Artist Spotlight: Daniel Chong, The Parker Quartet

This year, the Grammy Award-winning Parker String Quartet are the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University. Founded in 2002 when its members were students at the New England Conservatory of Music, the quartet consists of violinists Daniel Chong and Ying Xue, violist Jessica Bodner, and cellist Kee-Hyun Kim. The Crimson had a chance to interview Daniel Chong about his career with the quartet. The Parker Quartet will present its first concert as Blodgett Artists-in-Residence on Friday, Sept. 26 at 8 p.m. in the John Knowles Paine Concert Hall.

The Harvard Crimson: This is your first year here at Harvard. How has it been so far?

Daniel Chong: We're here full-time, teaching the Music 189 chamber music course. It's incredibly exciting to hear and get to know students that are involved in music because, obviously, Harvard College is very different than traditional music conservatories in that people have wide-ranging interests and are so talented in so many different ways.

THC: You are performing next Friday night here at Harvard. Could you talk a bit about what you're playing?

DC: In the center of our program is Henri Dutilleux's “Ainsi la nuit.” It's easy to understand what the main influence is—the night. But it wasn't Dutilleux's intention to create a clear canvas of this singular theme. He said that this piece captures the many moods of the night. If you take one aspect of the night, like the aspect of darkness, and think about how darkness can appear in our lives so differently—you know, we've all experienced fear in darkness, but we also experience extreme comfort—for example, we sleep at night, when we are at our most resigned. Or, if you're out in the darkness in the woods at night, you experience the power of not just what's around you, but also of the whole planet, something sublime and universal.

THC: Some people say that these modern compositions are less accessible to the public than Haydn, Beethoven, Dvořák, while others say that they can speak more directly to people and get a more visceral reaction. What do you think about when you're programming concerts with modern works?

DC: We try to incorporate a lot of different periods in our programs…because we want to…keep music on its path of evolution. It is true that works of the modern era are more abstract, but you have to remember that when Beethoven wrote his late quartet[s] people thought the music was just crazy and wild and unappreciable; now people listen to late Beethoven very easily. The other idea is that it's not only a different time period: it's a completely different aesthetic, like modern art compared to classical or romantic art. I think the difficult thing is that music is dependent on time. After glancing at visual art, you can just walk away with the general idea very quickly, but in music it's very important to sit through it and get the clearest picture.

THC: Like you're viewing an image piece-by-piece.

DC: Exactly. And the brain is an extraordinary thing and Dutilleux really takes advantage of that—Dutilleux was very influenced by Marcel Proust's theory on memory, and he incorporates this by both recalling past motifs but also foreshadowing future ones in short passages between movements, all interplaying within this singular journey.

THC: In the quartet, how did your relationships with one another change over time?

DC: Being in a string quartet is very intense. Not only are we constantly working together, we are forced to evolve together in ways that don't involve music—we are traveling together, eating together, having administrative meetings…I would say our relationship is most similar to being in a family. In a family dynamic, the connections can take many forms, including friendship and frustration, or knowing each other so well it's beyond a friendship.

THC: What do you see in the future of classical music?

DC: We live in a time where because of the internet and technology in general, young people are encouraged to try so many new things, and music is one of those things that is accessible in a way that it really wasn't 50 years ago. So you see a lot of people connected to music in a firsthand way, which is a really good thing. Classical musicians believe that great music will always want to be played and heard. I think people are reinventing classical music and how it's exposed to people. The younger generation is more interested in classical music than most people think they are, and while that may not necessarily materialize into walking into a concert hall, the curiosity is there.

THC: Any advice for the plethora of musicians here at Harvard?

DC: Remember that music is a lifelong pursuit. It's a craft that needs to be honed for the rest of your life. Always enjoy that path of learning and exploration because [music] is such an incredible art form.