From Second to First and Back Again: Roles, Expectations, and the reality of leadership within a professional string quartet

Submitted by The Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival.

“Sometimes leadership comes with a title and sometimes it doesn’t. Regardless

of the role you are in, anyone can make it a leadership moment if they choose to.”

– Will Fedkenheuer

Please join the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival on Thursday, November 12, at 7:00 p.m. for a Zoom session with violinist William Fedkenheuer of the Miró Quartet, where he will share insights from his life as a first and second violinist.

Will is well known to Orcas Island audiences as a dynamic musician and entertaining speaker. He is widely respected as a performer, teacher, and consultant. Uniquely drawing on over two decades of experience onstage and off as a member of three internationally renowned string quartets (The Miró, Fry Street, and Borromeo Quartets), he dedicates his life to serving others through performance, teaching, and personal and professional development.

In describing the seminar, Will says “I will center this within the construct of the string quartet – our roles and where leadership appears to be – and deconstruct that with the reality of how I view setting up a leadership structure that works for us and how we use it. This would start to open up what leadership looks like, and I will also talk a little bit about how leadership might show up when there is no explicit invitation or expectation.”

In addition to his consulting work and performing with the Miró Quartet, Will serves as Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music and oversees its Young Professional String Quartet Program.

There is no charge to attend this entertaining and thought-provoking event, but advance registration is required. For more information or to register, contact sarah@oicmf.org.