(ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON, N.Y.) –  The Calidore String Quartet will perform works by Mozart, Dvorak, and Hindemith in the third and final concert of this summer’s Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle (HVCMC) series in Olin Hall at Bard College on Saturday, June 24, at 8pm.

The specific works on the program are Antonín Dvo?ák, String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 “American”; Paul Hindemith, String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22; and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K.581.

The members of the quartet are Jeffrey Myers, violin; Ryan Meehan, violin; Jeremy Berry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello; and Alan Kay, guest clarinetist.

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.

 

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.