Rockport Chamber Music Festival
Thursday, July 7, 8 PM
CALDER STRING QUARTET
Benjamin Jacobson and Andrew Bulbrook, violins | Jonathan Moerschel, viola | Eric Byers, cello
Hailed by the New York Times as “outstanding…superb,” the Calder Quartet defies boundaries by performing a broad range of repertoire. Winners of the 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, they are known for the discovery, commissioning, recording and mentoring of some of today’s best emerging composers (over 25 commissioned works to date), including Thomas Adès, Terry Riley, and Christopher Rouse. They are the first quartet in two decades to have a work written for them by composer Christopher Rouse which were featured in their release Transfiguration.
The group continues to work and collaborate with artists across musical genres, spanning the ranges of the classical and contemporary music world, as well as rock, dance and visual arts, and in venues ranging from art galleries and rock clubs to Carnegie and Walt Disney concert halls. The group’s distinctive approach is exemplified by a musical curiosity brought to everything they perform, whether it’s Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, or sold-out rock shows with bands like The National or The Airborne Toxic Event. Inspired by innovative American artist Alexander Calder, the Calder Quartet’s desire to bring immediacy and context to the works they perform creates an artfully crafted musical experience. The Calder was founded at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and continued their studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School, where they were the Graduate Resident String Quartet. The Calders have also had a longtime collaboration with composer Bear McCreary performing the soundtracks to numerous popular TV series, including Da Vinci’s Demons, Battlestar Gallactica, and The Walking Dead.
“ the Calder Quartet played the most insightful and moving performance of Thomas Ades’s Arcadiana I’ve ever heard.” The Guardian
“The Calder takes its place as one of America’s most satisfying — and most enterprising — quartets.” Los Angeles Times
PROGRAM
DEBUSSY: Quartet in G minor
ANDERS HILLSBORG: Kongsgaard Variations
BEETHOVEN: Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op.59 No.2
Tickets: $69, $62, $49 (fees may apply)
