countless sculptures at the city park.

Check back in the future for new adventures with the Skyros Quartet! We will update again about China soon.