(ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON, N.Y.) – The Juilliard String Quartet will kick off the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle (HVCMC) series in Olin Hall at Bard College in a program of works by Bartok and Beethoven on Saturday, June 3, at 8pm.

Upcoming concerts in the series include the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio on Saturday, June 17, in a program of Mozart, Brahms, and Schubert; and the Calidore String Quartet on Saturday, June 24, performing works by Mozart, Dvorak, and Hindemith.

The Saturday evening concerts, presented by The Bard Center, begin at 8 p.m. in Olin Hall. A subscription to the three-concert series is $70; a single ticket is $30; for students, $5.

Donation tickets at $170 for subscriptions and at $130 for single tickets include a $100 tax-deductible contribution to the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle.

For ticket information, call the Bard Fisher Center box office at 845-758-7900 or send an e-mail to boxoffice@bard.edu. Additional ticket information can be found at Bard College.

 

Concert 1: Juilliard String Quartet

Saturday, June 3rd

 

Joseph Lin, violin

Ronald Copes, violin

Roger Tapping, viola

Astrid Schween, cello

 

Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 1

Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge

 

Founded in 1946, the ever-evolving Juilliard String Quartet has become a living American legend. Widely known as the “quintessential American string quartet,” the Juilliard has been recognized for the boldness of its interpretation of the classics, with an equal and parallel tradition of championing the new — a vibrant combination of the familiar and the daring. The Quartet’s sound is famously characterized by clarity of structure, compelling rhythmic drive and an extraordinary unanimity of purpose, no matter the work at hand. In its milestone 2016/17 season, the Juilliard String Quartet welcomes its new cellist, Astrid Schween, and celebrates the Quartet’s 70th anniversary.

In January, the Quartet tours Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, including appearances at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, and the Berlin Konzerthaus. The JSQ also has return engagements in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Toronto, Louisville, Cleveland, Tucson, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall.

Last season, a yearlong celebration of Joel Krosnick’s remarkable 42-year tenure as cellist of the JSQ featured tours of Asia and Europe, concerts throughout the US and Canada, as well as special performances of the Schubert Cello Quintet with Astrid Schween in Detroit and New York City, and at the Ravinia Festival. In 2015 the Quartet was featured in the groundbreaking interactive app on Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet, released by the innovative app developer Touchpress, in collaboration with the Juilliard School. In addition to the app, the JSQ’s new audio recording of “Death and the Maiden” is available on iTunes.

The Quartet’s recordings of the Bartok and Schoenberg quartets, as well as those of Debussy, Ravel and Beethoven won Grammy Awards, and in 2011 the Quartet became the first classical music ensemble to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 2014 Sony Classical reissued the Quartet’s landmark recordings of the first four Elliott Carter string quartets together with the more recently recorded Carter Quartet No. 5, making a complete historical document.

 

 

Concert 2: the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio

Saturday, June 17

 

Joseph Kalichstein, piano

Sharon Robinson, cello

Bella Hristova, guest violinist

Milena Pajaro, guest violist

 

Franz Schubert: String Trio in B flat major, D 471

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:  Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K 478

Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25

 

For four decades of success the world over, including many award-winning recordings and newly commissioned works, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio continues to dazzle audiences and critics alike with its performances. Since making their debut at the White House for President Carter’s inauguration in January 1977, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson have set the standard for performance of the piano trio literature. As one of the only long-lived ensembles with all of its original members, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio balances the careers of three internationally-acclaimed soloists while making annual appearances at many of the world’s major concert halls, commissioning spectacular new works, and maintaining an active recording agenda.

To ring in their 40th season, the Trio continues their legacy of introducing new works with a celebratory commission, “Pas de Trois” by Pulitzer prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The world premiere took place in Cincinnati in September 2016 and local premiere performances continue throughout 2017. The Trio then toured the United Kingdom including a return to the Wigmore Hall/BBC lunchtime series. In addition to mini-residencies and recitals in prestigious series throughout the United States, they will bring their unique blend to Beethoven’s exuberant Triple Concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony under the baton Maestro Edo de Waart in his final season as Music Director and to the Westchester Philharmonic with Jaime Laredo as conductor. They also celebrated the great chamber works of Brahms in Detroit with principals from the Cleveland Orchestra as their special guests.

Last season’s highlights included the European debut of André Previn’s acclaimed Piano Trio No. 2, commissioned by the Music Accord consortium of presenters, and a three-concert cycle of all the Beethoven trios for the Friends of Chamber Music of Miami.

Recent acclaimed recordings include “Passionate Diversions,” works written for them by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich including her Quintet, Septet, and Trio on the AZICA label (2014) and a double CD set of Schubert on the BRIDGE label. The Trio’s previous recording projects on KOCH include a 4-disc Brahms cycle of the complete trios, Arensky and Tchaikovsky trios and a beloved two-volume set of the complete Beethoven trios. In addition, KOCH re-released many of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio’s hallmark recordings, including works of Maurice Ravel, Richard Danielpour and Dmitri Shostakovich, as well as “Legacies,” filled with trios written especially for the group by Pärt, Zwilich, Kirchner and Silverman.

Musical America named the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio the Ensemble of the Year for 2002. The 2003/04 season was their first as Chamber Ensemble in Residence at the Kennedy Center, an honor which has continued to thrill the trio throughout subsequent seasons. They were awarded the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award by the Foundation for Recorded Music in 2002 and 2011.

Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson serve on the esteemed instrumental and chamber music faculty at The Cleveland Institute of Music, where they began teaching in 2012. Both Mr. Laredo and Ms. Robinson were professors at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music for seven years prior. Joseph Kalichstein continues as a long-revered teacher at the Juilliard School of Music. In the words of American Record Guide, “It’s a rare luxury to hear music-making of such integrity and joy, and an equally rare privilege to be party to such an intimate musical conversation.”

 

Concert 3: Calidore String Quartet

Saturday, June 24

 

Jeffrey Myers, violin

Ryan Meehan, violin

Jeremy Berry, viola

Estelle Choi, cello

Alan Kay, guest clarinetist

 

Antonín Dvo?ák, String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 “American”

Paul Hindemith, String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K.581

 

The Calidore String Quartet, one of the most acclaimed and sought after chamber ensembles of their generation, has been heralded as “the epitome of confidence and finesse” (Gramophone Magazine) and “a miracle of unified thought” (La Presse, Montreal). The Quartet made international headlines as the Grand-Prize winner of the 2016 and inaugural M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition, the largest prize for chamber music in the world. Other major highlights of 2016 include being named a BBC New Generation Artist for the 2016–2018 seasons and becoming the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

Additionally, the quartet began a three-year residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two for the 2016–2019 seasons. In 2016 the quartet was named Visiting Guest Artists at the University of Delaware and will serve as Visiting Artists-in-Residence at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance.

The Calidore String Quartet regularly performs throughout North America, Europe and Asia and has debuted in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, Seoul’s Kumho Arts Hall, and Schneider Concerts (NYC), and at many significant festivals, including Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Rheingau, East Neuk and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

In addition to winning the M-Prize, the Calidore String Quartet won grand prizes in virtually all the major U.S. chamber music competitions, including the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions, and captured top prizes at the 2012 ARD Munich International String Quartet Competition and Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition.

As protégés of the Emerson Quartet, the Calidore String Quartet is featured in a performance of Mendelssohn’s Octet with the Emerson Quartet presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to commemorate the Emerson’s 40th anniversary season. Other highlights of the 2016 /17 season include the quartet’s Chinese debut in Hong Kong as well as debuts in major series in Berlin, New York, Chicago, Houston, Portland and Ann Arbor, a world-premiere of a quartet by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Caroline Shaw at SOKA University, and collaborations with David Shifrin and Anne-Marie McDermott as well as members of the Emerson, Borodin and Vogler String Quartets.

Summer 2016 included a return to the East Neuk Festival (UK) where the quartet performed the entire Mendelssohn string quartet cycle. Additionally, the quartet made its debut at Music@Menlo and the Encore Chamber Music Festival and performed the closing concert of the McGill International String Quartet Academy. The quartet returned as quartet-in-residence for a third summer at both the Innsbrook Music Festival and the Bellingham Festival of Music.

In February 2015 the Calidore String Quartet released its critically-acclaimed debut recording of quartets by Mendelssohn and Haydn. Additionally, in February 2016 the Calidore released an album on the French label Editions Hortus, with music by Hindemith, Milhaud, Stravinsky, de la Presle, and Toch commemorating the World War I centennial. The Calidore was featured as Young Artists-in-Residence on American Public Media’s Performance Today and its performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio, BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Korean Broadcasting Corporation, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich), and Norddeutscher Rundfunk (Hamburg), and were featured on German national television as part of a documentary produced by ARD Public Broadcasting.

The Calidore String Quartet has collaborated with many esteemed artists and ensembles, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Joshua Bell, Inon Barnatan, Paul Coletti, Ronald Leonard, Paul Watkins, Raphael Merlin and the Quatuor Ebéne, among others. Formed in 2010 at the Colburn School of Music, the Calidore has studied closely with such luminaries as the Emerson Quartet, David Finckel, Andre Roy, Arnold Steinhardt, Günther Pichler, Gerhard Schulz, Heime Müller, Guillaume Sutre, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Paul Coletti, Ronald Leonard, Clive Greensmith, Martin Beaver and the Quatuor Ebène.

As a passionate supporter of music education, the Calidore String Quartet is deeply committed to mentoring and educating young musicians, students and audiences. From 2014–2016 the Calidore served as Artists-in-Residence at Stony Brook University. The Calidore String Quartet has conducted master classes and residencies at Princeton, Stanford, the University of Michigan, UCLA and Mercer University. The Calidore was previously on the faculty of the Ed and Mari Edelman Chamber Music Institute at the Colburn School.

Using an amalgamation of “California” and “doré” (French for “golden”), the ensemble’s name represents a reverence for the diversity of culture and the strong support it received from its home in Los Angeles, California, the “Golden State.” The Calidore String Quartet aims to present performances that share the passion and joy of the string quartet chamber music repertoire.

 

 

 

About the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle

In 1950, Helen Huntington Hull joined with her two Staatsburg friends, Mrs. Lydig Hoyt and Mrs. Jonas Borak, as well as Emil Hauser (then a member of the Bard College faculty and former first violinist of the Budapest Quartet) to bring the best classical musicians of the time to the Hudson Valley to play chamber music for a group of appreciative friends and neighbors. This was the inception of the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle (HVCMC). In 1979, the Circle began its formal association with Bard College.   Since then, the audience has expanded to include music lovers from Albany to New York City, as well as neighboring states.  In 2000, the distinguished musicians Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson became Artistic Directors for the Circle and have maintained the early reputation for showcasing the finest performances of works from a wide-ranging repertory. The three June concerts are held in Bard’s acoustically acclaimed Olin Hall. For further information, call 845-339-7907, send an e-mail to hvcmc.bardcenter@gmail.com, or go to Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle.