Telegraph Quartet Performs With Cellist Bonnie Hampton On Free Livestream Concert

On Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 7:30pm PT, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) is presented on the new Chamber Music Tuesdays series by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where the ensemble is quartet-in-residence. The performance will take place in the new Barbro Osher Recital Hall at the Bowes Center (200 Van Ness Avenue). A livestream will be free to watch online, but in-person attendance is limited to SFCM ID holders and by invitation. Led and curated by SFCM Chair of String and Piano Chamber Music, Dimitri Murrath, Chamber Music Tuesdays is a new series where chamber music majors perform with world-renowned guest artists and SFCM faculty members.

This concert features the Telegraph Quartet and founder of the chamber music program at SFCM, cellist Bonnie Hampton, performing Schubert's String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 together. Two SFCM students will join Eric Chin and Jeremiah Shaw to perform selections from Florence Price's Five Folksongs in Counterpoint. On their own as a quartet, the Telegraph will play Grażyna Bacewicz's String Quartet No. 4.

As quartet-in-residence at SFCM, the Telegraph Quartet coaches degree-seeking students in the collegiate chamber music program and works with promising young soloists and chamber musicians in SFCM's Pre-College. The Quartet performs a featured residency concert each semester and also collaborates in performances throughout the year with other faculty members and advanced students. Three of the quartet's members-Eric Chin, Pei-Ling Lin, and Joseph Maile-are graduates of SFCM.

The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works alike. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "...an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape" and "powerfully adept... with a combination of brilliance and subtlety," the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including New York City's Carnegie Hall, San Francisco's Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival.

Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.

In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The San Francisco Chronicle praised the album, saying, "Just five years after forming, the Bay Area's Telegraph Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of serious depth and versatility, and the group's terrific debut recording only serves to reinforce that judgment." AllMusic acclaimed, "An impressive beginning for an adventurous group, this 2018 release puts the Telegraph Quartet on the map."

Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan.

The Telegraph Quartet adapted to the challenging times presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and performed virtual concerts presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Crowden Chamber Music Workshop, Noe Music, Noontime Concerts, Music in Corrales, and Intermusic SF. For Earth Day 2020 (the 50th anniversary of Earth Day), the National Academy of Science in collaboration with the ClimateMusic Project hosted a virtual performance by the Telegraph Quartet of Richard Festinger's Icarus in Flight. In 2020, Telegraph launched an ongoing online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet.

About the San Francisco Conservatory of Music: Founded in 1917, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) is a global destination for musical excellence, earning an international reputation for producing musicians of the highest caliber. Located in the heart of San Francisco's Civic Center, SFCM's faculty includes nearly 30 members of the San Francisco Symphony as well as Grammy Award-winning artists in fields ranging from orchestral and chamber performance to classical guitar. The Conservatory offers its 400-plus collegiate students fully accredited bachelor's and master's degrees and professional diplomas in composition and instrumental and vocal performance, as well as in newly established, groundbreaking tracks such as Technology and Applied Composition and Roots, Jazz, and American Music. SFCM's collaborations with major Bay Area arts presenters, including the San Francisco Symphony, Opera, Ballet, and SFJAZZ Center, present an unprecedented learning environment for Conservatory students to engage with the world's leading artists. The Conservatory's relationships with Sony PlayStation, Skywalker Sound, and other Silicon Valley companies also offer unique opportunities that reinforce the institution's innovative curricular approach in artistic, intellectual, professional, and individual development, a connected learning sequence that gives students an education for life. SFCM's collegiate and Pre-College students have appeared at such storied venues as Carnegie Hall and Davies Symphony Hall and have performed on national radio programs including NPR's Live from Here and Performance Today. Notable alumni include violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern, conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, soprano Elza van den Heever, the Naumburg Award-winning Telegraph Quartet (on faculty as SFCM's Quartet-in-Residence), Blue Bottle Coffee founder James Freeman, and Ronald Losby (President of Steinway & Sons - Americas), among others. In October 2018, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music broke ground on the Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts (the Bowes Center), a building that will transform San Francisco's arts district with an unparalleled space for students and the community to create, share, and engage with music. Opening in fall 2020, the Bowes Center will more than double the size of SFCM's facilities and dramatically expand the school's campus in the heart of San Francisco's Civic Center. For more information, visit www.sfcm.edu.