THE CALDER QUARTET IN THE LA TIMES TODAY!

December 2nd, 2009

Classical music brought them together at USC. Variety keeps them together.

By Scott Timberg
December 2, 2009

Six years ago, soon after the foursome that makes up the Calder Quartet graduated from USC, the group began to get noticed.

Even those who saw these young men as a bit green thought they might be on their way to something big. The critic Alan Rich, not known for dispensing praise lightly, called the Calders a new hope for a resident quartet in L.A. With good looks, mainstream musical flair and earnest ambition, the group was on many observers’ most-likely-to list.

But those who knew how hard it is to hold a chamber group together — for financial, musical and personal reasons — tempered their hopes. Their mentor at USC’s conservatory of music, Peter Marsh, was one of them.

“Some people say it has all of the disadvantages — and none of the advantages — of marriage,” he said. “How can it possibly work?”

Somehow, the Calders experiment has, in spite of the pressures, worked. In the last year or so the quartet has appeared as Continue reading »