Chiara String Quartet Set for Cooperstown Festival, 10/4

On Sunday, October 4 at 4 pm, the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival presents a special concert for fall, with the Chiara String Quartet performing all three of the Brahms string quartets from memory.

While soloist often memorize works, it's rare among string quartets. "This concert is the musical equivalent of performing on a high wire without a net," explains Festival artistic director Linda Chesis, who will perform Arthur Foote's Night Piece and Scherzo with the quartet.

Of the process, the Chiara's cellist Gregory Beaver says, "Each player must find a way to know the music inside and out-it has brought us much closer together in our music-making."

Renowned for bringing fresh excitement to traditional string quartet repertoire, the Chiara String Quartet (Rebecca Fischer and Hyeyung Julie Yoon, violins; Jonah Sirota, viola; Gregory Beaver, cello) has established itself as one of America's most respected ensembles, lauded for its "highly virtuosic, edge-of-the-seat playing" (The Boston Globe) and "truly breathtaking" performances (The Washington Post). For the 2015-2016 season, the Chiara are the quartet-in-residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The Chiara is currently recording Barto?k by Heart, a 2-CD set featuring Barto?k's six string quartets, played entirely from memory, slated for release in 2016 on Azica. The quartet's latest album, Brahms by Heart, was released on Azica in March 2014. They recorded that album at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

The concert will be held Christ Episcopal Church, 46 River Street in Cooperstown, one block south of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This is the Chiara's third appearance at the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, having performed here in 2004 and 2007.

Tickets

Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for students. Purchase online, www.cooperstownmusicfest.org; by phone through Brown Paper Tickets, 800/838-3006, or at the door.

About the Festival

Flutist Linda Chesis started the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival with three events in 1999, and since then the Festival has offered the region more than 100 concerts, from classical to contemporary, jazz to bluegrass, cabaret to kids' concerts. The Festival has featured: Midori, Hank Jones, the Tokyo String Quartet, the American String Quartet, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Kurt Elling, Tim Fain, Bill Charlap, Hilary Kole, Simone Dinnerstein, Mark O'Connor, and many more.

The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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