Dvořák at the Library

Music at the Hearth — Orchestra Nova Northwest String Quartet
Tualatin Public Library, Tualatin, Oregon
Sunday, September 13, 2026 | 2pm

It was sprinkling outside when four musicians from Orchestra Nova Northwest began the afternoon with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

The coincidence was almost too good.

The performance had been highlighted as a September Staff Pick in the Tualatin Public Library’s Adult events calendar, and the setting was considerably more intimate than a concert hall. The musicians were gathered around the library hearth, only a short distance from an audience spread among lounge chairs and temporary seating around them.

The quartet brought together Orchestra Nova Northwest’s principal string players: concertmaster Casey Bozell on first violin, Elizabeth Doty on second violin, principal violist Shauna Keyes, and principal cellist Katherine Schultz.

Much of the afternoon’s program offered a preview connected with the orchestra’s upcoming John Williams concert. Along with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the quartet played Variation 18 from Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the tango “Por una Cabeza,” famously used in the film Scent of a Woman.

But the selection that stayed with me most was something different.

Before beginning Anton Dvořák’s “String Quartet No. 12 in F major,” commonly known as the “American” Quartet, Bozell talked about what the four musicians enjoy doing when they have the opportunity to play together. A traditional string quartet, she explained, consists of two violins, viola, and cello, and playing quartet repertoire is simply something the four of them enjoy.

Dvořák’s quartet, she added, is one of their favorites to pull out from time to time.

Bozell also offered some context for the music. Dvořák wrote the quartet during his time in the United States, and she described its themes as reflecting both his experiences in America and his longing for the music he knew back home as a Czech composer. By that point, he was homesick and ready for his time in America to come to an end.

The quartet played the first two movements.

Of everything performed that afternoon, this was the selection I liked most.

The shorter selections were recognizable to many, but the Dvořák gave the four musicians more room to settle into the sound of a string quartet. The instruments could separate, answer one another, and come back together, with enough time for the music to develop rather than simply make a quick impression.

Before the final selection, the musicians opened the floor to questions from the audience. One woman asked about the process of auditioning for an orchestra.

Bozell explained that all four musicians had auditioned specifically for the principal positions they now hold. In many professional orchestras, candidates perform behind a curtain so the people evaluating them cannot see who is playing. She connected that practice with the history of orchestras once hiring only men, noting that when blind auditions became more common, women increasingly began winning orchestral positions.

One detail especially caught my attention: even the path into an audition may be carpeted so judges cannot identify anything about a candidate from the sound of their shoes.

Bozell explained that winning the audition is not quite the end of the process. A musician generally spends about a year in the orchestra while colleagues determine whether the placement is a good fit before tenure is granted.

It was an unexpected glimpse into professional orchestral life tucked into what had begun as a small Sunday afternoon performance at the library.

The concert ended with “Por una Cabeza,” bringing the hour back toward the world of film music. But it was the Dvořák I kept thinking about afterward: four principal string players sitting only a few feet from the audience, playing one of the quartets they enjoy returning to together.

For an hour, a corner of the local library became a chamber-music room.