(NEW LEBANON, N.Y.) – The Philadelphia-based Jasper String Quartet will perform works by Haydn, Dvorak, and Shostakovich in the series of Concerts at Tannery Pond at the Darrow School on Saturday, July 12, 2014, at 8pm. The Jasper will play the Haydn Quartet in C major, Op. 33, No. 3, Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 73 and Dvo?ák’s String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106.

Formed at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jasper String Quartet is named after Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. The musicians are  J Freivogel and Sae Chonabayashi, violins; Sam Quintal, viola; and Rachel Henderson Freivogel, cello.

The Jasper Quartet won the Cleveland Quartet Award in 2012 and, in the same year, was awarded a grant through Chamber Music America’s Residency Partnership Program. The Quartet has been hailed as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling” (The Strad) and as “powerful” (The New York Times).

Based in Philadelphia, the quartet is Quartet-in-Residence at Temple University’s Center for Gifted Young Musicians and was the 2010-12 Ensemble-in-Residence at Oberlin Conservatory. They recently released two highly acclaimed albums for the Sono Luminus label featuring the works of Beethoven, Schubert, and Aaron Jay Kernis, as well as a digital release of Beethoven Op. 131.

From 2015-2017, the Quartet will premiere their commission of Kernis’ 3rd String Quartet across the world, including at Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall in London.

After winning the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize in the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the Jaspers went on to win the Grand Prize at the 2008 Coleman Competition, First Prize at Chamber Music Yellow Springs 2008, and the Silver Medal at the 2008 and 2009 Fischoff Chamber Music Competitions. They were the ?rst ensemble to win the Yale School of Music’s Horatio Parker Memorial Prize (2009), an award established in 1945 and selected by the faculty for “best ful?lling… lofty musical ideals”.

The quartet was the 2010-12 Ensemble-in-Residence at Oberlin Conservatory and, in conjunction with Astral Artists, was awarded a 2012 Chamber Music America grant through its Residency Partnership Program for work in Philadelphia schools. From 2009-2011, the Jaspers were the Ernst C. Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and Arts (Katonah, NY). They were the ?rst ensemble to be invited for a second year as such.

The Jaspers perform pieces emotionally signi?cant to its members ranging from Haydn and Beethoven through Berg, Ligeti, and living composers. They have commissioned string quartets from some of today’s up-and-coming composers, including Andrew Norman, Nicholas Omiccioli, Conrad Tao and Annie Gos?eld. They are delighted to be in the midst of a quartet commissioning project with Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Aaron Jay Kernis.

Critics and audiences commend the Jasper String Quartet’s “programming savvy” (clevelandclassical.com) and they have performed throughout the United States and in Canada, England, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway and Panama.

The Jasper String Quartet has brought well over 100 outreach programs into schools and enjoys educational work of all types. In their Melba and Orville Roleffson Residency at the Banff Centre they embarked on “guerrilla chamber music,” performing concerts in unusual settings around Alberta, Canada. Currently, the quartet works closely with Philadelphia’s Astral Artists to bring outreach activities to schools.

Formed at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jasper String Quartet began pursuing a professional career in 2006 while studying with James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith as Rice University’s Graduate Quartet-in-Residence.

Formed at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jasper String Quartet began pursuing a professional

career in 2006 while studying with James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth

Goldsmith as Rice University’s Graduate Quartet-in-Residence. In 2008, the quartet continued its training with the Tokyo String Quartet as Yale University’s Graduate Quartet-in-Residence.