Ep 5: Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt - Violist of the Dover Quartet - a podcast by Ling Yah

Being in a quartet is like being in a marriage, says Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, violist and founding member of the world renowned award-winning Dover Quartet & our guest for Episode 5 of the So This Is My Why Podcast. 

Holding dual citizenship in the US and the Netherlands, Milena considers herself to have grown up “a little bit of everywhere” including in Oxford (UK), Baltimore and Jacksonville. 

Her father taught her the piano before, feeling fed up with the instrument, she chose the violin as her next musical endeavour. An instrument she picked up after hearing a musician busk on the streets of Oxford. 

At the age of 10 years old, having moved back to Jacksonville by then, she picked up the trombone and also (eagerly!) volunteered to play the viola when her younger brother wanted to form a quartet. 

We explore all that including a pivotal moment in the summer of 2005, where she met and learned from Michael Klotz, violist of Amernet Quartet & her first viola teacher, at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. A meeting that resulted in her “sudden immersion in the viola world”.

Curtis Institute of Music

We also discuss the considerations she had in place when applying for music schools and how she dropped all other applications the moment she got into her dream school - the Curtis Institute of Music! There, she studied with the likes of Michael Tree (of the Guarneri Quartet) & Roberto Diaz (President & CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music).

It was also at Curtis that the members of what would be the Dover Quartet came together - not unlike the tentative start of a budding relationship! They bonded so well, one of their teachers, Shmuel Ashkenasi (Vermeer Quartet) asked them, “Have you considered getting married (to each other)?” because you’re always together. To which Milena said:

We could not have been more giddy than when he said that to us because we had looked up to him so much and he notoriously is one of the most demanding coaches we've ever had. And so to get that kind of encouragement from someone we looked up to… I think that definitely had a huge thing to do with our morale and decision to be kind of brave enough to commit to one another.

From there, they decided to show “commitment” to each other by attending the graduate residency program at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music as a quartet. 

Realities of Life As a String Quartet Member

The life of a string quartet member is so very unique & some of the things we explore include: 

• What is your schedule like as a string quartet? How often are you on the road?
• What was it like participating in competitions (e.g. Fischoff Competition) and in particular, your memories of those incredible wins at the Banff Competition 2013 which launched the Dover Quartet into the spotlight?
• Importance of competitions to the careers of string quartets
• Ways of dealing with disagreements between quartet members, particularly in musical interpretations of pieces
• Managing personal space while on the road;
• Staying in touch with loved ones while on the road 
• Collaborations with other musicians & how that comes about
• Giving live performances versus making studio recordings;
• The role of social media & the power of collaborations - e.g. with Avi Avital, Edgar Meyer, Ray Chen, Roomful of Teeth & the Brooklyn Duo; 
• The Importance of public speaking as a means of connecting with the audience;
• Dealing with concert reviews
• Giving back to the community through Music For Food; and
• “Balancing” a solo career with being in a quartet.

String Instruments

As the instrument itself is so important to a musician, we talk about:

• The two violas she plays on & their different purposes
• Modern v old instruments - which is better? Does it even matter?
• How do you choose your violin?
• Are violins with an unknown maker a good investment? 
• Impact of COVID-19 on her personal life & the life of the Dover Quartet

Role of Parents in a Child’s Education

For parents with young kids or those thinking of pursuing music, we also deal with questions on:

• Should all children be exposed to music / have music lessons?
• How should parents handle children who don’t want to practice, especially if they want to just quit after trying it for a short while?
• At what age should a child learn a musical instrument?
• What should people looking to pursue music think about & do?

Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/5/

**

Official Bio of the Dover Quartet

The phenomenal Dover Quartet catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff Competition, at which they won every prize. Named the Cleveland Quartet Award-winner, and honored with the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Dover has become one of the most in-demand ensembles in the world.

