By ANDREW YEE

Had you asked me last year what I thought I could find in rural North Carolina, I might have said something about antique furniture or vinegar barbeque, but I probably wouldn't have thought to mention classical music. So when Bärli Nugent, Juilliard's assistant dean and director of chamber music, called to ask my quartet if we wanted to go to Hickory, N.C., for a week of outreach, we didn't know what to think.

The Attacca Quartet (violinists Amy Schroeder and Keiko Tokunaga, violist Gillian Gallagher, and I, who play cello) learned that this opportunity was offered by the Western Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, and that we would be playing in some traditional and not-so-traditional venues. Hickory is not far from Greensboro, N.C., and turned out to be an amazing little town with an active local classical music scene. In addition to supporting a symphony, Hickory hosts its own resident string quartet, the Degas Quartet, with whom we would work during the week.

Gillian Gallagher, violist of the Attacca Quartet, explains pizzicato to a group of elementary schoolchildren in Hickory, N.C. (Photo by Andrew Yee)

When we got to Hickory, we were taken to the old, neat Victorian house where we would be staying for the week. Our hostess was an incredibly gracious woman named Nan Fanjoy, who had lived in the area her whole life. We settled in and then walked out to find some food. Since Hickory closes pretty early, we wound up eating Chinese … not quite the introduction to Southern cuisine we were hoping for.

We found our way to the local billiards club, thinking they would have potato skins or something. We walked down the crooked stairwell and reserved a table. While we were playing pool and drinking our dollar beers on tap, a guy approached us. For a split second, I pictured him trying to pick up one of the girls or start one of those old-movie bar fights. Instead, the guy asked, "Hey, aren't you the Attacca Quartet?" Turns out that our pictures, with an accompanying article, had appeared in the local paper earlier that week.

The next day we played our first concert at the Hickory County Fair. The symphony representative took us to our spot: four chairs on the grass, with a blue tarp suspended overhead, between an amplified banjo player and the Hickory trampoline tumblers club. We played some quartets, but had to stop when the banjo player picked up some steam. When we were done, I pulled my endpin out of the dirt and packed up my cello. The next day, we played a formal concert of Beethoven, Bartok, and Ravel in a church—no tarp needed.

For the rest of the week, we played a number of outreach concerts throughout the greater Hickory area. Some were for senior citizens, who are always a treat to play for. I had conversations with many of them after our performances. One told me her granddaughter played the violin, but was not very good. Another told me of playing the violin herself in the late 1930s. We played Beethoven, Ravel, and Shostakovich at two places in one day. Everyone seemed to really like the music (though a woman who was part of the wheelchair armada on the left side of the room at one place seemed to want out pretty badly during our Shostakovich).

Playing for young kids was entirely different. This was my favorite part of our outreach week. We played short concerts for schools with children ranging from preschoolers through 11th-graders. Our programs for kids usually had a Haydn quartet, the Ravel Quartet, and the fourth Bartok Quartet. We were not sure how the Bartok would go over with small children, but preschoolers love Bartok—there was even one group who asked us to play the fast movement again. Keiko tried to conjure up the image of a "chicken race" in describing the Presto movement of Haydn's Op. 76, No. 5. As we played, the kids flapped their arms energetically. The problem was that when it came time to play the Prestissimo of the Bartok Quartet, they flapped their arms like chickens again.

We also coached three talented high-school string quartets, who said that they had been motivated to take up string playing because of the presence of a resident string quartet. The Degas had definitely had an impact on the community. Maybe what we had done in our brief time there would, as well. We learned a lot about "outreach" and a little about what to expect in the real world. We made good friends while there, and this little town's dedication to its quartet and chamber music gave us hope for the future of classical music. When we left after a week of performing and learning, we knew a few things for sure: play Bartok for 4-year-olds, stay away from Chinese food in Hickory, and never assume that a small, southern town doesn't know a thing or two about classical music.

Andrew Yee earned his B.M. in cello this past May, and is now enrolled in the master's degree program.