This summer the Videri String Quartet launched a competition, Quarantets, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and their separation from each other as performers. The competition solicited string quartet arrangements of music from video games that were set in a post-apocolyptic world, or other circumstances in which life suddenly changed. After judging over 60 entries, the winners were chosen to create an album that will be released soon. I talked with the performers for this project: violinists Matheus Souza and Eli Bishop, violist Rosalie Samter and cellist Jeremiah Barcus about this home-stretch of the Quarantets project, and find out the winners. The Quartet received entries from games they expected, like the just-released Last of Us II, but there were also some surprising submissions including a fun arrangement by Thomas Kresge of music from Nintendo's Dr. Mario. Despite the bleak inspiration for the competition, the process was incredibly therapeutic for the members of Quartet
This summer the Videri String Quartet launched a competition, Quarantets, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and their separation from each other as performers. The competition solicited string quartet arrangements of music from video games that were set in a post-apocolyptic world, or other circumstances in which life suddenly changed. After judging over 60 entries, the winners were chosen to create an album that will be released soon. I talked with the performers for this project: