Junior Natalie Van Winkle is a highly accomplished classical cellist in the Frost School’s elite Stamps String Quartet. Which means improvising, rocking out onstage, or experimentation are not a regular part of her repertoire.
But those were exactly the kinds of skills she and the other ensemble members from the Stamps Scholars Program learned recently from Time For Three, the genre-bending string trio redefining expressive and performance possibilities for classical music. The Grammy-winning group spent two days teaching, coaching, and rehearsing with Stamps ensembles earlier this month, joining them on the annual All-Stamps Ensemble Concert on March 5.
Working with the trio was both challenging and exhilarating for Van Winkle. “Their musicality is so captivating,” she said. “Their technical mastery is insane; I want to reach that goal. At the same time, they look like they’re having so much fun.”
Trained at the Curtis School of Music and the Juilliard School, Time For Three violinists Charles Yang and Nicolas Kendall and bass player Ranaan Meyer merge Americana, singer-songwriter, jazz, pop, and improvisation with classical music. They collaborate with artists like Ben Folds and Arlo Guthrie, as well as contemporary classical composers. Their free-wheeling, dynamic performances are radically different from traditional classical presentations.
Charles Bergeron, a jazz bassist and veteran professor who is the interim artistic coordinator of the Stamps program, worked with Dean Shelton G. Berg to bring the trio here after Frost School students and faculty saw the group perform at last summer’s Frost School of Music at Festival Napa Valley program. The Stamps ensembles - the Stamps Woodwind Quintet, Stamps Brass Quintet, and Stamps Jazz Quintet, in addition to the String Quartet – are among the top instrumentalists at the Frost School and receive a generous full scholarship. Time For Three’s visit was meant to encourage the kind of innovative skills that their intense training can push aside.
“We want our students to understand that they can be creative, that they don’t just have to play what’s written on the page,” said Bergeron. “Sometimes you have to show them that."
Time for Three kicked off their masterclass at Gusman Concert Hall by hitting the stage, playing and dancing, then talked about ways to break down the wall between musicians and the audience. They explained their constant experimentation,and how their unconventional line-up forces them to create original repertoire. “We have to work towards our strengths,” said Yang. “In the classical world, there is nothing written for us.”
And they talked about how much they love the singular path they’ve made for themselves. “I get to do everything I love,” Ranaan said. “I get to play jazz, play classical, compose, arrange, perform, improvise.”
Afterward, Kendall spoke about the importance of expanding their field. “Classical music is evolving so much,” he said. “Just resting on the laurels of what it used to be doesn’t work anymore. Time For Three uses other styles and improvisation for our creativity. Exposing young people to these is important to help them create their own identity.”
He also praised the Stamps students. “We didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “They’re so talented. We could really get into high-level stuff with them. All these kids are gonna have careers.”
French horn player Taylor Bowen-Longino, a first-year student in the Stamps Brass Quintet, said the trio’s coaching opened up new possibilities for her. “My group was able to learn a lot about performing and interacting on stage as well as different ways to interpret the music on the page,” she said. “Experiences like this encourage us to continue to push creatively and see what’s possible on our instruments.”
Van Winkle said Time For Three’s warm, encouraging attitude helped her take risks – whether improvising – which she finds intimidating – or experimenting to find an emotional and musical throughline for a piece. “They weren’t “you did this wrong” but “you did amazing, let’s take it up a notch”,” she said. “What I took away from it musically is that you’re trying to engage the audience in an emotion or story.”
Time For Three’s go-for-it, spontaneous ethos was in full effect at a rehearsal for “Make a Statement,” composed by Frost School composition senior Asher Lurie for all the Stamps ensembles together. Lurie won a competition and a $1,500 prize to create a new work for the unique instrumental lineup.
He, graduate student and conductor Roy McLerran, Bergeron, and the Stamps players crowded into a rehearsal room at the Foster Building for what turned out to be as much improvisation and collaboration as rehearsal, with Time For Three figuring out on the spot where and how they would join the piece. They constantly asked Lurie, McLerran, and the students for suggestions, and made a dizzying stream of their own, jumping up to demonstrate, coaxing the students to improvise. “What if I do a Stefan Grappelli on steroids kind of thing?” Kendall said. “Are you up for an extended groove?” Ranaan asked Lurie, and later, “What if we go ballistic Mingus style?”
The students listened intently; some seemed wary or confounded, others grinned with delight. As the rehearsal proceeded, they caught Time For Three’s energy. Everyone played together, the trio dancing and playing at the front, segueing into an exuberant jam with the students clapping and finger-snapping along. Kendall jumped in the air, waving his violin overhead. “What you’re doing here?” he said to them. “This is what we do all the time.”
“This is just a collision of worlds,” Ranaan said. “If this is what your school is all about, I want to come back here.”
