Clarinet Quartet of Yorktown Graduates Performs at Hart Library

The Yorktown High School Alumni Clarinet Quartet performed at the John Hart C. Memorial Library in Shrub Oak Saturday afternoon, August 14. Yorktown graduates Brian Denu (Class '09), Devon Faulkner ('10), Evan Kuras ('10) and Carolyn Lieberman ('08) made up the quartet.

There were approximately 80 people in attendance who wanted to hear their music and see them perform. The room was packed up to the point that audience members had to sit on the floor because all chairs were taken.

Denu, student at Gettysburg College, and Lieberman, who goes to the University of Vermont, are both music majors. Faulkner and Kuras will minor in music at University of Massachusetts Amherst and Boston University respectively beginning in the fall.

"It really means a lot," Denu said. "I was really surprised because I invited my family and my friends, but I didn't realize that so many people wanted to hear our music."

The quartet played Allemanda, Arcadia, Allegretto-Cantabile, Funeral March of a Marionette, La Comparsa, No. 9 Four Part Round, Putt' On the Ritz, Comme une Barcarolle, Deux Quatuors, Classiques and Clarinet Polka.

"For me it was a really big nostalgia thing because I graduated the longest time ago, I graduated two years ago," Lieberman said. "I played with these guys in high school. It was always just so much fun. I played since then in college. To be able to play with people I played with two years ago was really a great experience."

Faulkner said they got the word out about their performance through Facebook, posters, and sending e-mails out to people.

"Things came out better than we thought," he said.

Kuras explained why having the quartet perform together before they headed off to college was so important to him. He said while he was in high school, after band practice he would ask friends to play with him.

"I would constantly badger everybody, asking them 'want to play duets, want to play duets,'" he said. "When these guys came back for our band practice, we were like 'hey, we got to do this.' We are all here, let's do a quartet. It's the best thing that ever happened."

For each member of the quartet, playing the clarinet is a lifetime passion. Faulkner has been playing the clarinet since he was in fourth grade, while Denu, Kuras and Lieberman have been playing that particular instrument since they were in fifth grade.

"There are a lot of private instructors in the area and if you want to go farther away, you can too," Denu said. "You can find a private instructor that will teach you clarinet."

Besides the connection of them playing clarinet, the quartet also enjoys each other's company.

"We have all known each other this entire time," Faulkner said. "It's just really fun, different music that we don't really get to play and we don't have this experience to have a nice small ensemble like this to play at a small local place like this, which was just a great experience."