Violist Joe Skerik and cellist Kyle Stachnik are both northern Michigan natives. They met in the 2010s as students at Interlochen Arts Academy.
Each summer when they visit home, Skerik and Stachnik bring their musician friends along and present chamber music concerts around the region.
The group is called Viridian Strings, and every time they perform, they have a slightly different makeup.
Sometimes they're a quartet or a quintet or a sextet, and other than Skerik and Stachnik, the other members rotate based on which of their friends are available for a trip to northern Michigan.
No matter which musicians perform in each iteration of Viridian, they're all friends and they're all professional classical artists with appointments in orchestras and universities around the world.
Earlier this summer, IPR presented a quartet version of Viridian Strings in the region. It went so well that Skerik and Stachnik added a second round of concerts to their 2024 schedule.
This Thursday and Friday, a quintet version of Viridian Strings will bring music of Mozart, Vaughan Williams and Brahms to Traverse City's Alluvion and Frankfort's Oliver Art Center.
The August 2024 edition of Viridian Strings visited IPR's Studio A this week to share an excerpt of the Vaughan Williams Phantasy Quintet and talk about why they enjoy these concerts so much.
Music performed in Studio A
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Phantasy Quintet (mvts. 3 & 4)
Musicians heard in Studio A
Cherry Yeung, violin
Matthew Hakkarainen, violin
Brian Isaacs, viola
Joe Skerik, viola
Kyle Stachnik, cello
Violist Katie Liu will also perform during the concerts but did not appear in this recording session.
Viridian Strings will perform Thursday night at the Alluvion in Traverse City and Friday night at the Oliver Art Center in Frankfort.
Click below for details.
For video of Viridian Strings at IPR, follow Classical IPR on Instagram.
This edition of Studio A was engineered by Michael Culler.
Scott Clemens is IPR's digital content producer.
