Matthew Detrick

This episode of Harmonious World features a conversation with violinist Matthew Detrick, who is also Artistic Director of the Apollo Chamber Players.

Apollo Chamber Players are a busy group of musicians who are working on a whole series of fascinating musical projects, including the album With Malice Toward None which came out in August. We barely scratched the surface in our chat, but I hope it gives a little insight into their creativity and remarkable music.

Thanks to Matthew and Apollo for allowing me to play extracts from With Malice Toward None alongside our conversation.

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Transcript

Hilary 0:32

Hello, this is Hilary Robertson. Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World. And I'm delighted this time to be joined by Matthew Detrick, who is founder and executive and artistic director of Apollo Chamber Players. Now, they are very interesting. They are based out of Houston, Texas. And they have a sense of globally inspired music. It's essentially a string quartet. But it's so much more. And I think the link with Houston and NASA, and seeing the world as a whole rather than just from where you're standing on it is fascinating. I've got a lot to unpick with Matthew, so I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Thank you for joining me once more on Harmonious World.

Matthew 1:31

Thank you for having me on the programme. I really appreciate it.

Hilary 1:34

Well, thank you for joining me. I am absolutely fascinated. I have so much that I want to talk to you about. Apollo Chamber Players is essentially a string quartet, but it is so much more than that, isn't it?

Matthew 1:50

That's right. The core of the ensemble is a string quartet, but since we like to do so much, uh so many collaborations that that I think chamber players encompasses something, it describes what we are in a much larger and much more meaningful meaningful fashion. So on this disc uh with Mouse Tword None and most of our programming here in Houston, um, we usually collaborate with uh many different artists and poets and and singers and chitravina players and uh that kind of thing.

Hilary 2:21

Yeah, and um and and sort of spoken word and and uh I mean everything really. It's it's um it's a cultural mélange, isn't it?

Matthew 2:33

That's right, and you know, maybe your listeners might be interested to know that Houston, Texas is one of the most multicultural cities in the United States, and even you know, on the planet, uh I think we by some metrics we overtook New York City um in the last few years, too. So it's a really wonderful melting pot, and I mean that in the best of ways, um, in terms of if it's multiculturalism, it's very accepting, and you know, Paul Chamber players, we try to reflect uh the world in which we live and the community in which we live.

Hilary 3:05

Brilliant. But I think there's also something about your proximity to NASA.

Matthew 3:11

Indeed. You may have picked up from that, from the title, from our our name.

Hilary 3:17

Absolutely. Um, but I because I was thinking about it as I've been listening to the music and preparing for this interview, I was thinking that actually um there must be something about being in Houston and obviously with NASA and your connections to NASA, which we can talk about, but where you are almost vicariously looking down on the planet and seeing the planet as a whole rather than the tiny little bit of land on which we each individually stand at any one time.

Matthew 3:48

That's a beautiful metaphor. And if you talk to astronauts, um they they they talk about the experience of being in space and looking down at Earth and seeing us as one, you know, uh humanity as one thing and not you know um divided into different cultures and and and countries um that are often in conflict with each other. Uh so I yes, um and if you don't mind, I'll I mean my quick story there is that when I was a young boy, I wanted to be the first person to play the violin in space. My dreams of becoming an astronaut have not yet come to fruition. Uh, but I think that you know, founding Apollo and the work that we do, the the the the the kind of the boldness of our programming and the innovativeness, um, living in in Space City, Houston, Texas, I think is an homage to uh the the space program and allows me to live out my dreams just a little bit.

Hilary 4:49

Absolutely, yes. Um, and we have a connection already because I interviewed Jared Impichajaha Tate a couple of months ago.

Matthew 5:00

So I listened to that interview and I wanted to I wanted, you know, in preparation for my interview with you with you as well. I just wanted to congratulate you on the number of really wonderful artists that you've had on your program, and including Jared, who's become a really great friend and collaborator. And uh, if you don't mind me, I'll plug our album after this one. Um it includes a collaboration we did called Moonstrike, which was uh uh it was for the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, um last in 2019. It feels like a long time ago because we've been through a lot in the last you know 18 months to two years. Um but it's September 2019. We premiered it here in Houston. We've recorded it as well. It's for Stringquartet and narrator, and it's it's inspired by American Indian and Chickasaw Moon Legends, uh featuring uh John Harrington, who was the first American Indian to fly in space.

