In January, Beo had a concert tour of both northern and southern California. My favorite part of the tour was performing multiple concerts. Now, before you say, “of course it was, that’s what a professional string quartet does!” Hear me out: as concerts begin to pick up again post-pandemic, one of the most satisfying parts of the job for me is getting to perform several concerts in a row in quick succession. From my experience, the best way I know of to play difficult repertoire convincingly and to leave a lasting impact with an audience is to perform a piece many times in less than ideal circumstances.
For example, my favorite performance venue of the tour was an art museum in Healdsburg, CA called The 222. We had an evening concert there, followed by only a couple of hours of sleep. We all then got up and drove an hour and a half to San Francisco Airport to catch our flight to LA. That same afternoon we had a concert in Fullerton, CA with a completely different program. While having to perform a concert after a flight on very little sleep is not easy, it’s this exact type of situation that helps us perform at a consistent high level and creates unity within the group.
In addition to performing for appreciative audiences, Beo had the opportunity to engage in several different types of educational outreach for a variety of ages of skill levels in both northern and southern California. To name a few, we performed for several schools in the Bay area, taught a masterclass in Pasadena, and ran an orchestra rehearsal for the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles. In-person school performances disappeared during the pandemic, so this was my first experience performing outreach as a member of Beo. My favorite aspect was how often I got to see skeptical kids become engaged and enthusiastic over the course of a program. Students who maybe thought they were going to have to watch 45 minutes of “boring classical music” were surprised by getting to interact and be a part of the performance.
When I travel to perform, I always make sure to meet up with good friends who live in the particular city I’m in. Of course, meeting up with friends means getting to try the local cuisine, and if you know anything about Beo, we had an absolute blast trying different restaurants in both San Francisco and LA. The variety of food we had was staggering—I don’t think I’ve been to so many different types of restaurants in such a short time span in my entire life! We’re planning another California tour for later this year or early 2024, and I’m already looking forward to performances while being extremely short on sleep, fun and engaging educational programs, and of course hanging with good friends while devouring an LA street taco.
-Gio
