I have previously covered the Dover Quartet in their intimate performance at Guarneri Hall for Nova Linea Musica, and gave high praise to the gifted artists. I wish there were a higher barometer of praise for the Dover Quartet's performance on opening night at the 2025 Northwestern Winter Chamber Music Festival. Pick-Staiger Hall was full for the opening night of what has become a mainstay of chamber music and a showcase of the Bienen School Quartet-in-Residence Dover Quartet.
The evening opened with Strum by Jessie Montgomery, the most recent Mead Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The Dover Quartet played this piece at Guarneri, and I heard new nuances and feelings about the piece. Strum features a bluesy folk sound that felt even more uniquely African American to me.
The events of the past months, and particularly the last two weeks, have weighed heavily on me as an African American. The loss of President Jimmy Carter, who worked the land as a farmer, and the horrific fires in California destroying the natural beauty of the land is heartbreaking. I have always reveled in the beauty of nature in our country. Montgomery's composition recalled the America I knew as a child. The overwhelming forests, vast farmland, and gleaming skyscrapers I first saw in my View-Master toy became real as I traveled with my Granny in the 1960s. I still find myself awestruck when I drive through a forest or look at the ocean in Oregon or Lake Michigan down the street. Strum represents all of that for me.
The astonishing and virtuosic pizzicato and bowing techniques of the Quartet painted a picture in my mind. The Dover Quartet are tuned into each other symbiotically. It is not one individual but a magnificent melding of talent, with their instruments more extensions of their bodies than mere objects. I watched them feel the music they were playing and reveled in the passages with gentle swaying movements.
This year's festival featured a world premiere of music and arrangements by Bienen alumnus Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha' Tate. He is a member of the Chickasaw Nation in the Shawi' Iksa’ — Raccoon Clan. Tate's intricate and sweeping compositions are a tribute to the animals of the Chickasaw homelands in the Southeast of the USA. Tate was on hand to introduce his composition and arrangement of the Native a cappella group Ulali's songs. The seven short songs were composed by original Ulali member Pura Fé. Tate received her permission to arrange the music for orchestral strings.
Tate introduced himself in Chickasaw and then English. He is a graduate of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern. His pride in his heritage and love of music is evident in Abokkoli' Taloowa' (Woodland Songs), commissioned by the Dover Quartet. Each piece represents a woodland animal of importance to the Chickasaw. Squirrel, Deer, Woodpecker, Fish, and Raccoon are characters featured in stories by the Chickasaw. As with the character Anansi, the Spider is a mischievous rogue in Ashanti tales; Squirrel and company each have been personified with characteristics relating to their animal form.
The skittering and antic moves of the Squirrel are captured in lighting-fast pizzicato. The Fish has passages that sound like water drops. I loved all of them, but Deer was my favorite. Tate mentioned that the deer is seen as romanticized in some stories and art. I agree with that statement, especially when the Quartet played that section. Each creature is also in Chicago and can be seen any day. A West Ridge Nature Preserve walk will have up close and personal deer sightings. They are such beautiful and gentle-looking creatures. Deer's lilting sounds and lush passages remind me of how they gaze at you as if sizing you up as a friend or predator. I had a flash of Robert DeNiro in The Deer Hunter (1978) when he found out he could not shoot the magnificent stag in his sights. I burst into tears whenever I watch that scene. I felt the same emotional tug listening to all of Abokkoli' Taloowa' (Woodland Songs). Native people have a strong relationship with nature and the creatures, so much so that many are named after them.
Tate arranged Rattle Songs from the Ulali singing group and compositions by Pura Fé. Cellist Camden Shaw introduced the piece, noting that he had grown up listening to songs by Ulali. Shaw praised the singing as beautiful and unique but also gave kudos to Tate's arrangements of the cappella songs. I imagine it would be challenging to create music for instruments from an art that is distinctly without instrument accompaniment except percussion from rattles and hand drums. Rattle Songs contain gospel-like passages and what would be called Americana or folk music. The songs are short melodic bursts, not much longer than five minutes. They complement Woodland Songs, and an interesting note from the liner notes of the Mahk Jchi (1997) album reveals that Ulali is the Native name for a songbird called the Wood Thrush. The notes say that Lawrence Dunmore of the Occaneechee band of the Saponi Nation in North Carolina named the group connecting the Native reverence for nature and its inhabitants.
After the intermission, the Dover Quartet played Antonín Dvořák's String Quartet in F Major (American) (1893). In their performance at Guarneri, they played Celebrate America!, also by Dvořák, which was inspired by collaboration and friendship with Black American gospel singer and composer Harry T. Burleigh. String Quartet No. 12 in F Major (American) was inspired by Dvořák's time in the heartland of America- Iowa. I believe that Iowa at that time represented American grit and the pioneering spirit of the people who settled there. Some of those settlers came from Dvořák's part of the world, Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
Dvořák was no doubt inspired by his American neighbors in Iowa. His American Quartet felt like what an Andrew Wyeth painting looks like. Yes, Wyeth presents a different part of America, but the sweeping plains and simplicity are the same as any town in the Midwest. The music connected nature and sound to me. My family origins are in Southwest America (Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia), and the vistas were the same from that time in America when Dvořák composed and Wyeth painted. The Dover Quartet played flawlessly and passionately, as they always do. That passion evoked feelings in this listener, drawing me into the sound and creating pictures in my mind.
Music is a healer for many things. The music presented on the opening night of the Winter Chamber Music Festival gave me the comfort and beautiful memories that I needed. The Dover Quartet is an inspiring and immensely talented group of people. I feel such hope watching them. They are young (compared to me) and have been dedicated to music since childhood. They are Joel Link on violin, Bryan Lee on violin, Julianne Lee on viola, and Camden Shaw on cello. I am grateful for their gift of music, and I extend that gratitude to Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha' Tate for sharing the gift of his Native heritage.
The Dover Quartet opened the Winter Chamber Music Festival on January 10 at Pick Staiger Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, Illinois. The Festival continues through January 26, 2025, featuring other Chicago favorites, Third Coast Percussion, with guest Jessie Montgomery. I highly recommend the experience! It is a public hygge in the cold of winter. It is a four-star experience. For more information and tickets, please visit https://www.music.northwestern.edu/events/category/winter-chamber