Hilary 5:53

Right, absolutely. So so as I said at the beginning, there's so much I want to talk to you about because these collaborations are are really they're things that you could only do there, you know, where you are in Houston, and yet they give you such a global perspective, don't they?

Matthew 6:14

I think so, and and again, Houston is a microcosm for where I think uh you know the United States is heading in terms of its diversity, and you know, maybe the world as a whole, especially uh in larger urban centers. So I think I think you're right, yeah. And and and one, I just remembered the uh the that effect when you're in space, an astronaut's in space is space is called the overview effect. That's that's where they look down on the earth and and have a kind of a more you know a spiritual, almost religious experience seeing the world as one.

Hilary 6:46

Right, amazing, isn't it?

Matthew 6:49

Yeah. I hope to get there someday, and maybe maybe we all will through uh Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. And there's there's a spaceport that's being built here uh a few hours south here in Brownsville, and we'll see.

Hilary 7:02

Yeah, exactly. So talk to me about the uh your history. So, where how did you start out as a as a violinist before you wanted to be an astronaut, presumably, or about the same time? And then how did Apollo come about? The chamber players.

Matthew 7:19

Well, I was born in Indiana and my family uh lived in in Elgin, Illinois for for a while. I was uh my mother started my my myself and my brothers on violin when we were three, four years old, and she's also a Suzuki violin teacher. Uh she still has she's retired now, um, but she still has 40 students. But uh she started me, and then I had you know, we had a few other teachers um growing up. So I but I'd like to say that you know, I think I had a very normal childhood. I I of course music was important and violin, but I played soccer and I played sports, and I, you know, had I had I was a free-range kid, basically. I we walked to school, and I don't remember a time where my parents ever said, no, you can't, you know, design room and practice. I had I did have to practice my violin to watch Superman cartoons, apparently, when I was, you know, that was the that was the barter when I was five, six years old. Uh my family then moved to York, Pennsylvania. My father's a minister, and my and again, my my mother's a public uh was a teacher and and private violin teacher. And uh so we moved to Pennsylvania. My teacher there uh named Colette Wickert had a connection with uh Kenneth Goldsmith at Rice University here in Houston, Texas. Um I don't know if you've heard of Ken Goldsmith. He he had a really wonderful chamber group called the Mirror Court Trio that was active in the 70s and 80s in Grinnell College, and they they commissioned and uh did a lot of really wonderful uh unearthing of composers that you know had hadn't been performed uh very much. Um so they had a connection there, and I auditioned here at Rice University in 1999, was accepted. I did my undergrad here and uh stayed here for my master's and have been here really ever since. And in the ensuing couple of decades, I started Apollo in 2008. And of course, the first few years are really hard. You're trying to find your identity. Um, but but you know, after a while we were able to latch on to support with some of the cultural you know communities here in Texas, uh, specifically in the beginning, the Greek community. I think it's also it might be interesting for uh your listeners to be aware that Galveston, Texas, was the second most uh important port of entry for immigrants coming to the United States in the early 20th century after Ellis Island.

Hilary 9:41

I had no idea.

Matthew 9:43

I wasn't aware of that either until my I had an adult student when I graduated uh at Rice University. I I did, you know, 20 or so auditions for orchestras, and I never won, you know, the job with the New York Philharmonic. It was very dispiriting in some ways, but um obviously you know I found another path. But I had an adult student that uh was Greek. His father had come over to Elvis Island and emigrated, uh sorry, had come through the through Galveston, and he had these really wonderful Greek Rebecca folk songs, and these are these are more folk songs from from urban Greece. Uh, and I transcribed them for a string quartet. We had a concert here, had a lot of a lot of the Greek community here, the consul general of the of the of the of the Greek console here consulate here, and it was just really an amazing way to kind of connect with people through their folk music. And we we also included some you know more classical works on on these programs, and it was kind of a hybrid model and still is to this day.

Hilary 10:48

Yes, and uh obviously the the the new album without with Malice Toward None, uh that's a that it's uh it's strange it in a very good way. Because um so the the title track particularly I thought I I thought I was skipping track because it changes its it changes its tone throughout. So can you talk to me about first of all, talk to me about that how the this album happened and when it was recorded and rec written as well?

