Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 10, 1993                   TAG: 9311090179
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ZINIE CHEN ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

QUARTET IS TAKING CHAMBER MUSIC TO NEW HEIGHTS

They're not your latest pop group but performers of chamber music, composed centuries ago by Beethoven, Bartok and Haydn.

In its fifth year at the University of Richmond, the Shanghai String Quartet continues to gain popularity and critical acclaim. The group came to Richmond to be the university's first ensemble-in-residence.

The New York Times hailed the quartet as a "first-class ensemble" and The Globe & Mail of Toronto said the group "is busily securing its footing alongside leading quartets of our time."

Violinists and brothers Weigang and Honggang Li and violist Zheng Wang started the ensemble in 1983 when the three were studying at the Shanghai Conservatory in China. All had built strong reputations as soloists.

"Starting the group was pretty easy. We knew each other since we were children," said Weigang Li, 29. But musically, "it was very difficult. We had to start from scratch. Chamber music was not popular in China."

The original cellist left the group when the Li brothers and Wang came to the United States to study with the Juilliard Quartet. When a second cellist departed after five years, James Wilson joined the group.

"Our goal is to be one of the best quartets," Weigang Li said. "The process is very rewarding. It's the best way to perform music." The string quartet has no conductor, and there is no dominant member telling each musician how to play, he said.

During a recent rehearsal, each member frequently stopped the group to discuss and work through subtleties and playing techniques in "4 Pieces," a modern work by Elena Ruehr, one of Wilson's former professors at the University of Michigan.

The group plans to perform the piece at an upcoming concert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Ruehr now teaches.

Though it favors Beethoven, the quartet also acknowledges its Chinese origin with pieces such as Zhou Long's "Song of the Ch'in."

Despite having been in the United States since the mid-1980s, the Chinese members of the quartet said they haven't forgotten their home and parents, musicians who instructed them when they were young and made them practice several hours each day.

"We had very good training, good discipline. I wish more kids here had more of that," Weigang Li said. "Students will ask us, `How much did you practice a day?' and they'll be surprised when we say five or six hours."

Quartet members said they're somewhat disheartened by the general lack of interest among young people in classical music, which they say is much more sophisticated than the simple melodies of popular music.

"It makes you feel bad but there's nothing you can do," said Wilson, 28. "We can't compete with Michael Jackson."

Wang, the oldest member of the ensemble at 33, said: "Classical music is your soul, your feelings, everything. This music has lasted so long. Longer than Michael Jackson will."

The quartet has been ensemble-in-residence at the Tanglewood and Ravinia festivals and has appeared three times at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York City.

The group has played in New York annually, its last appearance in October at the Metropolitan Museum. Recent seasons have taken the quartet to cities all over the United States and Europe.

The final appearances of 1993 will include performances in Boston and Portland, Ore., and a 10-day stint in Europe. The quartet plans a tour to the Far East next year.