Old friends to reunite in Caroga Lake Music Festival
Columbus, Ohio native Eva Kennedy is a violist who met Kyle Price when she was a rambunctious pre-teen and he was just beginning his adolescent growth spurt.
Through grade school, high school and eventually in college at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), they played music together and established a strong friendship. Eva performed at the first Caroga Lake Music Festival in 2012 and now, after an absence of six years, she’ll be back the week of July 23 to mesmerize us all with some enchanting works for string instruments.
“Kyle Price is one of my oldest friends,” Eva writes. “We met at the Chamber Music Connection of Columbus, Ohio, when I was seven years old and he was about nine or ten. We started playing together right away and continued until he graduated high school. And, as we each attended CIM, we also played together for the year that we overlapped there.
“During this time–and because of the amazing privilege of playing with such wonderful friends–I fell head over heels in love with chamber music, and it has been what I wanted to do with my life for as long as I can remember. In fact, I came to CIM in large part due to its reputation as a great chamber music school.
“I have learned so much and had many wonderful experiences there, but the best by far has been the joy of playing with the quartet I’m in now, the Callisto Quartet. We formed at CIM in 2016, became serious very quickly, and hope to pursue a career together playing chamber music. Our travels this year will take us to London for the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in April and to Melbourne, Australia for the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.
“We are so excited to be able to come to Caroga this summer after returning from Melbourne! The chance to work with some amazing colleagues, learn some new repertoire, and maybe even relax a little will be very welcome! On a personal note, I’m so thrilled to be able to come back to Caroga–I participated in its very first year and had a blast, but every summer since, I’ve had scheduling conflicts. I’m so happy to finally be able to return, see how the festival has grown, and play great music with some of my very favorite people.
“Both the Melbourne and Wigmore competitions require seven full works. At each one, we will perform Haydn’s Quartet op. 71 no. 1 in Bb major; the Mozart “Dissonance,” Quartet; Beethoven’s Quartet op. 59 no. 2, called “Razumovsky”; Brahms’s Quartet op. 51 no. 1 in C minor; and Bartok’s Quartet no. 6.
“Each competition also requires a contemporary work. For Wigmore Hall, it’s “The Four Quarters” by Thomas Adès, which was written in 2010; for Melbourne, it’s “Balderdash” by Holly Harrison, which was commissioned specifically for the competition and written in 2018.
“I’m not sure what we’ll play at Caroga–after spending the whole year intensively preparing this repertoire, it will be really fun to play something new!”