The Road Taken

Every new group has to come up with a name for itself, and it usually happens in a hurry. The musicians might later romance the story a bit, but sooner or later the truth emerges.

For the Chester String Quartet, the founding players took what was at hand.

“They needed to come up with a name when they were students, and they were playing a piece published by the Chester Music Publishing Co., a small company that was quite old,” Chester first violinist Aaron Berofsky said recently. “It was that simple.”

The quartet, formed in 1980 at Indiana University as a quartet-in-residence, has since become one of the up-and-coming younger groups. It has commissioned works, made four CDs and visited Southern California several times. It will play again Sunday in Fullerton.

Of the original members, only cellist Thomas Rosenberg, 40, remains. The others--Berofsky, 28; his wife, violinist Kathryn Votapek, 32, and violist David Harding, 35--joined anywhere from five to seven years ago. They’re also associate professors of music.

The three newcomers went to the Juilliard School. “We overlapped, but we didn’t know each other,” Berofsky said.

He grew up in Westchester, N.Y. His mother is a music and dance teacher, his father a professor of philosophy at Columbia University. Aaron Berofsky started playing violin, piano and drums at summer camp when he was 4.

“I loved the drums, but I quickly realized that that wasn’t going to satisfy all my musical desires,” he said.

Showing talent early, he was admitted as a violinist to Juilliard’s pre-college school at age 11.

“It was very high pressure. I liked it, but it was not necessarily the ideal place for a 12-year-old.”

For high school, Berofsky switched to the North Carolina School of the Arts, which he found more congenial. He never consciously planned to become a professional musician, he said. On the other hand: “I never, ever thought of pursuing anything else. But it was such a gradual process, I can’t think of a moment when I decided, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ ”

Returning to Juilliard after high school, Berofsky earned two degrees and joined the quartet shortly after graduating in 1992. But not without inner struggle.

“It was a huge decision for me,” he said. “I almost refused the job. How could I leave New York City? How could I not do five years of competitions? Then I remember one morning waking up feeling a great weight had been lifted. I realized I had a wonderful possibility of a job making a living playing chamber music. Maybe this was something not to pass up.”

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And a new world did open.

“Suddenly, I was playing lots of professional concerts at good venues, whereas at schools, I would play a piece on a program but not even a full program. It was something I was not used to.

“I was teaching people of my own age. I was at faculty meetings, though I didn’t have much to say at first. But overall I have no regrets. I’ve gotten to play great music with great people.”

He and his wife played in the quartet as colleagues for several years before becoming involved romantically. “Marriage seems not to get in the way,” he said. “We don’t bring in home problems. Once [in concerts or rehearsals], we do what we have to do. But certainly, it makes it nice for traveling.”

The quartet recently traveled to Oklahoma City to play the complete cycle of Beethoven’s 16 quartets in 10 days. Beethoven’s First Quartet will be on the Sunday program, as will another repertory staple, Schumann’s Quartet in A minor, Opus 41, No. 1.

Two contemporary composers will also be represented--Zhou Long and Krzystof Penderecki. The quartet will play the slow movement of Long’s “Poems From Tang,” a work it co-commissioned with the Ciopi and Shanghai quartets.

“The second movement is so lyrical and evocative,” Berofsky said. “You have to slow your pulse down and get into a different mood.”

The work imitates the sound of Chinese instruments.

“The most unusual moment is when David strums his viola with a credit card. We’ve joked about which credit card makes the best one. But it sounds really cool.”

The Penderecki piece--Quartet No. 2--is seven minutes long. “It’s just so interesting. It is kind of crazy and maybe a little violent or angry-sounding at times, but in such a small dose, anywhere we play, people say, ‘That was so interesting.’

“We think he is one of the great musicians. We’re not playing it as one of the curiosities. It’s incredibly effective, really heavy and kind of fun.”

The span of repertory is typical of the quartet.

“I imagine our careers would soar if we specialized in some niche,” Berofsky said. “But we’re resisting the idea. We love Beethoven and Haydn, but we want to play a good amount of 20th century works. We’re thrilled to keep doing a 60/40 split of the classics and new stuff. So far, we’ve managed to do it.”

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* The Chester String Quartet will play works by Beethoven, Penderecki, Schumann and Zhou Long on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at Sunnyhills High School, 1801 Warburton Way, Fullerton. The concert, part of the Fullerton Friends of Music series, is free. (714) 525-5836.