Chiara Quartet
Chiara String Quartet announces three all-Beethoven concerts in New York
February 04, 2010
"truly breathtaking" – The Washington Post
PS 321 Neighborhood Concerts:
Thursday, February 4 at 7pm
180 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn
Tickets: $15 at www.PS321.org after January 11
Just Strings concert series:
Friday, February 5 at 8pm
Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church
152 West 66th Street, Manhattan
CANCELED! Saturday, February 6 at 8pm CANCELED!
Jamaica Performing Arts Center
153-10 Jamaica Avenue, Queens
Sunday, February 7 at 4pm
Union Church of Bay Ridge
80th Street and Ridge Blvd., Brooklyn
Tickets for Just Strings: $20 at the door, reservations at 212.799.5080
Program for Just Strings concerts: Beethoven's String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3; String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132; and String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3
Chiara Quartet online: www.chiaraquartet.com
New York, NY — The Chiara String Quartet (Rebecca Fischer and Julie Yoon, violins; Jonah Sirota, viola; and Gregory Beaver, cello) will perform three all-Beethoven concerts in New York in February 2010. The concert previously scheduled for Saturday, February 6 at 8pm at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Queens (152-10 Jamaica Avenue) has been canceled. The Chiara will perform two concerts as part of the new Just Strings concert series, dedicated to presenting America's finest quartets in acoustically pleasing settings in New York on Friday, February 5 at 8pm at the Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church in Manhattan (152 West 66th Street); and on Sunday, February 7 at 4pm at Union Church of Bay Ridge in Brooklyn (80th Street and Ridge Blvd.). The Chiara's Just Strings program includes Beethoven's String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3; String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132; and String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3.
In addition to the concerts presented by Just Strings, the Chiara Quartet will also perform as part of pianist Simone Dinnerstein's PS 321 Neighborhood Concerts series on Thursday, February 4 at 7pm in the PS 321 Auditorium (180 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn). Ms. Dinnerstein founded this season at the Brooklyn public school her son attends and where her husband teaches. The concerts, which feature musicians Ms. Dinnerstein has collaborated with during her career, are open to the public and raise funds for the school's Parent Teacher Association. The musicians performing donate their time and talent to the program. The Chiara Quartet's program will include excerpts from the Beethoven string quartets they will perform later in the week. Simone Dinnerstein and members of the Chiara Quartet met while students at the Tanglewood Music Center, and have performed together frequently over the years.
The 2009-2010 season is the first year of the Chiara Quartet's two-year Beethoven cycle, during which they will perform all of Beethoven's string quartets at Harvard University where they are the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence; in Northampton, MA as part of the Music in Deerfield Series; and at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where they have been in residence since 2005.
During each concert, the Chiara offers a work from the early, middle, and late periods of Beethoven's life. "The energy, intensity, and intimacy of the string quartet life are encapsulated in these sixteen works. As performers, we relish the challenges Beethoven gives us while rehearsing, the joys of connection in performance … the never-ending work to be done," said Rebecca Fischer. "Our repertoire is endowed with great works, however, no other composer wrote so often, so well, and so differently for this medium during key phases in his life."
Playing "Chamber Music in Any Chamber," the Chiara Quartet reaches from the concert hall into clubs, bars and galleries, expanding the places to hear live classical music while returning chamber music to its roots in intimate spaces. Described by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as "vastly talented, vastly resourceful, and vastly committed to the music of their time," the Chiara is also continually finding new meaning within pieces from the well-established quartet canon. Their performances have been described as "luminous," "searing," (New York Times) "soulful," "biting," and possessing a "potent collective force" (Strings Magazine).
More about the Chiara String Quartet: The Chiara Quartet are Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University, in addition to their ongoing artist residency at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Awarded the Guarneri Quartet Residency Award for artistic excellence by www.facebook.com/chiarastringquartetChamber Music America, the Quartet's other honors include a top prize at the Paolo Borciani International Competition, winning the Astral Artistic Services National Audition, and winning First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
Alongside performances in major concert halls such as Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, and Harris Hall at the Aspen Music Festival, the Chiara devotes a portion of its performance season to concerts in non-classical venues including Galapagos Art Space in New York, The Tractor Tavern in Seattle, Avant Garden in Houston, and the Hideout in Chicago, among many others. Recent highlights of the Chiara Quartet's international performances include the American Academy in Rome, a critically-acclaimed eight-city tour of Sweden with clarinetist Håkan Rosengren, and a performance of Steve Reich's Different Trains in Munich at the storied Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.
The 2009-10 season is the first year in the Chiara Quartet's two-year Beethoven cycle, during which they will perform all sixteen of Beethoven's string quartets. In keeping with their commitment to bring classical music to uncommon places, the quartet will perform "Beethoven in Bars" at clubs throughout the country, featuring Beethoven's music with new works by young composers Thierry Tidrow, Lauren Loiacono and Matthew Ricketts. The Chiara Quartet will also make its debut at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.
Recent collaborators of the Chiara Quartet include Joel Krosnick, Roger Tapping, Todd Palmer, Simone Dinnerstein, Norman Fischer, and Paul Katz, as well as members of the Orion, Ying, Cavani, and Pacifica Quartets. The ensemble has premiered works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Jefferson Friedman, Michael Wittgraf, Randall Snyder, and Nico Muhly, among others.
The Chiara discography includes the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets with Håkan Rosengren for SMS Classical, and the world premiere recordings of Robert Sirota's Triptych and Gabriela Lena Frank's Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout for the Quartet's own New Voice Singles label. In 2007 the Chiara recorded Jefferson Friedman's Second and Third Quartets, and they are currently at work recording the complete string quartets of Brahms for SMS Classical.
The Chiara trained and taught at The Juilliard School, mentoring for two years with the Juilliard Quartet, as recipients of the Lisa Arnhold Quartet Residency from 2003-2005.
More information about the Chiara Quartet can be found online at www.chiaraquartet.net, on MySpace at www.myspace.com/chiarastringquartet and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/chiarastringquartet.
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