Bryant Park Quartet in PerformanceSunday, October 21 @ 3PM

The Bryant Park Quartet (l to r): Nathan Schram, viola; Anna Elashvili,
violin; Ben Russell, violin; Tomoko Fujita, cello.

PLEASE NOTE: As of Monday, October 15 the second half of the program has been changed from Brahms' String Quartet in C minor to Debussy's String Quartet in G minor.

 

The Bryant Park Quartet honors us with a performance on Sunday, October 21st at 3:00 PM at the Cyr Center in Stamford. Friends of Music was introduced to the group through violinist Anna Elashvili, another alumna of the fabled Silver Jubilee Chamber Ensemble in 2011, and we are so pleased for the opportunity to bring this amazing Quartet to the Catskills.

 

Based in New York City and formed in 2006, the Bryant Park Quartet has developed into an accomplished and acclaimed string quartet. Through its series “The rEvolving Ear,” the group has created programs that explore some of the connections between established and contemporary music, programs that inspire new ways to listen to and appreciate historical works that have inspired works by contemporary composers.

 

The Bryant Park Quartet (BPQ) is also dedicated to extensive community outreach through performance, lecture/demonstrations and a creative approach to music education. They seek to increase “awareness of the value of chamber music” through their commendable commitment to education programs at many levels, from public schools to private universities, and to community from business locations to private homes to public performing arts centers. The audience at this small venue in the Catskills is no doubt the beneficiary of this idealism and commitment.

 

The BPQ has been coached by members of the Brentano, Borromeo, Cavani, Cleveland, Emerson and Juilliard String Quartets and by such luminaries as Itzhak Perlman, Heidi Castleman, Colin Carr, Kathy Murdock and Roger Tapping. The Quartet was a 2010 prizewinner in the Hugo Kauder International Music Competition and its members individually are highly regarded as well. Two of its artists, Anna Elashvili and Nathan Schram, were each fellows of The Academy at Carnegie Hall, a joint effort of the Juilliard School, the Weill Music Institute and Carnegie Hall to nurture young musicians at the highest level. The Academy seeks to help the selected exceptionally talented young people develop their careers and thrive in current circumstances while serving as "evangelists" for classical music in order to assure its survival.

 

Ms. Elashvili became Mr. Schram's Academy mentor, and he joined the BPQ in 2011 when previous violist Adam Meyer became a dean at the Juilliard School. Nathan Schram was featured on National Public Radio reports about The Academy, three times during his first year with the program and again when his two-year term was completed.

 

Click here to read more about the artists of the Bryant Park Quartet at the Friends of Music Web site, or to read more about the group and its admirable mission and listen to some of their work please visit their Web site at bryantparkquartet.com.

 

The program for October 21st is as follows:

 

Bryant Park Quartet

“Alleged Minimalism”

Sunday, October 21, 2012

3:00 PM

 

	Scaramella Mille Regretz El Grillo	Josquin des Prez (c. 1450 / 1455-1521) arr. Bryant Park Quartet
	String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, No. 5   I. II. III. IV. Allegro moderato Menuetto Adagio Finale: Fuga a due Soggetti	Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
	Selections from: John's Book of Alleged Dances	John Adams (1947 - )
** Intermission **
	Structures for String Quartet (1951)	Morton Feldman (1926-1987)
	String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 (1893)   I. II. III. IV. Animé et très décidé Assez vif et bien rythmé Andantino, doucement expressif Très modéré - En animant peu à peu - Très mouvementé et avec passion	Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

 

As always we thank our many individual donors and the Robinson-Broadhurst Foundation and -- for this particular concert -- the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O'Connor Foundation. Without their collective generosity this performance would not be possible, or we would all have to spend a great deal of time, effort and money to travel to a larger city to hear the likes of the Bryant Park Quartet.

 

We hope you will join us for another afternoon of incredibly wonderful music, amiable company and good food at the Cyr Center in Stamford, NY.