Concerts at Half-Past Twelve

Performing in Founders Hall, Concerts at Half-Past Twelve.

ASQ recently performed in the widely-acclaimed Concerts at Half-Past Twelve series. The long running series, hosted by St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, was founded by Dr. Suzanne Forsberg, Department Chair of St. Francis' Fine Arts and Foreign Language.

Kurt and Joanna perform Mendelssohn Op. 80 in f minor.

John and Julia perform Beethoven Op. 59, No. 3 Razumovsky

Arianna String Quartet received a warm welcome by the St. Francis College audience and community. On a more personal level this venue is very special to me as I have appeared here in concerts twice before. A big thank you to Dr. Suzanne Forsberg, who I have known for about 10 years, for her leadership and artistic vision. She is the driving force behind all the wonderful music events at the college.

-Julia Sakharova, Arianna String Quartet

ASQ with Dr. Suzanne Forsberg

 Thanks to Ching Man Wong for sharing his photos with us!

HIGHLIGHTS - 2014 Festival of Music, Santa Catarina Brazil (FEMUSC)

After arriving in Santa Catarina, Brazil for the international music festival FEMUSC, the ASQ spent two weeks performing and leading a string quartet program for young professional quartets.  Here are a few notes, pictures, and comments highlighting the much enjoyed international festival:

Almost home after two weeks in Brazil at FEMUSC. The Arianna Quartet was honored to work with these amazing young quartets from Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and South Africa. The world comes together at FEMUSC, and the teaching, learning and performances give us inspiration for the entire year. Obrigado!!
-Kurt Baldwin, Arianna String Quartet

Here we are with all the wonderful quartet participants!

I miss so much the intensive coaching, the daily masterclasses, the almost daily performances, the amazing concerts. I especially miss you guys. You are truly amazing for sharing all the knowledge and experience you have as a quartet. We are so inspired by you! ¡Abrazos fuertes desde México!

-Anamar Garcia, Tamayo Quartet, Mexico

Masterclass with Joanna Mendoza. Schubert Cello Quintet featuring Kurt Baldwin. Opportunity more than special

-Deo Creati Quartet, Brazil

We meet up again with the Stellenbosch Quartet from South Africa, whom we worked with last August in Cape Town

We are so incredibly grateful to The Arianna String Quartet for giving us the key to unlocking another dimension of our Quartet playing. You will not find more dedicated people when it comes to string quartet playing and teaching than these four, Thank you for an incredible two weeks!
-Janna Khweis Thomas, Stellenbosch String Quartet, South Africa

In addition to teaching  we had the opportunity to perform multiple times  in the Grand Theater of the Artistic Cultural Center of Jaragua do Sul.

Ainsi la Nuit, by Dutillieux

With flutist Alberto Almarza:  Vieux Carre, by Liduino Pitombeira

Dvorak Piano Quintet with pianist Ricardo Castro.

To celebrate the last day, we hosted a chamber music reading party for all of the quartets, plus some honorary members! 

Here, a most unusual and impressive rendition of Mendelssohn Octet, with Alex Klein playing first on oboe and Rob Weir playing second cello on bassoon!!

For more comments about our FEMUSC experience visit our Facebook page .

ASQ and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis recently asked The Arianna String Quartet to write an article for publication in the playbill of their current production Opus, by Michael Hollinger.  Opus' description reads: "With only four days to rehearse for their most important performance ever, a world-class string quartet takes a chance by hiring a gifted but inexperienced young woman. Onstage the Lazara Quartet is pitch perfect but behind the scenes they’re coming unstrung as the four artists battle the sweat, tears and pain that go into making extraordinary music seem effortless. This fascinating play is a passionate look at the delicate and complex relationships between artists’ lives and their art."

It seemed fitting to me that ASQ would take on the task.  From the inside out: A Violist’s Perspective, written by Joanna Mendoza,  is entertaining and adds a nice perspective on the life of a real string quartet.  A life that I am pretty certain is not as dramatic as the characters' portrayed in Opus, but one that has allowed her and the other quartet members to play extraordinary music extraordinarily.

Season Announcements

Upcoming Events ...

The Arianna String Quartet travels to Brazil for the January 19 - February 1 Festival of Music in Santa Catarina (FEMUSC). The ASQ is delighted to return to this international festival where they lead an intensive string quartet program for eight young professional quartets from across South America, Mexico, and this year, a quartet from South Africa. The ASQ will perform several times during the course of the festival, with programs including works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Dutillieux. Collaborative works include Brahms Clarinet Quintet with Ovanir Buosi (Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra) and Dvorak Piano Quintet with Brazilian pianist and conductor, Ricardo Castro. The quartet will also perform two new works by Nancy Galbraith and Liduino Pitombeira with flutist Alberto Almarza (Carnegie Mellon University ). FEMUSC, with its faculty from the U.S., Europe and South America, serves over 800 young musicians and offers over 200 concerts in two weeks.

