ARTIST INTERVIEW - RHIANNON BANERDT
Our Institute Artists are amazing musicians and we want to share their personal stories, musical insights, and passion for performance with you, so we asked each artist to answer some questions about what it is like to be a performing musician. We hope you enjoy getting to know one of the violinists from the Ulysses Quartet, Rhiannon Banerdt.

Why or when did you start learning music?
I was very lucky to grow up with two older siblings who played viola and cello, so I was surrounded from the start by music. That just seemed like the normal thing to do to me! Before I was even old enough to play, I would sit and listen to their lessons and listen to them practice, so I got to soak up a little of their learning experience early on. I was as lazy as any other kid, but it was easier for my parents to convince me to practice because I had role models for good practice habits right in front of me.
What instrument do you play and why do you continue to play it?
When I was young, I studied both violin and piano and was very enthusiastic about both. As I got more serious it became clear that I couldn't continue to pursue both at the level that I wanted and I would have to choose. One of the things that led me to focus on the violin and that keeps me going today is the opportunities I had with violin to make personal connections, through orchestra and chamber music; the camaraderie that one can experience in those ensembles is something quite special and I think has helped a lot of us through hard times.
Do you get nervous when you perform? If so, how do you deal with it?
I do get nervous when I perform, especially solo. The thing that I find most effective in keeping it from affecting my performance is to focus more intensely on the music and my intention with it. If I let myself think about the technical aspects of what I'm doing or whether I will be able to execute something, I'm really in trouble, but if I just stick to what I really want something to say and creating the experience that I imagine for the audience, there's no room for my nerves to get in the way. One of the reasons I enjoy playing chamber music so much is that when I'm playing with other people, the beautiful or interesting or inspired things that they do in a performance help bring me back to that level of thinking and push me to be a better performer.
What advice would you give to younger performers?
Being a performer can be a very vulnerable thing, but push yourself to be as open as you can--in both directions! Share your individual voice with your audience regardless of whether you think everyone will approve of what you have to say, because that's the only way you will make a genuine connection with someone through your art. On the flip side, listen to praise and criticism even if you don't agree with it--not because someone else knows better than you, but because making great art is difficult and you can't afford to throw out a tool that might be useful in making it better!
If you could perform with any musician from any time, who would it be? Why?
It's so difficult to choose just one, but I think I would have to say Pablo Casals. He had such an incredibly intense and unique musical personality, and such an earnestness and deeply genuine feeling behind his playing that I always imagine that just being in the room with him playing must have lit a fire inside any other musician. If that weren't enough, his passion extended beyond the act of performing music within a traditional concert hall to encompass all of the ways in which music and art could change the world and touch the lives of everyone in it.
I was very lucky to grow up with two older siblings who played viola and cello, so I was surrounded from the start by music. That just seemed like the normal thing to do to me! Before I was even old enough to play, I would sit and listen to their lessons and listen to them practice, so I got to soak up a little of their learning experience early on. I was as lazy as any other kid, but it was easier for my parents to convince me to practice because I had role models for good practice habits right in front of me.
What instrument do you play and why do you continue to play it?
When I was young, I studied both violin and piano and was very enthusiastic about both. As I got more serious it became clear that I couldn't continue to pursue both at the level that I wanted and I would have to choose. One of the things that led me to focus on the violin and that keeps me going today is the opportunities I had with violin to make personal connections, through orchestra and chamber music; the camaraderie that one can experience in those ensembles is something quite special and I think has helped a lot of us through hard times.
Do you get nervous when you perform? If so, how do you deal with it?
I do get nervous when I perform, especially solo. The thing that I find most effective in keeping it from affecting my performance is to focus more intensely on the music and my intention with it. If I let myself think about the technical aspects of what I'm doing or whether I will be able to execute something, I'm really in trouble, but if I just stick to what I really want something to say and creating the experience that I imagine for the audience, there's no room for my nerves to get in the way. One of the reasons I enjoy playing chamber music so much is that when I'm playing with other people, the beautiful or interesting or inspired things that they do in a performance help bring me back to that level of thinking and push me to be a better performer.
What advice would you give to younger performers?
Being a performer can be a very vulnerable thing, but push yourself to be as open as you can--in both directions! Share your individual voice with your audience regardless of whether you think everyone will approve of what you have to say, because that's the only way you will make a genuine connection with someone through your art. On the flip side, listen to praise and criticism even if you don't agree with it--not because someone else knows better than you, but because making great art is difficult and you can't afford to throw out a tool that might be useful in making it better!
If you could perform with any musician from any time, who would it be? Why?
It's so difficult to choose just one, but I think I would have to say Pablo Casals. He had such an incredibly intense and unique musical personality, and such an earnestness and deeply genuine feeling behind his playing that I always imagine that just being in the room with him playing must have lit a fire inside any other musician. If that weren't enough, his passion extended beyond the act of performing music within a traditional concert hall to encompass all of the ways in which music and art could change the world and touch the lives of everyone in it.