Dover Quartet to Open Texas Performing Arts' 2017-18 Season

Texas Performing Arts' Essential Series presents Dover Quartet - featuring Joel Link, violin, Bryan Lee, violin, Milena Pajaro-van De Stadt, viola, and Camden Shaw, cello - on Monday, September 18, 2017, 8:00 p.m. at the Mccullough Theatre.

Tickets at Texasperformingarts.org.

Presented in Partnership with the Butler School of Music Brass Studio and KMFA-FM.

PROGRAM:

Joy, Escape, Outlet, Gift
Mendelssohn: Four Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 81
Laks: Quartet No. 3

Victor Ullmann: Quartet No. 3
Schumann: Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 41, No. 2

The Dover Quartet catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff Competition. Recently named the Cleveland Quartet Award winner, and awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Dover has become one of the most in demand ensembles in the world. The Quartet's rise from up-and-coming young ensemble to occupying a spot at the top of their field has been "practically meteoric" (Strings). With its burnished warmth, incisive rhythms, and natural phrasing, the Quartet's distinctive sound has helped confirm its status as "the young American string quartet of the moment" (The New Yorker). The Quartet serves as the quartet-in-residence for the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.

The program, Joy, Escape, Outlet, Gift, explores the most important functions of music to humans: its ability to transport us, its offer of pure enjoyment, and its capacity to say what words by themselves cannot. Mendelssohn's music is an example of the simplest reason we all love music so much, for the sheer delight we discover in its beauty and emotional richness. On the other side of the spectrum, we find Simon Laks and Viktor Ullmann, who were both victims of concentration camps; Laks wrote his third quartet after the liberation of the concentration camps (he spent most of his time in Auschwitz). This music, based on his native Polish themes, transported him to the past and created vivid memories of life before the war. Ullmann wrote his Quartet No. 3 while imprisoned in Theresienstadt, and used music as an escape from his reality. The incredible ending of the quartet is one of triumph and hope. He wrote music which transported him to another world other than the one he lived in. Finally, one of the most wonderful examples of music's ability to speak to us more deeply than words, Schumann's Quartet No. 2, part of a birthday gift to his beloved wife Clara, is a declaration of love and the deepest intimate feelings, which are so much more descriptive through the music. This program allows us to examine the crucial importance of music in every aspect of our lives.

In addition to $10 tickets for primary, secondary, and college students, Texas Performing Arts is now offering a limited number of $12 tickets to active and retired military personnel for all 2016-2017 Essential Series performances (excludes Broadway and special engagements). A military ID is required. For a schedule of upcoming 2016-2017 season performances, visit www.TexasPerformingArts.org.

Fun facts about the Quartet: The Quartet was the first ever Quartet-in-Residence for the Curtis Institute of Music. The Quartet won the Grand Prize and all three Special Prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition. The Quartet is an active member of Music for Food, an initiative to help musicians fight hunger in their home communities. Their debut album was named one of the top classical albums of 2016 by Apple Music. The Quartet is the faculty Quartet-in-Residence at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music.

For more information on this performance, click here.

Pictured: Dover Quartet. Photo by Carlin Ma.

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