Fry Street - Best of State

The Fry Street Quartet, the professional string quartet in residence at Utah State University, can add another title to its growing list of awards and honors — “Best of State.”

 

Fry Street members William Fedkenheuer, violin; Rebecca McFaul, violin; Russell Fallstad, viola; and Anne Francis, cello, were honored at the 2009 Best of State Awards gala in Salt Lake City in late May. The quartet received a Best of State medal in the Arts and Entertainment category and was named the state’s “Best Instrumental Group.”

 

What the Salt Lake City Best of State gala audience learned is recognized by many in Logan — the Fry Street Quartet is a treasure to be enjoyed statewide and beyond. In 2009, the quartet successfully completed a two-week marathon when it presented the Beethoven Cycle — all 17 of Beethoven’s string quartets. The Salt Lake Tribune called the accomplishment a “rite of passage” in the string quartet world. USU Music Department Head Craig Jessop compared the feat to climbing Mount Everest. Edward Reichel summarized the quartet’s accomplishment in a Deseret Morning News review at the conclusion of the Beethoven Cycle. “The Fry Street Quartet is without question to be reckoned with among today’s quartets,” he wrote. “It has arrived.”

 

But, it is the combination of the quartet’s extensive concert experience and the direct, one-on-one educational contact with students at USU that make the Fry Street Quartet so unique in Utah, giving the university bragging rights to the only professional string quartet in residence at any of the state’s institutions of higher education.

 

The “Best of State” Awards were created to recognize outstanding individuals, organizations and businesses in Utah.

 

“By recognizing excellence in our community and sharing examples of success and triumph in so many worthy endeavors, we hope we will all be inspired to reach a little higher, to try a little harder, and to work a little longer for our dreams and goals,” the Best of State Web site states.

 

“We are delighted and flattered to be honored with this award,” said quartet member Rebecca McFaul. “Utah is our home base, and our Logan audience is special to us. These are the people who have watched and listened for years, witnessed our growth, experienced our projects and repertoire choices. This creates a bond between the quartet and the audience that is unique and treasured by us.”

 

Best of State judges look for individuals, businesses and organizations that excel in their endeavors, use innovative approaches or methods and contribute to a better quality of life in Utah. When award applications are submitted, each nomination is judged on its own merits and is not ranked against each other by the judges.

 

“The ‘Best of State’ award recently bestowed upon the Fry Street Quartet represents what we at Utah State have known and recognized for several years,” Jessop said. “The quartet is simply one of the most significant developments and acquisitions to the university’s Music Department in many years. The impact of having a full-time, professional string quartet on our faculty has transformed the string program at USU to one of the strongest in the western United States.”

 

While public appearances and concerts presented by the quartet garner accolades, it’s the unobserved contact with students at USU that further its impact.

 

Daphne Lynch is a junior music major at USU with an emphasis in performance. Originally from Kearns, Utah, she graduated from Bingham High School in South Jordan. At the age of 4 she began to study on the violin, but when she auditioned for USU’s music program, she was asked to switch to viola, which she played for the past two years. With her new instrument, Lynch studies with Fry Street member Russell Fallstad, although through her involvement with chamber groups, she works will all members of the quartet as well as Yi Ching Fedkenheur, another member of the string faculty at USU.

 

“We work on scales, finger dexterity, stretches — making sure that no tension is being created while playing — bowing exercises and different techniques,” Lynch said when discussing her lessons. “The student runs the lesson and focuses on specific needs.”

 

She said a lesson with Fallstad is very interactive, full of examples, whether he demonstrates himself or provides visuals with tips like “play this as though you were figure skating.”

 

“Sometimes he gets so excited he falls off his rolling chair,” Lynch said.

 

There are decided advantages of studying with a professional musician.

 

“They have the experience and know-how to get us where we need to be,” she said. “They’ve gone through the same experiences that we are going through and have made the same discoveries. They have studied with those of deeper insight and they push us up a level to broaden the musicality and our minds.”

 

And if a private lesson with a working professional isn’t enough, there’s the inspiration of hearing them perform in concert.

 

“After a Fry Street concert, it is very inspiring to have a lesson, to be able to work with someone of that caliber,’ Lynch said. “I like to take a part of my lesson and discuss my thoughts on the performance and, as a listener, what I was able to get from it. As I watch the performance, I see the potential for me as a musician on the stage.”

 

The Fry Street Quartet began its international career in 2002 as cultural ambassadors to the Balkan States, sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the U.S. Department of State. The group has been the faculty quartet in residence in the Caine School of Arts at USU since 2002 as well. The quartet frequently visits Harrisburg, Penn., as Market Square’s “Summermusic” artists in residence, as well as the Mozart Gemeinde chamber music series in Austria, where it recently forged an exchange relationship between the University of Carinthia in Klagenfurt and Utah State University.

 

 

 

 

Writer: Patrick Williams, 435-797-1354, patrick.williams@usu.edu

Contact: Rebecca McFaul, 435- 797-3597, rebeccamcfaul@mac.com

Contact: William Fedkenheuer, 435- 797-7130, the2feds@aol.com

Contact: Ann Francis, 435- 797-3086, anne@frystreetquartet.com