American String Quartet visits DePauw Wednesday and Thursday

Monday, March 12, 2012
The American String Quartet will visit DePauw University this week, giving a master class at 6 p.m. Wednesday and recital at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. (Photo by PETER SCHAAF)

The DePauw University School of Music welcomes the American String Quartet to campus for a two-day visit this week.

The Quartet will present a master class at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14, and a recital the following evening, Thursday, March 15, at 7:30 p.m.

Both events will take place in Thompson Recital Hall of the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts and are free and open to the public.

Internationally recognized as one of the world's foremost quartets, the American String Quartet celebrates its 36th season in 2011--12. Critics and colleagues hold the Quartet in high esteem and many of today's leading artists and composers seek out the Quartet for collaborations.

Following summer residencies at China's Great Wall International Music Academy and at Colorado's Aspen Music Festival, the Quartet's 2011--12 season includes performances in Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma and Texas, as well as European appearances.

The ensemble's guest collaborators included Sharon Kam, clarinet; flutist Linda Chesis; cellists Paul Katz and Alexander Scheirle; violists Matthias Buchholz, James Dunham, Guillermo Figueroa and Michael Tree; as well as the Ariel Quartet and the Maia Quartet.

Critically acclaimed for its presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartok and Mozart, the American also champions contemporary music. The Quartet has commissioned and premiered works by distinguished composers Claus Adam, Richard Danielpour, Kenneth Fuchs, Tobias Picker and George Tsontakis. The Quartet has recorded on the Albany, CRI, MusicMasters, Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch and RCA labels and its discography includes works by Adam, Corigliano, Danielpour, Dvorak, Fuchs, Prokofiev, Schoenberg and Tsontakis.

Formed in 1974 when its original members were students at the Juilliard School, the American String Quartet was launched by winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in the same year.

Founded in 1884, the DePauw University School of Music is the nation's sixth-oldest private institution for post-secondary music instruction and the longest-running in Indiana.

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