Phil Ying says he initially chose the violin, but switched to the viola when he was in the seventh grade. He realized that when the group was old enough to start playing chamber music they would need a violist. “I kind of jumped at the opportunity to have my own instrument and always have my own part.”
Dim Sum, the group’s last CD, was a musical exploration of their Chinese-American heritage. Some of the pieces sound like they’re played on traditional Chinese instruments and use the Chinese musical scale. This fusion of techniques and instruments was not easy to achieve.
“The composers of those pieces did an extraordinary job of translating the sounds, the techniques, and the nuances of traditional Chinese music, and made it clear in the score how they would like us to do them,” Ying says.
“So we use our ears, and we see what they wrote, and we use their judgment as well to come up with a fantastic blend of Western classical music of the traditional sting quartet with Eastern influences. It’s a really exciting concert to play.”
The group likes to play with other musicians and has played as a quintet when an erhu player joined them. The erhu is a Chinese two-stringed instrument that produces haunting and evocative music.
They also enjoy incorporating different styles of music and are currently working with a jazz pianist to explore that genre.
Ying noted that the group will share their music in many different situations, for any kind of audience. “In fact sometimes it’s even more exciting to play for people who are discovering this music for the first time or rarely listen to this kind of music.”
He says kids in particular “respond to something that is genuine and you are passionate about,”—and they ask a lot of questions.
“They want to know all about the instruments, and they want to know why we move so much when we play. I think that somehow they have this idea that if you play serious classical music that you are supposed to stand still or sit still, and for them to see how emotionally and physically we get into the music—that’s a revelation to them I think.”
The quartet is not fussy about venues, and has played at schools, places of business, and even public libraries. “We’re really open to performing in lots of places,” says Ying.
The siblings get along well, he adds. Musical disagreements are resolved by “forging an interpretation that combines the strength of everyone’s point of view.”
“As siblings we have an advantage in the amount of trust and closeness that we share—I think that’s kind of unusual how we really enjoy each other’s company. We have been close ever since we were kids, and we think it’s worth it to have the kind of tension in rehearsal and the kind of hard work that it takes to forge right [musical] interpretation.”
What’s special about chamber music, Ying explains, is that the great composers, starting with Beethoven, “turned to the string quartet to express their deepest feelings.”
“Someone like Beethoven, in the last years of his life when he was very sick and probably knew he wasn’t going to live much longer, wrote string quartets. So there’s been this tradition of composers writing very personal and expressive works for this combination of instruments, not just the string quartet but also other small ensembles.”
The Ying Quartet will play at Ottawa’s Chamberfest 09 at Dominion-Chalmers United church on August 6 at 7:30 p.m.