The Quartet’s rise from up-and-coming young ensemble to occupying a spot at the top of their field has been “practically meteoric” (Strings). With its burnished warmth, incisive rhythms, and natural phrasing, the Quartet’s distinctive sound has helped confirm its status as “the young American string quartet of the moment” (New Yorker). The Quartet serves as the quartet-in-residence for the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Chamber Music Northwest, Artosphere, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and Peoples’ Symphony in New York, and was recently named the first-ever quartet-in-residence for the Kennedy Center. 

In 2018-19 the Dover Quartet performs more than a hundred concerts around North America, including performances at the Kennedy Center, San Francisco Performances, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Spivey Hall, Boston’s Celebrity Series, the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, and Carnegie Hall. In addition, the Dover’s season features tours of Hong Kong, Europe, and Australia, collaborations with Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Peter Serkin, Anthony McGill, and Roomful of Teeth, and premieres of new works by Caroline Shaw and Matan Porat. The Quartet was thrilled to be invited by the maverick filmmaker and cultural icon David Lynch to be featured at his Los Angeles Festival of Disruption. 

Cedille Records released the Quartet’s sophomore album, entitled Voices of Defiance: 1943, 1944, 1945 in October 2017. The recording takes listeners on a powerful journey through works written during World War II by Viktor Ullmann, Dimitri Shostakovich, and Simon Laks. The 2016-17 season saw the release of its all-Mozart debut recording on the Cedille label, a nod to the 1965 debut album of the Guarneri Quartet, whose founding violist, the late Michael Tree, joined the Dover Quartet on the recording. 

In addition, the group has participated in three complete Beethoven quartet cycles, including the University at Buffalo’s famous “Slee Cycle” – which has presented annual Beethoven quartet cycles since 1955 and has featured the likes of the Budapest, Guarneri, and Cleveland Quartets – and will record the cycle over the next three seasons. The group’s world-class collaborators have included pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Emanuel Ax, Marc-André Hamelin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Peter Serkin, and Jon Kimura Parker; violists Roberto Díaz and Cynthia Phelps; bassist Edgar Meyer; and the Pacifica and Escher Quartets.

In the spring of 2016, the Dover Quartet was recognized with the Hunt Family Award, one of the inaugural Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, and in past years has taken top prizes at the Fischoff Competition and the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.

All four Quartet members are consummate solo artists: first violinist Joel Link took first prize at the Menuhin Competition; violinist Bryan Lee and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt have appeared as soloists with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic, respectively; and cellist Camden Shaw released a solo album debut on the Unipheye Music label.

As Strad observes, “With their exceptional interpretative maturity, tonal refinement, and taut ensemble,” the Dover Quartet is “pulling away from their peers.”

Hailed as “the next Guarneri Quartet” (Chicago Tribune), the Dover Quartet draws from the lineage of that distinguished ensemble, as well that of the Cleveland and Vermeer Quartets; its members studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where they were mentored extensively by Shmuel Ashkenasi, James Dunham, Norman Fischer, Kenneth Goldsmith, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Peter Wiley. It was at Curtis that the Quartet first formed, and its name pays tribute toDover Beach by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber. The group has since returned for residencies to Rice in 2011-13, and to Curtis, where it became the conservatory’s first Quartet-in-Residence, in 2013-14. In addition, in 2015 the Dover was appointed the first Resident Ensemble of Peoples’ Symphony Concerts in the 116-year history of New York City’s oldest concert series.

The Dover Quartet is dedicated to sharing its music with under-served communities and is actively involved with Music for Food, an initiative enabling musicians to raise resources and awareness in the fight against hunger.

The Dover Quartet plays on the following instruments:

Joel Link: Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris circa 1857, on loan by Desirée Ruhstrat

Bryan Lee: Riccardo Antoniazzi, Milan 1904

Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt: Michele Deconet, Venice, 1780, the ‘Kroyt,’ generously on loan from the grandson of Boris Kroyt of the Budapest Quartet

Camden Shaw: Frank Ravatin, France, 2010

Further episodes of So This Is My Why

Further podcasts by Ling Yah

Website of Ling Yah