The Berofsky family—from left, Aaron, Sebastian, Kathryn Votapek, and Charles—perform together as the Berofsky Piano Quartet. “I love playing with my family,” says Sebastian. “It’s like we’re speaking the same language.” | Peter Smith
“We’re probably the only people who visited the Grand Canyon with a cello.”
Kathryn Votapek is recalling her family’s summer vacation out west, a rare occurrence for a family of musicians whose busy schedules don’t often allow for pleasure trips.
“Well, we didn’t bring it in the Grand Canyon,” stresses her husband, Aaron Berofsky. The cello in question belongs to their son Sebastian (twenty-three), who had just wrapped up a festival at the Taos School of Music. Along with Sebastian’s brother, Charles (twenty-six)—fresh from earning a post-master’s at the Munich Conservatory—the family rented a van and spent a carefree week touring the western national parks, cello in tow, but otherwise free from commitments.
Just a few weeks later, both sons were installed at Juilliard, with Sebastian pursuing a master’s in cello performance and Charles beginning doctoral studies for piano.
Before building successful careers as soloists and chamber musicians, Aaron and Kathryn were also students at the prestigious school. Since then, they have performed widely around the world, recorded for prominent classical labels like Koch International and Sony, and taught at top music programs including Chautauqua, Meadowmount, and Oberlin. Now, both are string professors at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Aaron is also the longtime concertmaster of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and Kathryn the associate concertmaster.
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When their schedules allow it, the family performs together as the Berofsky Piano Quartet. “They humor us,” jokes Kathryn about her children’s involvement. She would know—she also plays in a trio with her father and brother.
The idea of assembling a family ensemble had crossed the couple’s minds a few times when the boys were younger. “Now,” Aaron laughs, “they’re so good and they’re living in New York … We’re like, ‘Will you please come back?’ ”
For Sebastian, it’s a pleasure. “I love playing with my family,” he says. “I feel like we understand each other so well, both personally and musically.” He credits shared genes and the consistent presence of music around the house. “It’s like we’re speaking the same language.”
Charles is equally enthusiastic. “We really want to do more of it in the future, especially now that we’re both relatively close to home.”
The brothers grew up on Ann Arbor’s northeast side and graduated from Huron High. Afterward, Charles double-majored in composition and piano performance at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, then earned his master’s from the New England Conservatory. Sebastian completed his bachelor’s at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston. They now share an apartment in Manhattan.
“They’re just really good friends,” says Aaron. “And I can’t really think of another pianist and cellist right now that I’d rather play with.” Kathryn agrees. “How many people can play with their kids or get along musically?”
Kathryn and Aaron’s own musical partnership began just after they left New York. Independent of each other, they were offered jobs with the Chester String Quartet, an ambitious young ensemble then in residence at Indiana University South Bend. “Aaron and I only knew each other casually at Juilliard,” says Kathryn. “He was studying with the famous violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay, and I was studying with the first violinist and founder of the Juilliard String Quartet, Robert Mann.”
“We only started dating in the Chester Quartet,” Kathryn explains, “and even then, it wasn’t right away. I think part of the attraction was that we admired each other’s playing and really loved playing together, which we still do.”
Having lived his whole life on the East Coast, Aaron was new to the Midwest, but for Kathryn it was familiar ground. Raised in East Lansing, she completed her undergrad at IU’s Bloomington campus before getting her master’s at Juilliard. She laughs, “I’ve just been going in a circle between these three states!”
When she was in high school, Kathryn’s future mentor, Robert Mann, brought the Juilliard Quartet to Michigan State University for what became an annual residency. A feather in the cap of MSU’s music program, the quartet’s performances and workshops were revelatory for the young violinist. Although she’d been immersed in music from a young age—both parents were classical pianists—she credits these residencies with sparking her love for chamber music.
Music may have been the Votapek family business, but Aaron came to it a little more indirectly. Raised in Westchester, Connecticut, he fondly describes his parents as “a little hippie-ish” and “deeply supportive” of the arts. His father taught philosophy at Columbia University and his mother had degrees in music and dance, but the violin was Aaron’s own obsession. “I was eleven when I started precollege at Juilliard, then went to do my last three years of high school at [University of North Carolina] School of the Arts.” Then it was back to Juilliard. “I never thought I’d leave until the quartet came up.”
Their years in South Bend marked the start of Aaron and Kathryn’s professional lives as well as their romance. “We started dating in 1993 and got married in 1996,” says Kathryn. In 2002, when Aaron was offered a violin faculty position at U-M, the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. They already had one son and another on the way.
In Ann Arbor, they found an ideal place to base their music careers and raise a family. It may be a smaller Midwestern market, but the city’s reputation, especially in classical music, carries a lot of weight. “There is so much support in this community for the arts,” says Kathryn. “With the University Musical Society being here, people are used to having first-class concerts all the time.”
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“It’s true,” adds Aaron. “We play wherever people take us: New York, Los Angeles, Europe. But, it feels like Ann Arbor is as enthusiastic and big a crowd for classical music as anywhere we’ve been.”
As for the family’s legacy, Kathryn is adamant they did not push their sons into music. “We told them you can do anything you want,” she stresses, “but here they are, both musicians.” As Charles remembers it, “for them, it was important that we learn classical music as children, regardless of whether or not we would go into it professionally down the road.” He adds, “they were very, very nurturing to us. Of course, when we were kids, we didn’t like it when our mom made us practice! But it was all balanced with a very loving, healthy childhood.”
The Berofsky Piano Quartet performs at Britton Recital Hall on North Campus, Saturday, October 10 at 8 p.m.