SATURDAY, OCT. 17 at 7:30 P.M.
Ying Quartet Mainstage Concert
The new Eureka Chamber Music Series season opens in October with the legendary Ying Quartet, the Grammy Award-winning string quartet-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. The formal Mainstage Concert will take place on Saturday, October 17th at 7:30 p.m. at Calvary Lutheran Church in Eureka. Repertoire for the evening will include Johannes Brahms’ “String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 51,” and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K. 515,” with ECMS artistic director Tom Stone rounding out the quintet on the viola. Also on the program will be three new works composed by the celebrated American jazz pianist and composer Billy Childs: “Variation on a Rondo,” “Oscuro,” and “Agitato.”
On the following afternoon, the Ying Quartet will perform a more casual Concert and Conversation on Sunday, October 18th at 3:00 p.m. at The Lutheran Church of Arcata, featuring Benjamin Britten’s “String Quartet No. 2 in C major, Op. 36,” written in 1945, the same year that the composer premiered his famous opera “Peter Grimes.” The hour-long event will include an insightful dialogue between the artists and the audience, moderated as always by Tom Stone.
Season Tickets for the Eureka Chamber Music Series are on sale now and available for purchase through mid-October. Single concert tickets are also on sale now, and any remaining tickets will be sold at the door before each concert. Mainstage Concert tickets are $40 general and $10 for students. Concert and Conversation tickets are $20 general and $5 for students. The price of season tickets includes a substantial discount compared to single ticket prices. As always, purchasing tickets in advance is recommended for this long-established concert series. Please visit eurekachambermusic.org for additional information, and follow the “get tickets” link to buy concert tickets online with no fees.
The Ying Quartet, featuring violinists Robin Scott and Janet Ying, violist Phillip Ying, and cellist David Ying, occupies a position of unique prominence in the classical music realm, combining brilliantly communicative performances with a fearlessly imaginative view of chamber music in today’s world. Now in its third decade, the Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of the highest musical qualifications. The Quartet’s performances regularly take place in many of the world’s most important concert halls; at the same time, the Ying’s belief that concert music can also be a meaningful part of everyday life has drawn the foursome to perform in settings as diverse as the workplace, schools, juvenile prisons, and the White House.
The Ying Quartet first came to professional prominence in the early 1990s as the first recipient of an NEA Rural Residence Grant, which led to it serving as the resident quartet of Jesup, Iowa, a farm town of 2,000 people. Playing before audiences of six to six hundred in homes, schools, churches, and banks, the Quartet had its first opportunities to use music and creative endeavor to help build community and authentic human connection. The Quartet considers its time in Jesup the foundation of its present musical life and goals.
The Ying’s ongoing LifeMusic commissioning project, created in response to its commitment to expanding the rich string quartet repertoire, has already achieved an impressive history. Supported by the Institute for American Music, the Ying Quartet commissions both established and emerging composers to create music that reflects contemporary American life.
Recent works include Billy Childs’ Awakening; Lera Auerbach’s Sylvia’s Diary; Lowell Liebermann’s String Quartet No. 3, To the Victims of War; Sebastian Currier’s Next Atlantis; and John Novacek’s Three Rags for String Quartet. In August 2016, the Ying Quartet released a new Schumann and Beethoven recording on the Sono Luminus label with renowned cellist Zuill Bailey. In that season the five toured with the Schumann Cello Concerto transcribed for cello and string quartet along with Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata,” also reimagined for cello quintet.
The Ying Quartet’s numerous other recordings reflect many of the group’s wide-ranging musical interests and have generated consistent, enthusiastic acclaim. The group’s CD “American Anthem,” heralding the music of Randall Thompson, Samuel Barber, and Howard Hanson, was released in 2013 to rave reviews; its 2007 Telarc release of the three Tchaikovsky quartets and the “Souvenir de Florence,” with James Dunham and Paul Katz, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category.
As longtime quartet-in-residence at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, the Ying Quartet teaches in the string department and leads a rigorous, sequentially designed chamber music program. One cornerstone of chamber music activity at Eastman is the noted “Music for All” program, in which all students curate opportunities to perform in community settings beyond the concert hall. The Quartet is also the ensemble-in-residence at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and from 2001-2008, the members of the Ying Quartet were the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University.
The original quartet, organized at Eastman in 1988, included four Ying siblings, Timothy, Janet, Phillip, and David. Timothy later departed the ensemble, and Robin Scott has been their first violinist since 2015.
DATES/TIMES
- Saturday, Oct. 17 : 7:30-9:30 p.m.
WHERE
PRICE
- Phone: 707-273-6975
- Email: admin@eurekachambermusic.org
- Web site
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