H2 Quartet Talks About Their Success as a Quartet

Transcription

Jeff Loeffert: I’m very proud to play in the H2 Quartet. We started playing together in 2006 while we were students at Michigan State University and upon completely our doctorates we went on to continue in our professional careers where we teach at universities now in the Great Plains in Oklahoma and Kansas, but the quartet is still a primary function to what we do. We’ve recorded now on our sixth commercial album and we’ve been able to play around the world. We’re really grateful to have these experiences together in addition to some of the commissioning projects and the teaching projects that we do during the school year and during the summer.

Jonathan Nichol: To become a professional quartet from our experiences as graduate students is a special outcome and then to all live in the same vicinity where we can drive, interact, rehearse, talk about music, talk about composers, commissioning, concepts. That’s a rarity in the saxophone world and something that I’m very grateful for is just the opportunities to closely continue our collaborations because we’ve been doing this for 10 years together.

Kimberly Goddard Loeffert: H2 has released five CDs together. Our first CD came out in 2008 and that was Generations. We also have released Times and Spaces, Groove Machine, Hardline, and very recently enrapture which includes, among other things, the Paquito D’Rivera work “A Farewell Mambo.”

Geoffrey Deibel: So, our recordings actually reflect our evolution as a group which I think is really interesting. Our first CD, which is called Generations, is made mostly of traditional repertoire which was a lot of stuff that we were playing for competitions at the time. As we progressed in our future albums, we started to commission more composers and really contribute to the saxophone repertoire. All of us in the group, of course, have our own aesthetic of music that we are interested in personally and we all bring different pieces to the table. Our latest CD, enrapture, features a major work by Forrest Pierce which is really special for us because it highlights the region that we live in which is the Great Plains region and it’s about the land and sort of social makeup of that area of the country. It’s a really great piece and a great contribution to the saxophone quartet repertoire.

JN: Following your lead on speaking about the diverse array of repertoire that we’ve performed, enrapture features the “Farwell Mambo” by Paquito D’Rivera that Vandoren commissioned. I think it’s original version was a clarinet quartet that he arranged for saxophone quartet and it has some improvisation included in it and Latin American music rhythms. So, on one album from us you’ll find some avant garde contemporary classical music, some americana, and then things influenced by jazz. I think that’s related to the wonderful instrument that we play, the saxophone, and it’s roots in this country as a jazz instrument, as a band instrument, as a classical instrument. So, that’s something that we try and highlight when we’re programming and when we’re recording.

GD: Is also is a testament to the strength of this group I think, which is that we are able to perform lots of different styles of music and move in between styles with relative ease and just showcase the great versatility of the saxophone.

JL: We switched to all tablet performances about two years ago and I really love playing on tablets, particularly from a teaching standpoint. It’s very nice because of all the notational components, all the apps for things like intonation, there are tuning exercises: you can play drones, recordings, even slowing things down and speeding them up as necessary. I also like being able to perform with a tablet. All of the notational things that you can do on the app, write in the crescendos and actually type in instructions or the various colors to highlight. So, it’s a wonderful tool as both a performer and as a teacher.

KGL: With the new pieces that we were playing, it was becoming more and more challenging to be able to turn pages and we were creating these elaborate poster boards where we had two beats of rest in the middle of the whole piece to flip everything over. This completely enables, all types of music can happen for us with this. All the page turns with no more fear than we would have of missing a page turn normally. It’s really been very freeing in that respect.

JN: If you’re a saxophonist and you’re looking for a summer activity at the end of June, come and hang out with us in Norman, OK and we’ll talk all things saxophone. The website is gpsw.ou.edu. It’s relatively inexpensive to come. We are trying to keep our costs down and we just would love to help you improve as a saxophonist.

JN: On my trip this morning to the beautiful Vandoren Advisory Studio I was thinking a lot about the mouthpieces and how they transcend ability and age. A high school freshman can sound beautiful on an AL3 and a professional saxophonist can use it and play at the highest artistic level as well, So, I think the brilliance and beauty that comes from this product is its ability to be used by any level student at any time for any musical situation. I play a complete line of Vandoren mouthpieces. Jazz mouthpieces, classical mouthpieces, and I feel that I can use them for any situation, any professional gig, and produce my best sound, feel most comfortable playing, and that’s just a wonderful thing to have from this absolutely fantastic company.

JL: I love playing on Vandoren products and I have to say that I actually started playing on Vandoren reeds and mouthpieces right from the beginning. In some ways I was lucky that I had this wonderful construct to help me develop as a student into my professional career. As an educator, I like supporting Vandoren products because I know that my students are going to make their best sounds being able to play on these mouthpieces, these reeds, these ligatures, that it’s all streamlined so they can just look at this one product. There is so much variety depending on the style of music you are looking for. I play on as SL5 mouthpiece but sometimes I really like the Optimum SL3 just depending on a little different sound and also which type of group I’m playing in. In the quartet right now I love the way that this one blends but as a soloist I like the SL3 very much. So, Vandoren provides artistic liberty with many many different styles.

KGL: One of the things that is very very important to us as an ensemble is expanding and enhancing the saxophone quartet repertoire. Of course we play and teach the standards, which is a very important basis for moving forward, but we also think that it’s our responsibility as professionals today to help build the future repertoire. Some of the composers who we’ve worked with, for example Marc Mellits, Jonathan our tenor saxophonist, Jonathan Nichol, arranged Marc Mellits’ “Second String Quartet” for us and it has been retitled “Revolution.” That’s something that we think has really contributed to the saxophone repertoire. I know that it has sold over 100 copies so it’s being performed by students and professionals and we’re very excited about that. We were a part of the making of John Mackey’s “Strange Humors.” That was arranged for our quartet, that’s a saxophone quartet with djembe. Our most recent projects include Forrest Pierce’s “Kansas Rapture” which really highlights where we live now; as adults in our professional lives on the Great Plains, bringing music to this area of the country that, while not known for it’s musical culture, has a great deal to offer the rest of the country. We are also currently working on a piece with composer Kerrith Livengood entitled “Soul Searching” that we will be recording in the relatively near future. We are very excited about that as well. Working with composers and going through a discussion, a dialogue, with them in order to help elevate the repertoire that is available is something that is very important to our group.

JL: More than anything, I think we’re really excited about our future as professional musicians, as professional educators, and of course as a professional saxophone quartet. We recently celebrated our 10th year as being a part of the H2 Quartet and I actually wrote a piece titled “10 Years of Silence” that we will record in two weeks. The thing about this group is we’ve played such a tremendous role in one another’s lives from a professional standpoint and from a personal standpoint. We can look at one another and seek out advice, expertise in music, musical inspiration, truly everything. I think these are my best friends in the H2 Quartet and I’ve just learned so much about the instrument and about music and about what our collective goals will be and what we are looking to do in the next ten years or the next twenty years.

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