Esmé Quartet at 10: 'We had to prove ourselves every time we stepped on stage'

String quartet marks 10th anniversary with June 2 recital, new album due in September

"In the beginning, just surviving each day felt desperate. As a young, all-female quartet of Asian musicians, we had to justify our place on every stage."

Being young, female and Asian was a barrier that never quite went away. Yet Esmé Quartet has carved out a dramatic and singular path in Korean chamber music. The group set out with the bold ambition of shattering the perceived limits of an all-women string quartet. Within a year and a half of forming, it became the first Korean ensemble to win the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition — one of the most prestigious in the world — arriving on the classical scene like a comet. A decade on, the quartet is preparing for another leap forward as a genuinely international ensemble and educators whose identity transcends nationality and gender.

Ahead of their 10th-anniversary recital at Seoul Arts Center on Tuesday, the members spoke in a written interview. "After 10 years, the desperation has turned into a sense of responsibility," they said. "We're now at a stage where we're thinking about how to leave behind a musical voice that is truly our own."

Ten years is a long time. Looking back, the members said they "never had the luxury of imagining what we'd look like a decade later" when they first formed the group. Bae Won-hee, the quartet's leader, recalled that "proving we were a good ensemble was the most urgent thing — the tension was always high."

"The past 10 years were a time of proof. If showing the energy and potential of Esmé Quartet was what mattered then, now we find ourselves asking deeper questions — why we play a particular piece, and how the music can reach the audience," said Ha Yu-na.

The tension of the early years matured into trust and patience as time passed. Before the pandemic, the quartet performed around 70 times a year — roughly once every five days. Bae reflected that "going through so many performances, we were always thinking about how to play better at each one," adding that "the process made our distribution of energy and our ability to respond in the moment much more refined."

Time has also shaped the color of their music and of the people making it. "Just as the nature of love changes over time, the temperature of our music has shifted gradually," said Ha. "What used to feel like a hotter, more direct kind of energy now feels broader and more deeply settled."

The most significant change has been in musical interpretation. Heo Ye-eun said that "in the early days we would fix our interpretations by agreement, but as we've spent more time together and come to understand each other more deeply, the freedom and flexibility in how we interpret has grown." She added: "Now, each performance brings a slightly new interpretation shaped by each person's experiences and emotions, and the breathing of all four of us. The biggest change is that we've learned to listen to each other's ideas and make the most natural and convincing choice in the moment."

The biggest single change in the quartet's decade came in 2023, when violist Dimitri Murrath joined the group. Founding violist Kim Ji-won had departed, and Murrath — a French musician who had been active across Europe and the United States — stepped in to fill the role. Bae called the change "an enormous turning point," saying that "ultimately, what matters is musical direction and mutual respect, not gender."

"Dimitri has a wonderfully warm and flexible sound, which has made the middle voices richer and more expressive than before. Having grown up in Europe, built a career in the US and married a Korean woman, he fit naturally into our culture as well. Beyond the music, he's brought a sense of balance to the group dynamic. We're all strong-willed musicians, so having a new energy come in has helped us see each other more objectively," said Bae.

Joining an already polished ensemble as a new member carries its own pressures. Murrath said that before he joined, "Esmé Quartet was already a world-class string quartet with refined playing and deep expressiveness," and that "the biggest thing I discovered after becoming a member was the endless dedication and flexibility that goes into the rehearsal process behind the scenes."

Now in his third year with the group, the four have grown close. "Over the past three years I've felt the viola's tone connecting much more intimately with the cello. We're finding a perfect balance," he said. "There are also countless hidden everyday adventures we share on tour. Building those experiences together has deepened our friendship."

The solid result of four distinct personalities coming together to create one musical voice called Esmé Quartet is, as Ha put it, that "we've reached the point where we know each other without having to say a word."

Bae is a natural leader — the anchor of the group both musically and off the stage. Heo said that "Won-hee has incredible drive and leadership." The other members' strengths fit together like puzzle pieces, interlocking without friction. Bae described Ha as someone who "draws out the best in the music, both supporting and leading," while Heo "has exceptional sensitivity to detail and color, and captures the emotions within the music with remarkable precision."

The viola sits roughly a fifth below the violin and an octave above the cello — an instrument that tends to blend into the background. Even within a string quartet, picking out the viola's tone is no easy task, which has given rise to a whole genre of viola jokes about the instrument's supposed colorlessness. Bae praised Murrath warmly, saying he "connects the flow within the group with a flexible, warm energy." Heo sees him as "a source of fresh perspectives and flexible ideas."

"Above all, his viola playing is so outstanding that the viola jokes musicians like to tell just don't apply to him. (Laughs)" said Bae.

What unites four such distinct personalities is a shared disposition. "Our strength is that we're ambitious — and our weakness is that we're too ambitious," Ha said with a laugh. Murrath agreed. "Our greatest strength as a group is that we never compromise on artistic integrity," he said. "If I had to name one weakness, it's that we love challenging, ambitious programs far too much." The result of four "excessively passionate" musicians joining forces, he said, is that "we sometimes end up choosing performances that demand more energy than strictly necessary."

"I'm often reminded of this when the Esmé of the following year has to perform the brutally difficult season program that the Esmé of the previous year put together in a fit of ambition. (Laughs)" said Ha. "It's a welcome side effect of wanting to do full justice to the great masterworks," added Murrath.

Marking their 10th anniversary, Esmé Quartet will release a new album, "Nui," in September — a milestone that reflects where the ensemble stands today. Personal milestones among the members, including marriages and the birth of children, have also shifted the emotional temperature of their music. The album brings together Fanny Mendelssohn's String Quartet, Felix Mendelssohn's Op. 80 — written after his sister's death — and a new work by Korean composer Seo Ju-ri, commissioned by the quartet and inspired by the Korean children's song "Eomma ya Nuna ya."

Bae described it as "a project carrying the love of family, warm compassion for people, and the emotions of memory," adding that "we felt the Korean sensibility and sense of memory would connect naturally with the other repertoire. In our early days, the drive to prove ourselves was strong. Now, the desire to bring more human warmth and depth to the music has grown."

The years of proving themselves may be behind them, but there is still no shortage of music they want to make. The four are determined to break the perception that string quartets are inaccessible, performing in what Heo calls "the most human genre, one that shares emotion up close." Ha expressed the hope to "explore classical repertoire more deeply while also creating more projects connected to the times we live in — like the music of Korean composers — so that the familiar becomes something special."

Esmé is an old French word meaning "beloved." Having spent 10 years earning that love on stages around the world, the four musicians now have the space to look ahead to the next decade. More than anything, they said, they want "the next 10 years to bring music that is a little freer and deeper."

"It's genuinely surprising to realize we've come this far, having once wondered vaguely whether we could really stay together for 10 years," said Bae. "The ideal future would be to remain a group that still feels excited to share the stage together, no matter how much time passes."

Heo dreams of music that lingers. "Beyond being a group that plays well, I want to leave behind music that people remember for a long time," she said. "As long as we can keep enjoying the music and trusting each other on stage, that alone would be the greatest happiness." Murrath said the future the quartet envisions is "to become a bridge connecting timeless classical masterworks with the new voices of our era," adding that he hopes they remain "an ensemble that stays close to its audience for a long time to come."

shee@heraldcorp.com