Emerson String Quartet to Open Segerstrom's Chamber Music Series, 10/22

Marking their 19th visit to Segerstrom Center for the Arts, audience favorite Emerson String Quartet returns to Samueli Theater on Thursday, October 22 at 8 p.m. in a program featuring Haydn's dazzling String Quartet in D minor "Fifths," Bartok's String Quartet No. 4 and the rarely performed String Quartet No. 15 in G major by Schubert.

The Emerson String Quartet includes Eugene Drucker, violin; Philip Setzer, violin; Lawrence Dutton, viola and Paul Watkins, cello. A free Preview Talk with musicologist and author Herbert Glass will take place at 7:15 p.m. in Samueli Theater.

Tickets for Emerson String Quartet are available now by subscribing to the 2015 - 2016 Chamber Music Series. Single tickets, starting at $29, will go on sale Sunday, September 27 at 10 a.m. PST and will be available online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. The TTY number is (714) 556-2746.

Segerstrom Center's 2015 - 2016 Chamber Music Series will also welcome the Fauré Quartet, Dilijan Chamber Players, Dover Quartet and St. Lawrence String Quartet.

The Emerson String Quartet has an unparalleled list of achievements over three decades: more than thirty acclaimed recordings, nine Grammys (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, Musical America's "Ensemble of the Year" and collaborations with many of the greatest artists of our time.

The arrival of Paul Watkins in 2013 has had a profound effect on the Emerson Quartet. Watkins, a distinguished soloist, award-winning conductor and devoted chamber musician, joined the ensemble in its 37th season, and his dedication and enthusiasm have infused the Quartet with a warm, rich tone and a palpable joy in the collaborative process. The reconfigured group has been greeted with impressive accolades.

The Quartet's summer season consists of more than 85 quartet performances, mingled with the Quartet members' individual artistic commitments, the Emerson plays extensively throughout North America. Their engagements include BBC Proms and the Ravinia, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chamber Music Northwest, Evian, Berlin, Great Lakes, Norfolk, Cape Cod and Mostly Mozart festivals. Season highlights include collaborations with soprano Barbara Hannigan for Berg's Lyric Suite at the Berlin Festival, with violist Roberto Diaz for Mendelssohn's Viola Quintet at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center and with the Calidore String Quartet for the Mendelssohn Octet at Princeton University. The Emerson also performs two concerts at London's Wigmore Hall in November and will appear at the second Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Los Angeles's Walt Disney Concert Hall in May 2016.

Multiple tours of Europe comprise dates in Denmark, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Austria, Hungary and the United Kingdom; they also visit Moscow, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul. The Emerson will also continue its series at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC for its 37th season, and will be presented by Lincoln Center's "Great Performers" in a three-part series of late Haydn and early Beethoven string quartets in April and May of 2016.

The Emerson's 2015-16 season marks the release of a disc with world-renowned soprano Renée Fleming on the Decca/Universal label, featuring Viennese music written in the 1920s and '30s: Berg's Lyric Suite (including an alternate version of the last movement for soprano and quartet), Egon Wellesz's "Sonnets" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Eric Zeisl's "Komm, su?sser Tod" ("Come, sweet Death").

Formed in 1976 and based in New York City, the Emerson was one of the first quartets formed with two violinists alternating in the first chair position. In 2002, the Quartet began to stand for most of its concerts, with the cellist seated on a riser. The Emerson Quartet, which took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, is Quartet-in-Residence at Stony Brook University. In January 2015, the Quartet received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America's highest honor, in recognition of its significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is unique as both an acclaimed arts institution and as a multi-disciplinary cultural campus. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence on all of its stages, offering unsurpassed experiences, and engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and a diverse array of inspiring programs.

Previously called the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Center is Orange County's largest non-profit arts organization and owns and operates the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall and intimate 250-seat Judy Morr Theater, which opened in 1986, and the 2,000-seat Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which opened in 2006 and also houses the 500-seat Samueli Theater, the studio performance space and Boeing Education Lab. A spacious arts plaza anchors Segerstrom Center for the Arts and is home to numerous free performances throughout the year as part of Segerstrom Center for the Arts' ongoing Free for All series. The American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School at Segerstrom Center opens in 2015. The Center presents a broad range of programming for audiences of all ages, including international ballet and dance, national tours of top Broadway shows, intimate performances of jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family-friendly programming, free performances open to the public from outdoor movie screenings to dancing on the plaza and many other special events. The Center's arts-in-education programs are designed to inspire young people through the arts and reach hundreds of thousands of students each year.

In addition to the presenting and producing institution Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the 14-acre campus also embraces the facilities of two independent acclaimed organizations: Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory and a site designated as the future home of the Orange County Museum of Art.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is also proud to serve as the artistic home to three of the region's major performing arts organizations: Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale, who contribute greatly to the artistic life of the region with annual seasons at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

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