Chiara Quartet tries the competition thing

Well, wish us luck.

Tomorrow we travel to Italy to attempt the improbable: to win a prize in an international string quartet competition. Over the past year, we have prepared 9 different works, including 2 written expressly for the competitions by world-renowned composers Peter Maxwell-Davies and Gy?rgy Kurt?g. It's been wonderful playing this music for audiences all over the U.S., including recent New York concerts where we had a chance to try out the Brahms, Mozart and Beethoven in high-profile concerts where the pressures are similar to that in the international competition arena. If we were to win either competition, it would be the first time an American group has ever taken the top prize.

Alongside making a recording, nothing has a faster improvement rate than preparing for a competition. In fact, we've been doing both this year in the hopes that we will reach new heights of quartet playing in the process. Regardless of the result, we already feel pretty good about where we've travelled inside the music of Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert, Hindemith, Bart?k and the other two guys.

Winning a prize would be nice, but if nothing else, we definitely plan to bring back fine wine and cheese!

I hear there is a free internet terminal in Italy, I might blog about events as they go down.