Living in Maine inspired musician Violist Dane returns with chamber group

Matthew Dane, a musician trained in the Suzuki method, was late for rehearsal with his string quartet one day back in high school. He was a teenager – but a responsible one. So it’s likely he was worried about being tardy. Turns out, the other three musicians were late, too. And that wasn’t their only problem. Not one of them remembered to bring their sheet music.

Their teacher did not waste too much time trying to figure out what to do, however.

“I thought to myself: These are Suzuki kids. They play by ear. I wonder if they have the whole thing memorized.” recalled Kathy Wood, their teacher at the time. “They did. And they played more beautifully and expressively than ever. Matt was right there with them.”

That was nearly two decades ago. These days, the 33-year-old Dane, who grew up in Bangor and Veazie, plays with the adult quartet Brightmusic, which will perform chamber music at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 5, at Minsky Recital Hall in Orono and 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7, at the Stonington Opera House.

After graduating from Orono High School, where he was on the swim team, Dane went to Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he thought he might study math. Then he thought he might study geology. Inevitably, he wound up in the music program with the well-known teacher and violinist Philipp Naegele.

“If there’s anyone who got me on a career path, it was him,” said Dane, speaking from his parents’ home on Deer Isle. “It was his commitment and his persistent interest in the wonders of music and how you understand it and project it that made me want to stay in the field. I found him to be an inspiring role model. This was the kind of person I wanted to be.”

Indeed, Dane, who earned a doctorate at Rice University after spending two years studying privately in Germany, is now an assistant professor of viola at the University of Oklahoma.

It came as no surprise to his former teachers that Dane would pursue a career in either music or teaching. He had the talent and determination for both, they say. Although Wood was not his first string teacher, she was his first piano teacher.

“Pianists learn things in a different way from violinists. They see all the harmony. It was an asset to his violin playing that he could do both,” said Wood, who now is director of the Suzuki program at MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. “But mostly it

was fun to teach him because he responded so well. He was smart and learned things quickly. He was an easy musician. He had to work for it and he worked hard. But music came very naturally to him.”

His first teacher, Clorinda Noyes, who, with Wood and a few other teachers, provided Suzuki training in Brewer in the 1970s, agrees. Not only was she Dane’s first teacher; he was also one of her first students.

“Matt was very interested in learning,” said Noyes, who now teaches in Portland and plays with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. She also founded the Maine Suzuki Association. “He was a high achiever, good at practicing, and just an all-around good kid.”

His teachers noticed that in addition to having strong family support for his artistic pursuits, Dane had other interests. There was the swimming, but he also read a lot. “That’s extremely important if a musician is going to be expressive,” said Wood. “A lot of musicians spend the whole time practicing and are not well-rounded. That is not true for Matt. Because of that, he brings something important to the music.”

Julia Adams, violist with the Portland String Quartet, described Dane as “exceptionally creative.” She recalled that his parents would drive him to Portland for lessons several times a month. She knew, as only a teacher can, that Dane was a student with potential for a career.

“When you encounter a young person who has self-expression and color of sound, and is technically proficient, you get quite excited,” said Adams, whose ensemble has a regular August residency at Colby College in Waterville, where Dane also received summer instruction.

Dane credits his teachers with giving him a strong foundation as a musician, and Maine with offering him ample opportunities to perform and excel. Even his choice to switch from violin to viola came about in Maine. His high school string quartet, which also included Wood’s daughter Amy Cox as violinist, needed someone to play viola. A couple of the players took turns, but it stuck for Dane. He played both instruments through high school.

“I feel lucky in so many ways to have grown up in Maine and to have had the quality of teaching and opportunity,” said Dane, who often visits in the summer with his wife, Christina Jennings, a flutist and teacher. During one of those visits a few years ago, Dane met Carol Estey, co-artistic director at the Stonington Opera House. His roots in Maine appealed to her interest in presenting top-notch artists with ties to the state. But she also noticed the couple’s passion for their work. “They are totally excited about music,” said Estey. “They love what they are doing. They love doing new work. They are the ultimate craftsmen and artists.”

For Dane, the Maine concerts remind him of earlier days when playing in his home state was a regular event.

“I had the chance to play all the time,” he said. “I took that for granted growing up. But I look back and see now how great it was – especially having a chamber music group I really liked.”

He has re-created that with Brightmusic, which is made up of other Oklahoma-based musicians and teachers: Jennings, a Juilliard School graduate and award-winning musician, and another couple, Chad Burrow, a clarinetist, and Amy I-Lin, a pianist. The group plays the chestnuts of chamber music as well as newer and lesser-known classical works.

“Brightmusic has been a great experience for Christina and me to put together, to create the programming and conceive the themes and ideas,” said Dane, who met his wife at Tanglewood Music Center. “We’re the resident group at Oklahoma College. So the audience gets to hear us speak and we talk with people afterward. It has been a great learning experience to connect with our audience that way – and we’ll do that at this week’s concerts, too. Maine audiences do tend to be very knowledgeable, and I feel lucky to have been brought up in that environment.”

Brightmusic will perform chamber music at 7 p.m. Aug. 5 at Minsky Recital Hall at the University of Maine in Orono, and at 7 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Stonington Opera House. For information and tickets, call 581-1755 for the Orono concert and 367-2788 for the Stonington concert. Alicia Anstead can be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.