Following The WholeHearted Musician

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Dana Fonteneau and the Argus and Omer Quartets reflect on their WholeHearted Musician Artist Residency, and talk about their upcoming projects:

Dana Fonteneau

Post Yellow Barn residency, I immediately went to New York City where I facilitated career development interviews for the finalists of the Concert Artists Guild Competition. I also served on the jury for the final round of the competition.

On Saturday, November 2, I will be doing a live webinar interview for the Andover Educators Association.

In January, I will be giving three presentations at the Associaton for Performing Arts Professionals Conference in New York, as well as a presentation at the Juilliard School and career consulting at the Chamber Music America Conference.

Finally, I am going through the results of the residency and will be working on both a book and a possible promotional video about the work and results.

Argus Quartet

Since our Yellow Barn residency, Argus has been back in New York feeling invigorated, fueled, and inspired by our work with Dana. Our awareness and intention in rehearsals and performances has felt markedly different, and we’ve been eagerly trying new techniques to heighten our connections between us and with our audiences. We had three major concerts in October—in New York at Schneider Concerts, in Cedar Falls at the University of Northern Iowa, and in Syracuse at the Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music. In November, we will give the premiere of a new work written for us by Shuying Li (commissioned by the Composers’ Guild of New Jersey) and we’ll play three shows in New York City and Philadelphia with the incredible rapper, singer, and writer Dessa, celebrating the release of her latest album. Not a moment has gone by—onstage or off—that we haven’t felt the influence of our work at Yellow Barn under Dana’s loving guidance, and we’re excited to keep watering the seeds of this work in the coming weeks and months.

Omer Quartet

Since our time at the WholeHearted Musician residency, we have been applying so many of the tools Dana shared with us in our daily lives as individuals and as a team. We challenge ourselves through organization, connection, accountability and intention. We cannot thank Dana Fonteneau, Yellow Barn and the Argus Quartet enough for making our time there so fruitful and memorable! Upcoming concerts include performances at Carnegie Hall, Sprague Hall at the Yale School of Music, Valley Classical Concerts, and Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Center.