SUNDAY, JAN. 19, 2025 at 3 P.M.
Borromeo String Quartet Concert & Conversation
The Eureka Chamber Music Series presents the Borromeo String Quartet, the trailblazing quartet-in-residence at The New England Conservatory of Music, on Saturday, January 18th at 7:30 p.m. at Calvary Lutheran Church in Eureka, and on Sunday, January 19th at 3:00 p.m. at The Lutheran Church of Arcata. The Saturday Mainstage Concert will feature String Quartet No. 20 in D Major by Mozart, the soul and funk infused “Dig the Say” by contemporary American composer Vijay Iyer, and Franz Schubert’s most famous quartet, String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, also known as the “Death and the Maiden” quartet. Sunday’s Concert & Conversation will feature the music of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius in a more casual setting, including time for conversation between the artists and audience.
Mainstage Concert tickets are $40 general and $10 for students. Concert and Conversation tickets are $20 general and $5 for students. Purchasing tickets in advance is recommended for this popular concert series, and there are no added fees or service charges when ordering tickets online. Please visit eurekachambermusic.org and follow the “purchase tickets” link. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door.
Each visionary performance of the Borromeo String Quartet strengthens and deepens its reputation as one of the most important ensembles of our time. Admired and sought after for both its fresh interpretations of the classical music canon and its championing of works by 20th and 21st century composers, the ensemble has been hailed by the Boston Globe for its “edge-of-the-seat performances.”
Inspiring audiences for more than 25 years, the Borromeo continues to be a pioneer in its use of technology, and has the trailblazing distinction of being the first string quartet to utilize laptop computers on the concert stage. Reading music this way helps push artistic boundaries, allowing the artists to perform solely from 4-part scores and composers’ manuscripts, a revealing and metamorphic experience which these dedicated musicians now teach to students around the world.
Passionate educators, the Borromeos encourage audiences of all ages to explore and listen to both traditional and contemporary repertoire in new ways. The ensemble uses multimedia tools such as video projection to share the often surprising creative process behind some works, or to use visuals and graphics to show the elaborate architecture behind others. This produces delightfully refreshing viewpoints and has been a springboard for its acclaimed young people’s programs. One such program is “Mathemusica,” which delves into the numerical relationships that underpin the sounds of music and show how musical syntax mirrors natural forms. “Classic Video” uses one movement of a quartet as the platform from which to teach computer drawing, video editing, animation, musical form and production processes to create a meaningful joining of music and visual art.
The BSQ has been ensemble-in-residence at the New England Conservatory and Taos School of Music, both for more than 25 years, and has, for over two decades, enjoyed a long-term relationship with Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where it continues to regularly appear. It is quartet-in-residence at the Heifetz International Music Institute, where first violinist Nicholas Kitchen is Artistic Director. The quartet was also in residence at, and has worked extensively as performers and educators with the Library of Congress (highlighting both its manuscripts and instrument collections) and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The ensemble joined the Emerson Quartet as the Hittman Ensembles in Residence at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and was recently in residence at Kansas University, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Colorado State University, where it regularly appears.
The Quartet has collaborated with some of this generation’s most important composers, including Gunther Schuller, John Cage, György Ligeti, Steve Reich, Aaron Jay Kernis, Osvaldo Golijov, Jennifer Higdon, Steve Mackey, John Harbison, Sebastian Currier, and Leon Kirchner, among many others; and has performed on major concert stages across the globe, including appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Incontri in Terra di Siena Chamber Music Festival in Tuscany, Kammermusik Basel in Switzerland, the Prague Spring Festival, and the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria.
The group recently premiered new works written for it by Sebastian Currier and Aaron Jay Kernis at recitals at Carnegie Hall, Shriver Concerts in Baltimore, and Montana’s Tippet Rise Art Center. The ensemble continues to perform violinist Nicholas Kitchen’s transcriptions of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and the Well-Tempered Clavier Book One, the latter of which the BSQ recently released an acclaimed premiere recording which hit the billboard charts.
The Borromeo Quartet has received numerous awards throughout its illustrious career, including Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and Martin E. Segal Award, and Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award. It was also a recipient of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and a prize-winner at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France.
Incorporated in 2019 as a non-profit after decades of private funding, the Eureka Chamber Music Series serves to enrich the cultural landscape of the north coast by bringing world-class musicians to Humboldt County and by ensuring that the mission of ECMS is community supported and sustainable. Public concerts presented in Eureka and Arcata, as well as county-wide educational outreach programs, are funded through the generosity of local businesses, individuals, and foundations, as well as by subscription and individual ticket sales.
DATES/TIMES
- Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025 : 3-4 p.m.
WHERE
PRICE
- Phone: 707-273-6975
- Email: admin@eurekachambermusic.org
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