Matthew 11:24

Sure, this is our fifth studio album. The first couple compositions on here were recorded in 2019. Um but maybe maybe just I'll quickly say that in 2014 um we began a project to commission 20 new multicultural and folk music inspired works by the end of the decade. At that time, Apollo Chamber players, we were really not known outside of Houston or Texas at all. But this project, you know, as it progressed, we started with a really well well-known composer named Libby Larson, an American composer here, um, a piece that connected Dvorjak with uh African-American Spirituals and Henry Thacker Burley. And you know, uh after we we right out of the gate, you know, we we had a great composer, and that helped us um connect with composers and themes for the ensuing uh commissions. Um so that really, and and again, from from the beginning of that project, we we had about two thousand dollars in seed money by the end of the project, um, which we we did some digital world premieres at the you know, because of the lockdown, um, we had raised over a quarter of a million dollars in commissioning fees and performance fees and that kind of thing for a lot of the collaborators involved. So this project has really put us on the map, and our albums have been a way to give us a more global reach with our commissions, too. So, this this album in particular, uh, you know, the piece the what is the word by Christopher Theofinitas and Mark Wingate. That's based on the the poetry of Samuel Beckett. Um, this was that premiered before COVID, as was our Pamela Z commission, The Unraveling, um, where she uses some really fun electronic elements as well. Um, but you know, aside from that, the the with mouse toward none idea came from a relationship that we had with Kemo Williams, who's a really wonderful African-American Vietnam veteran composer. Uh, we had played some of his music as part of a Vietnamese-inspired concert in 2018 here in Houston, and kind of just wanted to juxtapose his experience of serving in Vietnam. Um he actually formed a band over there and then he came over on the GI Bill. Well, on the GI Bill, he went to Brica College of Music and became a composer and an artist, social activist. Uh, and and and we wanted to connect that kind of with where Vietnamese culture is as well, um, in a way to uh, you know, maybe maybe you know, art can be a way for reconciliation. So we contacted him, I think, in March of 2020, and I presented him with an idea of connecting a new piece to the 250th birthday of Beethoven. And I think everybody forgot about Beethoven's birthday last year because of the lockdown. I know everybody had plans to celebrate his his you know his big birthday there. Um, but then the lockdown happened, and then George Floyd was murdered in June, and obviously that that was a big deal in the United States and around the world. And I contacted Chemo and I said, hey, if you if if you have any this is totally up to you, but if you want to connect somehow what's going on with uh with George Floyd and um the social rights, the social activist movement that really got its legs, you know, because of that, please feel free to do so. He came back with me, uh came back to me about a week later and said, I would like to dedicate this commission to uh John Lewis, who had also passed away. He was a civil rights activist here, and he said he and and and he wanted to title the piece with malice toward none. As an homage to President Lincoln and also Beethoven's kind of combined enlightenment philosophies that you know music and art can be a force for good in the world. I think people forget that Beethoven was very political uh in his time uh through his music. Uh, and of course, Abraham Lincoln was trying to heal a very, very divided country after the Civil War. And I think that uh the idea and the philosophy of with malice toward none, you know, over 150 years later, um, represented through our music, uh, is something that can connect all cultures and perhaps heal some of the divisions in our society.

Hilary 15:58

Yeah. Uh and it's interesting you mentioned Beethoven because I had a trip to Vienna all planned out for 2020. And of course that went to, you know, that went to part. So um, yeah, so so any any mention of Beethoven, I go, yeah, I can remember his that that to not mark that anniversary, that 250th anniversary. I mean, it was marked, but not in the huge way that it should have been. It's such a shame. And I think that's a great um disservice to the man. And as you say, he wasn't just about the music, he was about um political messages and and uh a political movement 250 years ago or 220 years ago. Um yeah the this album with Malice Toward None, and the title the title track is stunning. It's really, really amazing. But the album itself is so interesting in terms of how the quartet comes across and the the all of the styles. So when was it recorded? Was it recorded during lockdown?

Matthew 17:13

So with Mouse Toward None was recorded during lockdown, and the electric violin soloist Tracy Silverman, or collaborator, I should say, he is in Nashville. He recorded his his uh his tracks in Nashville, and we recorded our shrink quartet parts here in Houston um during the lockdown. We had a we have a really wonderful uh audio engineer named Ryan Edwards, uh, who who stitched it all together. And then we also so that's how with Mouse Toward None uh came about, and uh the Eve Baglarian We Will Sing One Song. You you will probably you're probably gonna ask about that. That was also stitched together digitally during the lockdown. Yeah, one time with uh we recorded our strings part here and uh an amazing duduk player, that's the Armenian equivalent of a clarinet, a really soulful instrument. Uh his name is Arsen Petrosyan, he lives in uh uh Yerevan, Armenia. He recorded his part to our commission um not only during lockdown, but during the Azerbaijan Armenian conflict that happened last last fall, October, November. So he wasn't even sure he could get to his studio. There were there were drones flying overhead, you know, dropping bombs. Um, but he made it. And he he he sent us his tracks, and uh and it's just it we will sing one song, I think, is another one that is very resonant to our society today, um, not only in terms of you know connecting different genre, musical genres, but but just connecting cultures and doing it a way during the pandemic that that I think still united us in a way that wouldn't have been possible pre-COVID, if that makes sense.