While in Brazil, the quartet will offer an interactive presentation via video-conference on January 24 at the Missouri Music Educators Association (MMEA) Conference.

Invited by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music for a chamber music residency, the ASQ will give master classes and a recital, February 26-27 at the David H. Stull Recital Hall.

On March 8 the Arianna String Quartet travels to Louisville, Kentucky where they will present at the 2014 National Conference for the American String Teachers Association.

Upcoming Concerts ...

Jan 19- Feb 1       FEMUSC                                    Santa Catarina, Brazil
Feb 22      MAC Fine Arts Theatre                              Park Hill, MO
Feb 26      David H. Stull Recital Hall                          Oberlin, OH
Mar 7        Touhill Performing Arts Center       St. Louis, MO
Mar 16      Tassel Performing Arts Center                  Holdredge, NE
Mar 22      Musical Arts Series at Fireland               Port Clinton, OH
Mar 30      Music at Maryville, with guest                   St. Louis, MO
                             pianist Katja Georgieff                                        

Your are Invited to the Alumni Jubilee Concert

A Free Performance, Celebrating UMSL's 50th Anniversary!

Friday, October 18, 8:00 pm

Touhill Performing Arts Center
Free to the public 

Come join the Arianna String Quartet for an evening of music.  The ASQ will lead alumni and current UMSL students in a conductorless chamber orchestra, featuring the gorgeous Andante Cantabile from Tchaikovsky's D Major Quartet, Op. 11, and theFinale from the Dvorak "American" Quartet.

Program also includes:

BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major
BRAHMS Sextet in B-flat, Op. 18
MENDELSSOHN Octet in E-flat, Op. 20

For more information, visit Touhill Performing Arts Center. 

Fanfare Magazine, September-October, 2013: Review of JANÁČEK String Quartets

JANÁCEK String Quartets.  

No. 1, "Kreutzer Sonata"; No. 2, "lntimate Letters".

Arianna String Quartet CENTAUR 3198 (44:12)

Although Leo Tolstoy said that "...if a work of art needs to be explained it has already failed in its purpose," he felt compelled to write an explanation of his brutal, psychologically complex, and uncharacteristic novella The Kreutzer Sonata. The explanation itself is also rather complex, and when one adds to this the complexity of Janáček’s opposition to Tolstoy's views, and the vagueness of the musical program, it is best to lay plot and sequence aside, and address the purely musical content of the String Quartet No. 1. The same can be said for the loosely programmatic "Intimate Letters." The "...pure emotion, sincerity, truth, [and] ardent love" that the composer tells us is at the heart of the matter should suffice.  Both quartets are works of great dramatic breadth, placing formidable technical, poetic, and human demands on the musicians.

These performances of the Arianna String Quartet demonstrate how technical excellence, in alliance with imagination and the human heart, can come to create something truly transcendent. The players, virtually faultless in their musicianship, provide a powerful vision, and a sense of humanity more far reaching than the hard and glossy reading of the Emerson Quartet, in spite of their virtuosity, or the Smetana Quartet in spite of their florid tone.

                 

Raymond Beegle

Fanfare September/October 2013

Our recording, Janáček String Quartets, features Leoš Janáček's riveting, emotionally-charged works  "The Kreutzer Sonata" and "Intimate Letters".  These two quartets, on the Centaur label, are available on Amazon.com and iTunes. 

Die Burger (The Citizen) Review

Our summer concert tour in South Africa included Cape Town Concert Series;  Endler Hall Series; St. Andrews Concert Series; and University of the Western Cape.   Please enjoy the Cape Town review translated from Afrikans.

 The Citizen, August 18, 2013

CAPE TOWN -The Arianna String Quartet from the USA expertly performed three magnificent works for the Cape Town Concert Series on Saturday. The well-balanced program began with Mozart’s Quartet K.387, followed by Shostakovich Quartet No. 3 in F Major, Op. 73, and ended with Schubert's Quartet in D minor (Death and the Maiden).

The four players names were not in the printed program, and the violist introduced herself and her colleagues to the audience eloquently. As was the case with their previous visit in May 2011, the quartet's playing was characterized by flawless ensemble and excellent balance.

The sound of the 4 instruments blended beautifully, although there were passages where one instrument or another came to the fore with more important melodic material. These moments gave each individual the opportunity to demonstrate their technical proficiency and beautiful sound control.

The highlight of the evening was the Schubert Death and the Maiden quartet. This profound work in which death is such an important element is always an emotional experience that one is not likely to forget in a hurry, particularly if it is performed in as outstanding a manner as the Arianna String Quartet did on Saturday night.