(Joseph Maile)
On Friday, November 22, High Desert Chamber Music’s 17th season continues with the Telegraph Quartet, an award-winning string quartet based in San Francisco. I had a chance to talk to violinist Joseph Maile about his interest in music and influences, the development of the quartet, and more!
Joseph grew up in Cincinnati and like most young violinists, he was enrolled in Suzuki classes. At first, he liked the violin because it set him apart from others in Cincinnati, where there was not an overabundance of string players. “But later, when I got to the point where I could work on very complex, physically challenging romantic works – that is when it became my passion.”
One of Joseph’s mentors include Itzhak Perlman. He told me, “Itzhak Perlman was both at first a daunting and then at the same time very down-to-earth mentor for me. I remember him saying to me that he did not like to play for his students unless he felt it was necessary because he did not want them to fall into the Heifetz trap of just trying to be a lesser copy of himself.” To that end, whenever Mr. Perlman would play for his students, he would do so on their instruments so he could teach them how to manipulate their own instrument to help them play better. Some of his other mentors and teachers include violinists Ian Swensen and Mark Sokol, cellists Bonnie Hampton and Norman Fischer, and Kathleen Winkler. “I would say, in many ways, they shaped me more than Mr. Perlman,” he told me, “even though I am forever indebted to him for his attention and kindness.”
When asked about how the Telegraph Quartet got together, Joseph said, “the Telegraph Quartet was an ensemble born of four players searching for a true connection in chamber music, perhaps a bit after the usual time players tend to find their group.” The four of them were out of school after obtaining multiple degrees, but all with lots of prior experience making music and a strong desire to form a string quartet. Starting out fresh in San Francisco, the group went from an upstart chamber group to winning multiple awards and becoming Quartet-in-Residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of Michigan. “We had to be quick on our feet as the group’s reputation grew. I think this commitment to chamber music after we had explored other options is what has kept all four of us together for the past 11 years, with no member changes since the start.”
When asked about any particularly influential pieces, Joseph told me that in high school he remembers listening to the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky. “It sounded like gibberish to me, truly… but there was a kernel in it, something that said to me ‘keep listening to me, there is some truth to be found here’ and as I kept listening to it, it not only became familiar as a language but riveting as a new way of expressing something that could not be expressed in the old ways that I knew. It went from gibberish to becoming my favorite piece at that time and it taught me that if one sees some glimmer of a truth in something one should follow it and see where it leads!”
Please join us on Friday, November 22 at 7:30pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship for a lush program of Dvorak, Beethoven, and Smetana. This concert is sponsored by the Pine Tavern and there will be a pre-concert talk with Joseph and the rest of the Quartet at 6:45pm. Tickets are available through High Desert Chamber Music by phone or online.