Caramoor Classics: Jasper String Quartet -- Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts

March 4, 2010 - PRLog -- Katonah, New York - The Jasper String Quartet - Caramoor's 2009-10 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence - continues its residency with an enlightening program that juxtaposes early and late works of two of the most creative composers in the tradition. On March 20, 2010 at 8:00 PM in the Rosen House Music Room, The Jaspers create a canvas evoking the evolution of musical thought from an early classical Beethoven masterpiece to a monumental late quartet and from a Romantic Webern to the condensed masterpiece of his mature innovations.

Caramoor Classics
A series of concerts in the Rosen House Music Room that presents artists participating in Caramoor's mentoring programs: Rising Stars, Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence and Vocal Rising Stars. Local middle and high school students are invited to attend at no charge as a part of our Student Strings program. Caramoor Classics are appropriate for families and will often include comments from the artists about the program.

Good music requires good listeners - these concerts are recommended for children 8 and above.

The Jasper String Quartet has been hailed as "sonically delightful and expressively compelling" (The Strad) and as having played "flashingly, brilliantly, [and] gloriously, with excellent interplayer communication" (The Santa Fe New Mexican). The Jaspers are the 2009-10 Ernst C. Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, joining an elite group of previous Stiefel Quartets, including the Miro, Pacifica and Jupiter Quartets.

Winners of the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, 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, the Jaspers are currently the graduate quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music, studying with the Tokyo String Quartet. In 2009, they were the first ensemble to win the Yale School of Music's Horatio Parker Memorial Prize, an award established in 1945 and selected by the faculty for "best fulfilling... lofty musical ideals". In addition, the Jaspers were finalists in the 2009 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and the 2008 Concert Artists Guild Competition.

The Jasper Quartet is dedicated to performing pieces emotionally significant to its members, ranging from Haydn and Beethoven through Ligeti, Webern, and Ades. Next season they are beginning a series of programs called Understanding... through music! These programs aim to explore a country, time or event through its music by connecting repertoire and historical or social happenings through writings and in-concert talking.

Originally formed as a student ensemble at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jaspers began pursuing a professional career when they became Rice University's graduate quartet-in-residence in 2006, studying with James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith. The quartet has performed across the United States and in Canada, Norway, England, Italy and Japan. The Jasper String Quartet is named for Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, a place unmatched for its inherent and dramatic beauty - qualities integral to the Jasper's belief in the power of string quartet performance. Its members come from St. Louis, MO (J), Tokyo, Japan (Sae), Fairbanks, AK (Sam) and Ann Arbor, MI (Rachel).

About Caramoor
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts - a performing arts center located on a unique 90-acre setting of Italianate architecture and gardens in Westchester County, NY - enriches the lives of its audiences through innovative and diverse musical performances of the highest quality. Its mission also includes mentoring young professional musicians and providing educational programs for young children centered around music. For more information go to Caramoor.org, or call (914) 232-5035.

Tickets: $25.00. To purchase tickets, call the Caramoor Box Office at 914.232.1252, or visit http://www.caramoor.org/html/quartetinresidence.htm

For Press Tickets: Contact Whitney Holden, Cohn Dutcher Associates, 917.339.7188 - wholden@cohndutcher.com

PROGRAM
CARAMOOR CLASSICS
JASPER STRING QUARTET: 2009-10 ERNST STIEFEL STRING QUARTET-IN-RESIDENCE
SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 2010, 8:00 P.M.
ROSEN HOUSE MUSIC ROOM
Jasper String Quartet:
J Freivogel, violin; Sae Niwa, violin; Sam Quintal, viola; Rachel Henderson, cello

BEETHOVEN Quartet in F Major, Op.18 No.1
WEBERN Langsamer Satz
WEBERN 5 Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5
BEETHOVEN Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127

CARAMOOR CENTER FOR MUSIC AND THE ARTS IS LOCATED AT 149 GIRDLE RIDGE ROAD, KATONAH, NEW YORK.

This performance is made possible, in part, by ArtsWestchester with funds from Westchester County Government.

This performance is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

The Spring 2010 Indoors season is made possible, in part, through generous funding from Floy and Amos Kaminski.

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With its outstanding summer music festival & indoors concerts, arts-in-education programming and beautiful grounds, Caramoor is a cornerstone of the cultural life of Westchester County, NY.

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