Inés Picado Molares (Viola, Vera String Quartet Residency ’20)
Interviewed by Ali King
Director, Marketing and Business Development
Curtis Institute of Music
January 20, 2021
AK: Where are you speaking with me from today?
IM: I’m in San Sebastián, a small city in northern Spain’s Basque Country. I haven’t been living in Spain for the past ten years but am originally from Galicia, which is in northwest Spain right above Portugal. It’s a close drive from San Sebastián so feels like I’m almost home!
AK: What is COVID-19 life like in Spain these days?
IM: Things change drastically from day to day. Right now there’s a travel restriction, so some cities are closed. Vaccinations began in December for elderly people and healthcare professionals, but it’s going slowly. I’m lucky that we still perform, though. Our audiences are reduced to about ten times less than our venue’s maximum capacity.
AK: So you’re performing live for work, then?
IM: Yes, with the Basque National Orchestra. It stopped performing for a few months last spring, but picked back up again last summer with small audiences — maybe a couple hundred people who are masked and socially distanced.
AK: Tell me about winning your position with the Basque National Orchestra last year.
IM: When my partner Pedro (who was also in the Vera Quartet with me) and I returned to Spain last spring from the United States, I started looking for teaching and performing jobs. I heard about this opening with the Basque National Opera but wasn’t expecting to succeed in my first orchestral audition, and was quite happy I did! We moved here and I started playing with them at the end of September, so I’m still within my six-month trial period.
AK: How’s it going so far?
IM: My passion is chamber music, but this is a good chance to learn orchestra repertoire.
AK: What does chamber music fulfill for you?
IM: In a quartet, we all have our own personalities and feel the music differently. You learn a lot about how to communicate closely when trying to make four voices compatible. It’s fun to learn from your colleagues that way, and to have their perspectives change your mind. I try to keep those listening skills and responsive intentions when I’m in the orchestra too, though it’s more difficult in a larger ensemble.
AK: Are you pursuing new chamber music opportunities?
IM: Yes, before auditioning for the Basque National Orchestra and mostly just for fun, Pedro and I formed a trio with one of our longtime cellist friends here. We’re rehearsing and sending proposals for performance cycles, so we’ll see where that takes us as a side project.
AK: Is San Sebastián a good place to be a musician?
IM: I can’t really enjoy the city right now, but I like it a lot — it reminds me of my hometown. There’s a nice music school here called Musikene, which has a beautiful hall close to the beach where our orchestra performs. Because the Basque National Orchestra is regional, we perform each program in Bilbao, Pamplona, and Vitoria-Gasteiz as well, which are all about an hour’s drive away.
AK: When was your last performance with the Vera Quartet?
IM: It was March 2020. We livestreamed our last concert together from Field Concert Hall on Curtis’s campus to an audience in Detroit, Michigan as part of a tour that had pivoted online due to the pandemic. We were at Curtis for only a year and a half due to the pandemic but had so many meaningful experiences; I was sad that we couldn’t finish that tour in person, though. It was later that March that Pedro and I made the decision to move back to Spain because it became clear that international students needed to return home.
AK: What brought you to the United States initially?
IM: I spent five years at the University of Indiana in performance and artist programs, which is where we founded the Vera Quartet.
AK: How do you imagine staying connected to Curtis from Spain?
IM: Curtis was always my dream school. I don’t know if there are many other places where you can enjoy making music quite as much. Pedro and I keep in touch with our close friends and mentors from our time at Curtis and in Philly. This past summer, Curtis organized an online master class with a student from Puerto Rico and asked Spanish-speaking alumni to participate. I was pleased to be able to help with that and would be glad to do so again in the future!
