When Fred Sherry was a student at Juilliard he began performing with Luciano Berio's ensemble. They recorded Chemins II for viola and nine instruments and Chemins III, viola solo, 9 instruments and orchestra (the London Symphony Orchestra). Walter Trampler was the soloist for this recording which was released in 1970.
Fred also recorded Folk Songs with Cathy Berbarian in 1969:
Fred Sherry recollects:
When I was a student at Juilliard, I was a member of Luciano Berio’s group the Juilliard Ensemble. The group toured in Europe and played Berio's music along with works by Stravinsky, Webern, Pousseur, Busotti, Maderna, Bolcom and others. We rehearsed often and just when we thought we were playing fine and things were going well, Luciano would command us to "get nervous! get nervous!" There was an incident that was crucial to me. We were playing a piece of Berio’s called Differences for five instruments and tape in a big production for the ORTF in the south of France. The tape was going, the audience was there, and then, in the middle of the piece, I broke my D string. It is a funny string to break because it’s the second string, and it is harder to compensate; after all, a cellist is used to the A string breaking; when that happens, you just put everything on the D string, and make the best of it. But, in this case, you have to skip over a string. I remember motioning to Luciano: “My string is broken! I've got to stop! I've got to change my string!” And he looked at me with this look: "I DON’T GIVE A DAMN! DON'T STOP!" Many composers share this attitude: the most important thing is for the music to unfold at a certain rate despite any mistakes that may occur - flow is what matters.
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