Hilary 18:55

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that I've noticed um since starting this podcast was at first everybody that I spoke to was talking about how their career had fallen off a cliff because they'd been mid-tour or about to go on tour, and everything just got cancelled overnight. It was you know, let's just stop because we can't do anything. And at first it was a very overwhelmingly negative, you know, end of the music industry feeling. And yet, now everybody I'm talking to, without exception actually, has is talking about the positives that have come out of it in terms of the collaborations that have happened because they've been able to record one thing in one city and somebody else has done it in their business somewhere else, and how many producers and engineers recording engineers have been able to, as you say, stitch these things together. And it's really quite amazing. I think the music industry as a whole has been able to find the positives out of such a terrible, terrible situation.

Matthew 20:12

And you know, for uh a classical performing arts organization, I mean I I I put I lose the I use the term classical fairly usually loosely because we love all genres of music, obviously, and like to connect those. I think that the the the connections between these genres of music, that's where it gets really interesting. Uh, but you know, putting this disc together, it was unlike anything we've ever done, although it has a commonality with I think rock albums. So I think a lot of time rock albums, right? Um, even one uh you know, one performer can do all do the singing, do doing the percussion, doing vocals, doing guitar or whatever, either in the same place or in different places. So we kind of did that this time. And the other interesting thing, Hillary, for us as a you know, a performing and touring ensemble, um, usually we'll premiere a piece and live with it for six months to a year, and then we'll record it, you know, in the studio or in a concert hall. And that's great because you know the piece very well. In this case, especially with miss with Mouse Toward Nun, we we I mean we never even worked with with Tracy, the collaborator, uh, until uh I don't want to date this podcast too much, but but we we uh we we did the in-person premiere of with Mouse Toward None just this past weekend here in Houston for a live in-person audience, and it was the first time we were able to perform together. Uh, but you know, we had some TV interviews and some other things, and we actually had you know footage from our our music video and the digital world premieres um to use as part of the promotion and just to get you know people excited about what they're gonna see in the concert hall. So it just everything happened kind of backwards, and and I think actually it it worked out very well. And um yeah, so again, it's it's a little bit of new. And I don't know, you know, I I don't think we'll do this with with every album or piece coming up, but it's nice to have ex already explored and experimented with this way of recording and performing.

Hilary 22:11

Absolutely. Yeah. And and it it allows for different ways of working, which I think you know, musicians have to be adaptable. They've always had to be adaptable, but I think now you know those the the way things have opened up is really quite extraordinary. Uh and I've looked on your website as well, and you've got lots of dates coming up. I mean, not lots, not not hundreds, but you've got stuff booked in for the next few months. How are you feeling about that? How how are your audiences reacting? I bet they're overjoyed to be able to come back into the concert hall.

Matthew 22:48

They are, and we had a great kind of return to the stage this past fall. We had a concert and everyone was masked and pretty much vaccinated, I think, at the Holocaust Museum here in April, and then we did uh a grand or return to the stage. We have a really wonderful uh theater here, uh outdoor amphitheater called Miller Outdoor Theater that's subsidized by the city. And uh we did a concert in July and had you know a couple thousand people there. Um it was outdoor, so I think people obviously felt a little more comfortable, but we but but we had you know dancers from the Houston Ballet, we had a classical guitarist um that we had collaborated with before, and uh yeah, and and actually, you know, next year as we look to some more concerts, I think uh Moonstrike, our collaboration with Jared Tate, um we're gonna try to do that at this uh amphitheater in addition to and kind of coincide that with the release of our next album. Um so we're staying busy. I think I think you know audiences in Houston and and everywhere, I think, are ready to you know get back and absorb culture in a way, you know, this but and I think the digital the digital programming that we and everyone has been doing is great, but that human connection is so important as well. Definitely being in front of audiences and feeling their energy. So that you know, yeah, that that's that's what we miss the most.

