Moonlighting Sounds Like Pleasure, Not Necessity

The Santiago String Quartet, which plays Sunday at the historic Bradford House in Placentia, is not in it for the money. (Tickets are free.) All its members have day jobs, not to mention night jobs. First violinist Linda Owen, for instance, is fine arts coordinator for the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District and a member of the Pacific Symphony.

So when are quartet rehearsals?

“We don’t get to rehearse as much as a professional quartet,” Owen allowed. “Our coaches, the Miami Quartet, rehearse every day. We rehearse every week, for four or five hours--and those are the long rehearsals.”

The Santiago quartet was founded in 1985 and has enjoyed its present configuration since 1993. Violinist Carmen Hensley teaches privately and in the Capistrano Unified School District. Sue Reinecke plays with four string quartets and is principal violist with the Rio Hondo Symphony and the Pasadena Community Orchestra. Patty Hicks teaches privately and is on the faculty of the National Cello Institute.

The upcoming program consists of Mendelssohn’s Quartet in A Minor, Opus 13, and Prokofiev’s Quartet No. 1. As for how Mendelssohn and Prokofiev were decided upon, about 50 musicians will find out at the Sierra Chamber Music Workshop in Mammoth in July when, as resident quartet, the Santiago members will discuss the process of selecting literature (they also will perform).

The selection process doesn’t sound too difficult--at least not if you’re a speed reader.

“We do lots of listening; we go to lots of concerts,” Owen said. “And this year we sat down and read through 30 string quartets over the course of a couple of days--maybe not every note of every movement, but we got a feel for what we wanted to do.”

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The group’s ups and downs are not limited to its bowing. “Last summer at a chamber music workshop in San Diego, we had to play in a hall we’d not had the opportunity to play in before,” Owen recalled. “We’d been rehearsing in a very small room, and all of a sudden we were in this large auditorium and could not hear each other. The sound simply didn’t carry across--and that is the most scary thing.

“On the other hand, this fall in Julian, we played the Conservancy benefit concert, and it was one of those magical moments when everything came together. It was a lovely room, a cold day; people came in all bundled up, a mountain community surrounded by these beautiful mountains . . . .

“Everything was just there. It was so comfortable. The music was there. And the audience was right there with us.”

* The Santiago String Quartet plays works by Mendelssohn and Prokofiev Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Bradford House, 136 Palm Circle, Placentia. Free. (714) 993-2470.