Owls make Grand Teton their natural habitat

Owls make Grand Teton their natural habitat
A Shepherd School string quartet spreads its wings for the summer

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice New staff

People have been enjoying the Grand Teton Music Festival since 1962, but this summer they were treated to something very different — a quartet in residence. That inaugural group, the Lechuza Quartet, had to navigate a lot of unknowns and set upon their own path.

DAVID LONG
Lechuza members Meredith Harris, Eva Liebhaber, Jennifer Humphreys and Pei-Ju Wu spent their summers playing concerts in Grand Teton National Park as part of a music festival outreach program. They are the festival’s first string quartet in residence.

That is nothing new for Lechuza — the self-formed group of young women from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Violist Meredith Harris ’06, violinists Pei-Ju Wu ’07 and Eva Liebhaber ’08 and cellist Jennifer Humphreys ’06 met as students and began charting their careers together. Their time at Rice made such an impact on them professionally that when it came time to name their group, Lechuza — which means owl — won the unanimous vote.

“We came up with the name obviously thinking about Rice, which has probably been the strongest influence in our musical careers,” Liebhaber said.

“We are very proud of the fact that we were all Rice alumni, and we do want to have the name of the quartet reflect that Rice is what brought us together,” Wu echoed.

Lechuza’s name also connected them to nature, an integral influence of the Grand Teton Music Festival, which through a partnership with the national park produced the series “Music in Nature.”

For a month, Lechuza played concerts in Grand Teton National Park and around the city of Jackson Hole, Wyo. Each week the women played about 14 concerts.

	Reflection
	Members of Lechuza reflect on their summer at the Grand Teton Music Festival. On Lechuza: “Chamber music is an amazing thing, especially a string quartet. You work in such close proximity with one another for an extended period of time. You expose much of your innermost personality, but are also constantly inspired. The girls are an amazing crowd,” Wu said. On performing outdoors: “Performing outdoors is always a challenge, dealing with temperature, humidity, wind and no acoustic shell at all times was different from what we are used to. We had to learn how to adapt to these conditions, though at times it provided us with much comic relief,” Liebhaber said. On the impact of the Shepherd School: “Being in the Shepherd School is one of the most inspiring things that’s happened to me. You are surrounded by colleagues as passionate about making music as you are, and the faculty are always very encouraging and supportive. It seems that the faculty never tire from getting out of their way to help students. It is a very nurturing environment, and thus it never makes us feel intimidated to ask for help. Once you are part of the Shepherd School, you are part of a big family. It sounds a bit cliche, but it’s definitely true here,” Wu said.

“We were representing Grand Teton Music Festival — a group of outstanding professional musicians from around the world — out in the national park,” Liebhaber said. “Having the opportunity to work with and be part of such a high-standard group of professional musicians made us raise the bar in our playing.”

Their job was to infuse the park with music as a way of reaching out to Grand Teton’s visitors and community. Their park performances drew in audiences and was an effective way to promote the music festival.

“It was pretty rewarding for us to know that many of those people that were a part of our concerts in the park decided to drive out to the Teton Village and go to the festival orchestra concerts. Our goal was accomplished, very successfully,” Liebhaber said.

Often audiences of about 40 people would make spaces to sit on the ground or lie in the grass gazing at the mountains as Lechuza provided a soundtrack.

“They are four gifted musicians with a passion for chamber music,” said James Dunham, professor of viola and chamber music. “Their communicative skills are perfect for a program such as this, and they charmed the public in their many performances around the Grand Teton National Park.”

Dunham saw the quartet in action when he and his wife made their rounds through the festival. There he also spent time with his Shepherd School colleague, Lynn Harrell, professor of cello.

Harrell, an invited festival performer, worked with Lechuza. 

“Working with Lynn Harrell was certainly a highlight of our time there,” Liebhaber said. “He had so many inspiring ideas about good chamber music playing and encouraged us to incorporate them into our performances.”

His encouragement and suggestions paid off. Lechuza incorporated his suggestions and engaged their various audiences in their performances.

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Summer of music
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“One of the most exciting parts of our time in the park was the connections we were able to make with the audience,” Harris said. “It was so fulfilling to see people involved in what we were doing and who we were. We even had groupies!”

Lechuza had a couple of groupies they were particularly fond of.

“We had an older couple that sort of adopted us as their grandchildren,” Wu said. “They showed up at eight or nine of our performances, even if we didn’t vary the program much. It gave us so much joy to see them enjoying the music we created.”