More Information About Contrasts Quartet

Website

http://livelyarts.stanford.edu/event.php?code=CONT

Description

Contrasts Quartet, the celebrated ensemble of clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, presents a program of 20th-century works inspired by folk music. The ensemble, whose members include Erin Keefe (violin), Evelyne Luest (piano), Ayako Oshima (clarinet), and Caroline Stinson (cello), performs a mix of duo, trio, and quartet repertoire.

Their program will feature works by Hungarian composers Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók—the former’s Duo for violin and cello (1914), informed by Magyar folk music; and the latter’s virtuosic and playful Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano (1938), composed for the jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. Also featured are Aaron Jay Kernis’s Ballad for Cello and Piano (2004) and Peter Schickele’s Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano (1982).

The performance will be preceded by a short Opening Act curated by Stanford student Broer Otis. The folk component of the Contrasts Quartet’s program energized Otis’s thinking about his opening act and he is inviting three students who are folk-directed, multiinstrumentalists (viola/mandolin/guitar/singer/banjo, etc) to collaborate in a performance of each other’s work. Opening Acts is a new initiative launched by Lively Arts this season to involve Stanford students in the performing arts both onstage and behind the scenes.

Acclaimed for their exhilarating performances of old and new repertoire, the Contrasts Quartet chose its name to describe the contrasting timbres of their instruments, as well as the variety of their repertoire. The ensemble performs a mix of duos, trios, and quartets, presenting a broad -Morerange of programs from the Baroque through today’s repertoire. The Contrasts Quartet has worked with many living composers and has commissioned and premiered works of Aaron Jay Kernis, Michael Torke, Ned Rorem, Scott Johnson, and Derek Bermel, among others. Their recent recording of Ned Rorem’s Nine Episodes for Four Players was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award.

The quartet has been invited to perform in Europe and across the United States. Concert appearances have included performances at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theatre, and Symphony Space, and live appearances on New York’s WNYC Radio and the nationally syndicated St. Paul Sunday radio program. Their concert tours have taken them from San Francisco to Spain. The ensemble has also been invited to participate in many residencies, including the Norfolk Summer Festival in Connecticut; the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida; Music in the Park Series in St. Paul, Minnesota; Detroit Pro Musica; Penn State/Erie; Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire; Bowdoin College in Maine; and the Fitchburg Public Schools and Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts.

The group, on the Phoenix label, has recorded a CD of the works of Aaron Jay Kernis, all premiere recordings, and a CD of the works of Ned Rorem. The ensemble has been honored with awards and grants from the American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, the Fromm Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and Chamber Music America.

Program:
Zoltán Kodály: Duo for violin and cello (1914)
Béla Bartók: Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano (1938)
Aaron Jay Kernis: Ballad for Cello and Piano (2004)
Peter Schickele: Quartet for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1982)

About the Ticket Supplier: Stanford Lively Arts

Stanford Lively Arts curates experiences that engage artists' and audiences' imagination, creativity, and sense of adventure. Founded in 1969 at Stanford University, Lively Arts produces and presents music, theater, dance, spoken word, and multi-media events. Lively Arts places a special focus on innovation and risk-taking, and through commissions and premieres is an incubator and destination for new work. Stanford Lively Arts plays a leading and collaborative role in the university's thriving vision of a sustained culture of creativity--one in which the arts integrate with the academic disciplines, flourish as a vital part of campus and community life, and inspire new perspectives on our lives and culture.