20 30 UND
ER
WALKING LIFE
“I
was persuaded by two friends at Rice to try a half-marathon,” remembered Arindam Sarkar ’11 of his undergraduate days. Enjoying the camaraderie and physical benefits of running, he stuck with his new hobby through medical school at Baylor College of Medicine. When he became a volunteer for United in Stride, an organization that provides marathon trainers for people who are blind or visually impaired, he realized that combining his passion for service and exercise was key to his own sense of fulfillment. Most recently, Sarkar started a Walk With a Doc program at T.C. Jester Park, close to the Northwest Health Center where he’s doing his residency in family and community medicine. The first Saturday of each month, Sarkar and his colleagues offer a quick wellness lecture and join patients and friends for a 2-mile walk. Participants ask medical questions ranging from eating habits to complex medical concerns. “Not only am I doing something that helps me to be fulfilled and healthy, but I can also see how this work is making an impact on the lives of others.” After residency, Sarkar plans on continuing as a primary care physician in Houston. His work with the Harris Health System has afforded him a broad and comprehensive patient base, which has helped him to appreciate the diversity of Houston. “I’m incredibly enthusiastic about the process of listening to patients talk about their lives and needs,” Sarkar explained.
36
R i c e M a g a z i n e | Fa l l 2 0 1 8
SOUND MASTERS
T
he world sat up and took notice of the four chamber music upstarts who swept the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition. The Dover Quartet would, in short order, go on to win the Avery Fisher Career Grant and be named a Cleveland Quartet Award winner. But before they were any of those things, they were two pairs of undergraduates at the Curtis Institute of Music. Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, the quartet’s violist, and Camden Shaw, its cellist, met during their first week at Curtis. Violinists Bryan Lee and Joel Link had known each other since they were 13. The group came together in 2008, and they all earned master’s degrees at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music in 2013. The group averages about 130 concerts every year. During the 2018–2019 concert season, they are playing in Portland, San Francisco and Hong Kong, among dozens of other cities. (Next spring, they’ll be back on campus with a program called “Love Stories,” featuring works by Anton Webern, Alban Berg and Robert Schumann.) When we talked to them for this story, they were huddled around Shaw’s cellphone in a hotel room in Norway. “People assume [the life of a musician] is glamorous and amazing,” laughed Pajaro-van de Stadt. “It’s always amazing to be doing what you love, but a lot of days, it involves brutally early mornings and crossing through three or four time zones, then rehearsing and playing. But if you want to sustain this career, you can’t be in one place.” The group is in agreement that they love the intimacy that comes from being a quartet, both as fellow musicians and for the bonds audiences can create with them and the music they play. There’s an energy created that can be both powerful and up close in a way that is different from symphonies and selections scored for much larger groups. The Dover Quartet has become known for its precision and passion. They’ve been called a “must-hear” by The Washington Post and “the young American string quartet of the moment” by The New Yorker. If it seems a lot to take in from the outside, this ensemble takes it in stride, knowing that they’re doing all they ever wanted to do: play music.