For any string quartet, winning Canada’s prestigious Annual Banff International String Quartet Competition is an honor. For the Isidore String Quartet, it was an honor, a surprise and a life-changing event.
Now graduates of The Juilliard School, the four musicians were still immersed in their studies when they applied to the Banff competition. The quartet, which formed in 2019, was awarded first prize and the Haydn Prize at Banff’s 14th annual string quartet competition in September 2022.
“We were underdogs going into the band competition because of our age, not only as individuals, but as a quartet,” said cellist Joshua McClendon, 24, from a tour stop in Brussels. “It’s not known as a competition that you would do as your first.”
But ISQ, a first-time applicant, won. They received a $25,000 (Canadian) cash prize and a three-year artistic and career development program designed specifically for the group. That means coaching, career guidance and mentorship, as well as concert tours.
“We immediately went from playing two to three concerts a year to like 85 or something in our first season,” McClendon, a Detroit native, said. “Banff quite literally turned our lives upside down — for the better.”
Playing alongside McClendon in the Isidore String Quartet are violinists Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, who rotate first and second positions, and violist Devin Moore. All are under 25. UC San Diego’s ArtPower brings ISQ here Friday to perform at Conrad Prebys Concert Hall.
Shortly after the surprising win at Banff, the quartet received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, one of the most noted awards in classical music.
In a press release, the Banff Centre congratulated ISQ: “Becoming Banff International String Quartet Competition Laureates and earning a $25,000 Avery Fisher Career Grant in the third year of their existence represents an astonishing achievement. All prior Avery Fisher Career Grant ensembles were at least eight years past their founding, with most far longer.”
‘A little bit crazy’
Although the quartet’s had met at various music camps and festivals, it was at Juilliard when McClendon and violinist Steele realized they had similar goals.
“You have to be a little bit crazy to want to make a career in chamber music,” McClendon said. “Adrian and I loved playing together so much that we decided to try and form a serious group.
“We hadn’t talked about competitions but wanted to play with people who were ionate about chamber music. And that’s where Devin came into the mix. We played with him at sight-reading parties, and we realized how serious he was about music.”
Violist Moore soon transferred from Manhattan School of Music to Juilliard. Avalon had been on another path — solo violinist — before committing to ISQ.
“Phoenix had just gotten back from his first big first competition prize, and he planned to do more competitions,” McClendon explained. “I’d met him before and knew he was a wonderful musician. When we got together, we all knew there was something special in the playing. It was immediate.”
For McClendon, taking music seriously has always been natural. He began playing violin at age 3 but soon yearned for a cello. The youngster got his small cello at age 8.
The Motor City native was soon attending the well-respected Interlochen Center for the Arts, first in summer school, then full-time.
Going to concerts by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra had a big effect on him. Sphinx aims to increase representation of Black and Latinx artists in classical music. McClendon won third prize in the annual Sphinx competition when he was 16.
“My mother saw the Sphinx concerts as an opportunity for me to have a chance to hear, meet and experience wonderful African American and Hispanic musicians,” he said. “I got the message that it was a possibility for me.”
Billy Childs string quartet
At the ArtPower concert, the program will feature Mozart’s Quartet in C Major, Billy Childs’ String Quartet no. 2 and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat major.
Mozart dedicated his piece, often called “Dissonance,” to his friend and fellow composer Haydn.
“Haydn’s well-known for his musical sense of humor,” McClendon said. “There are fun twists, turns and outbursts in the third movement that, for me, are particularly reminiscent of Haydn.
“The opening of the first movement is harmonically built in a way that would have been absolutely wild for the time. It has this mysterious harmonic quality. You never quite know exactly where you are until the allegro.”
Los Angeles-based Grammy-winner Billy Childs composed “Awakening” about experiencing his wife’s health crisis, a pulmonary embolism.
“The piece is full of these (breakneck) 16th notes to depict this very fast heartbeat and a sense of uncertainty,” McClendon said. “The second movement depicts being in a sterile hospital room and how those white walls are closing in on you.
“The final movement, now that we know Billy’s wife is OK, has a long and beautiful duet between the cello and the first violin. All three movements are incredible.
“The listeners that we’ve had the chance to play it for have really become fond of this piece, because Billy’s so imaginative in how he could bring such visceral human emotions to life.”
McClendon regards Mendelssohn’s piece as a perfect closer, given that it is exciting and requires group virtuosity.
“There are recordings, but you don’t hear it performed live very often,” the cellist said. “We wonder why that is almost every time we play it, because it’s such a wonderful piece. The sheer difficulty of it may (discourage) some quartets.
“This will be our first time in San Diego and these three works are very special to us.”
Isidore String Quartet
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla
Tickets: $50-$65
Phone: (858) 534-1430
Online: artpower.ucsd.edu
Pre-performance ArtTalk at 6:30 p.m.
Wood is a freelance writer.
