An American Story “Iglitzin”

By Ariana Nelson, cellist

I’m so thrilled to presenting this project with my quartet colleagues, and with the support of PNC Arts Alive. This has been many months in the making, and we’re so proud of it! I would never have expected to be writing string quartet music in 2020 and 2021, and I’m grateful for the experience and the challenge. Because my story is about the Russian Jewish side of my family, I wanted the music to reflect that and tie it together. I was especially inspired by Klezmer music, particularly the minor quality of so much of that music, even if it is lively and upbeat. Chamber music is also an integral part of the story - the last three generations share the common thread of string quartet playing. It was important to me to have that element present in the musical story telling - excerpts of pieces from the string quartet repertoire can be heard inter-weaved into the original material. 

Because my story travels through time fairly quickly, I wanted to give some background information here that will be helpful for understanding! It begins with my great-grandfather, Jacob (Jack) Iglitzin in Russia, and spans many generations in just a few minutes leading to the present day.

In 1905 he left for Paris to avoid army service, and worked there to earn enough money to come to the United States in 1907. Upon his arrival in the United States, he settled in the Bronx where he opened a pharmacy. His son, my grandfather, Alan worked there as he was growing up. Alan studied violin in high school and only 6 months of viola. He even started a string quartet with his friends called the Metropolitan String Quartet. He joined the Minneapolis Symphony (now the Minnesota Orchestra) on viola at age 21, just after graduating from college and marrying my grandmother Lynne. 7 years later, when he joined the Philadelphia Orchestra, he met his colleagues that would then found the Philadelphia String Quartet in 1960. When the quartet got offered a position in Seattle at the University of Washington in 1966, their conductor was upset and did not want to let them leave. They ended up leaving rather dramatically (as the story goes), and came to the Pacific Northwest to start their residency.

My mom, Karen, joined the quartet as their first violinist when she was 25 years old. Around this time, Alan found and bought the farm property on the Olympic Peninsula, and turned it into a summer chamber music festival. The Philadelphia quartet played there every summer for audiences in the barn and on the lawn.

Following the family tradition, I began playing cello at age 7, and my dad Roger was my built-in accompanist until I left for college. I decided to get my bachelor’s and master of music degrees, and that has led to me joining the Carpe Diem String Quartet in August of 2020! I couldn’t have predicted that I would follow in my mother’s and grandfather’s footsteps. And, I’m afraid it’s a bit too soon to know if the family legacy will continue in the generations after me…

“There’s been a string quartet player in the Iglitzin family since 1945!” - Alan Iglitzin