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The four young men from Grand Rapids were faced with an almost impossible task. In order to compete for the prestigious Naumberg Chamber Music Award, the New World String Quartet had to play selections from the works of five very dissimilar composers -Haydn, Dvorak, Bartok, Mozart, and Stravinsky-in 30 minutes. The performers were allowed 15 seconds to pull themselves together between the pieces . . . and, after the half hour was over, they had to play a "surprise" piece selected by the judges. But the quartet managed the task with aplomb, and performed so well that they won first place!

How did the group manage to deal with the tension of competition? Violinist Yosef Yankelev has the answer: "Recently we began to dedicate about half an hour, before our daily rehearsals, to yogic practices. The exercise has brought us closer together spiritually, and made us freer and more relaxed with one another as well. We also huddle and do yogic breathing before every concert."

Yankelev-whose schooling included stops in Lithuania, Jerusalem, and the Juilliard School in New York-is a strict vegetarian as well as an initiated disciple of Yogi Amrit Desai. Part of that spiritual path-followed by both Yankelev and his wife-involves a weekly 36hour fast. And four times a year, at the change of seasons, the couple fasts for three full days.

While the remaining members of the quartetYuri Vasilaki, William Patterson, and Ross Harbaugh-do not share Yankelev's total dedication to yoga, the New World String Quartet did celebrate its 1979 Naumberg victory by presenting a benefit concert for the Kripalu Yoga Foundation.-PH.

IN BRIEF . . .


Actress LINDA KELSEY (who plays the reporter Billie Newman on The Lou Grant Show ) and her carpenter husband are planning to build a solar house on Nantucket .... RUSSELL PETERSON, president of the National Audubon Society and a member of the federal commission investigating Three Mile Island, urges that "we should do all we can to make the nuclear fission era as short as possible " . . . . BILL SHURCLIFF's new book is the self-published Superinsulated Houses and Double-Envelope Homes. For more information, see Access on page 166 of this issue of MOTHER .... And here's one we missed last fall: ROBERT HUNTER's book, Warriors of the Rainbow: A Chronicle of the Greenpeace Movement (published at $13.95 hard cover, $7.95 paper by Holt, Rinehart & Winston, and available at many good bookstores).—PH.

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