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!

Skyros Quartet Travels to...CHINA!!! Part I: Hangzhou

We just returned from the most amazing tour in China! We will make follow up posts with our favorite memories as we have more time to go through information, pictures, and videos, but here are some pictures of our time in the first city we visited, Hangzhou.

This was the first amazing sculpture of many we saw in China...at the Beijing airport!

First views of Hangzhou. Urban vegetable farms.

The following pictures were from our first day in China at an instrument museum!

A river right behind our hotel.

Mirror picture taking!

Breakfasts at our hotel were incredible!

Pagoda in the city.

Justin was missing his cats...

KTV Karaoke!

We visited the Wetlands...

...and the gorgeous Westlake!

Nighttime market...

...and a Skyros Quartet elevator shot!

More to come...

Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach

We were very fortunate today to give a special community engagement concert at the Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach! What a fantastic place, and we met and interacted with so many special people! Check out the link to find out more about Matt Talbot!

Moments before the interactive concert:

Willie

Justin.

They also have a beautiful indoor flower garden including this exotic Hibiscus plant!

Skyros Quartet Meets Los Angeles

We just returned from a wonderful trip to Los Angeles, where we were excited to perform as finalists in the 2013 Annual Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition! We learned so much, met new friends, reunited with old friends, and even saw some of the L.A. scenery!

Here Justin and James, along with Willie's cello, prepare to depart from the Omaha airport.

Scenes from the plane.

We rehearsed at a beautiful home in Pasadena.

Here Willie, James, and Justin check out the CalTech campus where the competition was held.

After our dress rehearsal, we checked out the Santa Monica Pier!

After competition day, we met up with Sarah's friend Claire who works as an assistant casting director in Hollywood and showed us the best Hollywood sites!

Skyros Quartet at the Hollywood sign.

 Before our plane departed, we drove to Malibu on a warm and sunny day.

Back in Lincoln...snow on May 1st!!! Definitely an interesting contrast to our recent trip!