Hilary 24:12

Yeah, and I and I don't think um if you're not a if you're not a performer, I I have been a performer, I you know I would get I'll we'll get back into it eventually. But um I I think if you're not a performer, if you're not used to being on stage, there's something about the adrenaline and the energy that you get back from the audience, which is amazing, it which is just so consuming. And and I think that's something that obviously has been missing.

Matthew 24:41

And you know, we we did have about 25 concerts that were scheduled in 2020 uh to culminate our 20 by 2020 project, which the last two commissions got canceled, you know, postponed. And uh the our our 19th commission is We Will Sing One Song by Eve Beglarion, um, which is on with Malice Toward None, our newest album. And also on the next album coming up, the 20th commission, uh, by someone you may have heard, Jennifer Higdon, um, one of the world's most performed uh living composers. We worked with her digitally, we we'd send her rehearsal recordings, and she'd come back with feedback, and we tried Zoom, but it didn't really work because of the because of the audio delay. Um, but what one of the highlights of my career, despite the fact that we were so disappointed we didn't get to you know do the premiere, like with the in-person premiere and have her down here and work with her in person, um, we did the digital world premiere of of that 20th commission by Jennifer Higdon. It's titled In the Shadow of the Mountain for String Quartet. And we did that, I think, in November. And so, you know, we we we recorded it, video and audio, and we did the premiere, and I'll never forget the experience of the of broadcasting it, and you know, we're online on Facebook and YouTube and kind of experiencing people's reactions to the piece in real time, and you're able to kind of you know, people are like, Oh, that was a really wonderful phrase, or you know, the cello played a really wonderful line there, the viola's um, you know, that was a magnificent uh uh uh uh phrasing there, or something like that. Um, and they were it I'll just never forget because when you're performing live, obviously that's something you can't read people's thoughts, right? But we were able to kind of experience what's going on in real time with people uh as they were listening to this wonderful uh new music composition for the very first time. Um so yeah, that's that would have never happened in the past.

Hilary 26:45

No, exactly. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining me, Matt. It's been really, really interesting to talk to you.

Matthew 26:53

It's been my pleasure, Hillary. Can I ask what your instrument is?

Hilary 26:57

Saxophone.

Matthew 26:58

Saxophone, okay. So you have a little bit of a I I love your program too. You know, harm are uh kind of mixing different genres of of music, and that's exactly what we're passionate about, too. So uh I yeah.

Hilary 27:14

Yeah, I I when I started this, I was determined. I my background is is is a mixture. I was a classical clarinetist, and I was all set to sort of go into orchestral clarinet, and I I did really well at school in in you know, doing music exams and stuff, like and I put I I got really good. And then my clarinet teacher said to me, Well, you've done all the exams that you can do at the moment in on clarinet. Why don't you try the saxophone? And that was it. And that was it. That was I was sold, and so then I did I did some classical work with the saxophone, and then I did a lot of jazz and I did some sessions and some pop as well and all that sort of stuff. So my background is very, very mixed genre.

Matthew 28:03

Right, right.

Hilary 28:04

And that's what I love. I love being able to listen to some Beethoven and then listen to some um Miles Brecker, uh sorry, Randy Brecker, or you know, uh any of the any of the everything, everything. So yeah, that's where this podcast comes from.

Matthew 28:19

In hopes of creating a more harmonious world.

Hilary 28:22

Exactly.

Matthew 28:23

And that's uh our our our mission is to connect communities and cultures through globally inspired music. And I think you know, even just Harmonious World encapsulates that uh same sentiment in just two words.

Hilary 28:36

Yeah, exactly. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Matthew 28:40

It was my pleasure, thank you.

Hilary 28:42

I really hope you enjoyed listening to my conversation with Matthew and and everything about Apollo Chamber players. At the beginning I played We Will Sing One Song, and now you're listening to With Malice Toward None, which Matt and I spoke about. As always, please do check out the links in the show notes, and don't forget to feedback to me on any of your comments. I love the social media and emails that I'm getting. If you enjoy listening to Harmonious World, please share it. Share the love, that's what this is all about. So you can either do that directly through the podcast platform that you're using to listen to this right now, or you can share a link, you can do that on Facebook, you can do it on Instagram or Twitter, or you can simply send a link by email or just talk about it. Please also consider leaving a review and a rating because that really helps. So thank you so much for listening to Harmonious World, and I hope you have a wonderful week, and I will speak to you soon.