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Name: Essena Setaro
Class: Second-year graduate student
Major: Violin performance
Hometown: Ithaca, N.Y.
You play violin with the graduate student string quartet. What's the next big gig for the group?
We're performing Feb. 10 at Trinity Cathedral here in Columbia. We'll do Mozart's Hunt Quartet and Beethoven's Opus 59 No. 1. Our performance will last about half an hour. This is the 250tth anniversary of Mozart's birth, so there is a lot of Mozart being performed this semester. We usually do one recital per semester--it will be May 2--and lots of weddings and dinners and the doctoral hooding ceremony at graduation.
How many hours will you have rehearsed before Feb. 10?
Oh, I don't know, a lot! We practice eight hours a week as a quartet, but individually it’s several hours a day of practicing, performing and playing in orchestra--I'm a member of six orchestras--so it's probably nine to 11 hours a day for me.
How long have you been playing the violin?
Seventeen years--that makes me feel old! I got burned out after my junior year of college and quit school for a year.
You plan to graduate in May--what’s the experience been like at USC?
Graduate school has been good. I've particularly learned a lot from Dr. Terwilliger, the advisor of the quartet and my violoin professor. He comes to our practice sessions for a couple of hours every week. After graduation, I plan to keep on doing what I'm doing now: teaching violin and viola and peforming with symphonies. I'm certified to teach in public schools, but I mostly do private lessons now.
1/06
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Essena Setaro, graduate student, music, and members of the Graduate Student String Quartet
