Princeton Symphony Orchestra Launches Season with Seven World Premieres, 10/4

Princeton, NJ - The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) four-concert 2015-2016 Chamber Series opens Sunday, October 4 at 4:30 pm with the Signum Quartet performing seven #quartweet premieres written by PSO composer friends Derek Bermel, Sebastian Currier, Julian Grant, Jing Jing Luo, Steven Mackey, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. The group's #quartweet project explores the integration of Twitter formatting with composer creativity, encouraging composers worldwide of all ages and experience levels to create condensed works of 140 notes or less. The concert, which also features full-length works by Beethoven and Janá?ek, and #quartweet precursors by Bach and Webern, will take place at the Institute for Advanced Study's Wolfensohn Hall. The chamber concert serves as the official public launch of the quartet's worldwide #quartweet tour.

The Signum Quartet hails from Germany, and includes members Mary Ellen Woodside, violin 1 (guest), Annette Walther, violin 2, Xandi van Dijk, viola, and Thomas Schmitz, cello. The Signum Quartet has made its mark on the international quartet scene and has established itself as one of the most distinguished ensembles of its generation. It has won awards at the German Music Competition, Premio Paolo Borciani, and London International String Quartet Competition, and has been accorded intensive support as BBC New Generation Artists. The quartet has performed at the Hamburg Laeiszhalle, the Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, the Luxemburg Philharmonie, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Boston Harvard Musical Association, as well as at the Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau and Schwetzingen Music Festivals, and at the BBC Proms.

Regular collaborations with contemporary composers are an important aspect of the Signum Quartet's artistic work. Violist Xandi van Dijk voices this in respect to the #quartweet project, "We would love to see composers in creative engagement with a new and evolving form. Ultimately we hope to see the @SignumQuartet #quartweet platform develop to a place where musicians can connect and communicate with each other and dialogue with each others' works." The #quartweet project is open to any and all composers. Completed scores of 140 notes or less can be tweeted to the group's Twitter handle @SignumQuartet with the hashtag #quartweet.

Workshops with student composers at universities and conservatories as well as elementary, middle, and high schools are an essential part of the #quartweet project. While in Princeton, the group is participating in a residency for PSO BRAVO!, the PSO's education program, with support from the Lawrence Township Public Schools. Working with teaching artist and violist Jessica Meyer, Signum Quartet will encourage third graders to create their own #quartweets for public performance at the #quartweet Preview Concert to be held at Lawrence High School on Thursday, October 1.

Additional concerts in the Princeton Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series include the The "Trout" Quintet on December 6; PSO violinist Alexander Chaleff with poet Alexandra Zelman-Doring on January 24; and the violin and harp duo of Marc Uys and Jacqueline Kerrod on March 20.

Through a special, ongoing partnership with the Institute, these concerts are free and open to the public on select Sundays at 4:30 pm via advanced, ticketed reservations at princetonsymphony.org, three weeks prior to each concert. Most concerts can also be taken in at no charge at The Monroe Public Library the following Monday. In addition to the public concerts listed below, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series includes performances for residents of the Stonebridge at Montgomery and Princeton Windrows retirement communities.