“Four Rational People:” An Emerson Quartet Documentary Screening

“When I listen to a string quartet, it makes me feel as if I am eavesdropping on a conversation between four rational people.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

THE EXPERIENCE
Join Chamber Music Northwest for a special screening of the documentary Four Rational People, featuring Emerson String Quartet member and cellist Paul Watkins, who will be in attendance and take part in a post-film discussion with Soovin Kim, Artistic Director of Chamber Music Northwest.

ON SCREEN: Four Rational People
2025. Directed by Tristan Cook. Runtime: 104 minutes.
Goethe once said that a string quartet is like “a conversation between Four Rational People,” and for the members of the Emerson String Quartet, that conversation is coming to a bittersweet ending as they embark on their final season of a fifty-year history that includes nine Grammy awards and thousands of concerts.

Interweaving vivid memories of the Emerson Quartet’s past with delicate observations of life on the road in the weeks and days before disbanding, Four Rational People explores the group’s difficult decision to walk away from the things that they cherish most in life: the music they play and the friends they hold dear. At once a frank examination of the tyranny of aging and a cri de cœur to pass the torch to a new generation of artists, Four Rational People culminates with one final Emerson Quartet performance for the ages, leaving all to ponder what happens to us after the final curtain.

TICKETS HERE