FOUR-PART HARMONY FROM A QUARTET
Some months ago, Samantha Hutchins suggested to the other three members of the Callino Quartet that they might begin referring to each other as "colleagues". It was more professional, it was how she had observed other chamber groups refer to one another, and it seemed the right and proper thing to do. The others found it hilarious and, relating her efforts, all laugh enthusiastically, Samantha blushing slightly before she joins in. No room here for wounded feelings or fragile egos. The quartet situation is a tricky one, though one to which these four are well suited. Each is a definite individual, but more important is maintaining harmony as a group. In every sense. The notion of calling each other colleagues was just too ridiculous to contemplate, explains Sarah McMahon, cellist in the quartet where Sarah Sexton and Ioana Petcu-Colan play violin. "Sam couldn't make it catch on," she says. "We just laughed at it too much." At the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Bantry, 1999, the two Sarahs, Ioana and Samantha were put together as a quartet for a weeklong master class. They had been aware of each other on the small Irish classical music scene - Sexton and Ioana hailing from Cork and Samantha and Sarah McMahon from Wicklow and Dublin respectively - but this was their first close contact. All four were studying at the Royal Academy in London, so, as the week went by and they became aware of a musical and personal empathy, they discussed setting up as a quartet. Everything seemed in their favour, in that they lived relatively close to one another, they were musically compatible and - what seems very important to them all - they really liked one another. From there, it was a question of making contacts, entering profile-building competitions and pursuing concert opportunities, regularly touring Ireland as part of Music Network's Young Musicwide initiative. And while it has been a steadily positive learning curve, it was also quite an undertaking for four young girls who still have to take other work to keep them going financially. I ask what age they were in 1999 and Sarah Sexton jumps straight in with the answer. "Oh, quite young, but Sam was very old," she says, ribbing her apparently quiet friend, who informs me that she was 23 to the others' 22. Sexton is the most obviously vivacious of the four, quick-witted, very openly emotional and the one they tease for her tendency to bubbliness, a teasing that begins when she arrives slightly late, slowed by her glamorous shoes. The others are equally powerful within the group, however, and this combined force has kept them focused on their goal. What is rare, however, is how they manage to appreciate the differences in character while working towards the same thing. Where Sexton is effusive, Sarah McMahon is the one they point to as the peacemaker, the one with most common sense. And while the two Sarahs do most of the talking, Sam and Ioana are quietly strong characters. Together, you can see, they're formidable and, somehow, they're friends too. "It's a very intense situation," Sarah Sexton explains. "Almost like a family situation in that we see the best of each other as well as the worst. We rehearse a lot, we go on tours where we spend weeks of time together, and because it's all down to the four of us, there can be strong feelings and you have to learn to compromise." They all laugh heartily at how sensible this sounds. "Compromise - I'd like to think I'm learning to do that," Ioana mutters, before pointing out that Sexton borrowed her green concert dress for two years, returning it only recently. Sexton pretends to look offended, before admitting that "tolerance and politeness" are her things, while Sarah McMahon confesses that she's working on patience. The day we meet, the girls have been rehearsing all morning in Samantha's house, which she shares with her husband of three weeks. I ask her if her marriage will make any difference to the quartet and they shake their heads. "The only difference it's made so far is that I've had to move out of the house," Sarah Sexton says, sniffing at the fact that her room has been turned into a wardrobe. Samantha explains that her trumpeter husband understands how her juggling act works, having been with her since the Callino Quartet began. "He does sometimes feel he's second violin," she says, but goes on to explain that as a musician himself, he understands. I wonder if, like actors, it takes another musician to understand their priorities and their commitments to one another, and whether their relationships tend to be exclusively with other musicians. "Almost all the people I mix with are musicians," Sarah McMahon admits, slightly embarrassed, "partly because when I came to London, all the people I met were through college and so were musicians, and partly because musicians understand the life and the sporadic nature of it and how it makes it difficult to commit to other things, sometimes." Her boyfriend is also a musician, while Ioana is the one Callino who has made a conscious effort to make a social life outside music. Possibly because both her Romanian parents are also musicians, she is more acutely conscious of the limitations of solely musical life. Ioana's boyfriend comes from outside music and she shares a house with non-musicians and only Sarah Sexton is currently single. Exposed to almost every side of each other's personalities, there is a sisterly quality to the Callinos: the no-holds-barred teasing, the admissions of shared imperfections, the comfort in each other's company that borders on taking it for granted, in the best possible sense. Yet, at the same time, unlike sisters, these four are together by choice, because of the music and with the friendship as a bonus. An unusual bonus in their world and one they appreciate. When they took holidays apart recently, while Samantha honeymooned, Sarah Sexton admits to having missed the others. "God, I wouldn't go that far," says Ioana, prompting teasing of her feigned hardheartedness. "I didn't miss the rehearsing," Sarah continues and the others giggle in agreement, "but the fun we have together. We really have a laugh." The others agree, admitting their luck in the ability to enjoy an evening together after a day's difficult rehearsing, in still wanting to have dinner together every night on tour. "I don't know any other chamber group so friendly with each other," say Sarah McMahon. "And we're lucky that it suits our personalities to marry work and friendship so well." It's a curious thing to hear four people discuss how they interact. With couples, there are certain basic rules. They will not permit access to the deeply personal, will not give away too much regarding what divides rather than unites, will attempt to conceal even the smallest disloyalties. And it is much like that with the Callinos. They are colleagues, as Samantha suggested, but also great friends, admitting to no tendencies to pair off, displaying great loyalty and presenting a four-sided relationship that is full of fun. It is a rare thing and they acknowledge their good fortune, and the fact that if even one had been reluctant to tow in, they might well have been simply colleagues by now.
Sarah Caden,Sunday Independent, 29 September 2002