 | URI String Quartet members (l-r) are: Kristie Newton, Christine Dickson, Pamela Ursillo, and Daniela Gongora.
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Quartet pulls the right strings“To be successful in a string quartet, members have to communicate to each other without words,” explained violinist Christina Dickson, a University of Rhode Island junior majoring in music performance.
“When the first violinist hands me a line, I need to play it back as beautifully as she handed it to me,” said cellist and Pamela Ursillo. “You need to know what the others are thinking and where they are coming from. Our quartet is special because we are all so different and it works.”
Dickson and Ursillo know what they are talking about. The two are half of a talented URI string quartet that not only had the distinction of performing in Belize this past summer, thanks to a grant provided by the College of Arts and Sciences’ Hope and Heritage Fund, but reunited to play at a dinner for higher education that was held at Fidelity Investments this fall.
“The arts in Belize are very limited. Currently there is only one music school in the entire country where you can learn strings or piano,” said the quartet’s other violinist Daniela Gongora, a Belizean exchange student.
The quartet performed at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Belize. “It was the finest performance the quartet ever gave,” said quartet coach John Dempsey. “They were outstanding not only as musicians, but as representatives from URI and our country. Dempsey said the trip was made possible by the Hope and Heritage Fund which provides monies from private donations for students and faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences who have been invited to perform, present research, or exhibit their work nationally or internationally.
Kirstie Newton, the fourth member of the quartet, graduated last May and now teaches violin and viola.
Ursillo plans to follow in her sister’s footsteps and become a music teacher after she graduates. Dickson hopes to play in a symphony orchestra, and Gongora may go to graduate school or teach strings and open her own studio.
Wherever their paths lead them, the quartet will always recall their shared musical experiences. “We were very much in sync with each other,” Gongora said.
By Jan Wenzel
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