Caramoor Presents the Jasper String Quartet

Feb. 16, 2011 - PRLog -- Following its superb 2009-10 residency at Caramoor, the Jaspers are the first ensemble in the 10-year history of the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence program to be invited to extend their tenure for a second year.  The Jaspers conclude the series with yet another innovative program, bringing to life an early Beethoven masterpiece, the lyrical Brahms A minor, and a new commission by the phenomenal young pianist and composer, Conrad Tao.

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 ages 8 and above.)

Student Strings
Each year, the Caramoor Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence participates in a three-part outreach program called Student Strings. As part of this program, the quartet connects with the region’s student population by making an in-school visit for a “Concert and Conversation”, and offering a master class at Caramoor for string students. For the third component of the program, students attend a concert by the quartet in the Music Room of the Rosen House during Caramoor’s regular fall or spring season. The students attend for free and their parents receive vouchers for half-price tickets. In the last two years, this program has grown to be very popular, with over 1,000 students from area schools participating annually.

About The Jasper String Quartet
The Jasper String Quartet – 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) – are the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence for the second consecutive year at the Caramoor Center for Music and Arts.

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. Originally formed as a student ensemble at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jaspers will return to their alma mater in fall 2010 as the Quartet-in-Residence, where they perform and coach chamber ensembles throughout the year.

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. The quartet, which has toured the United States, Canada, Norway, England, Italy and Japan, is named after 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. The historic Rosen House, built in the 1930’s, and its Music Room are “the heart of Caramoor.” Upon its completion in 1939, Caramoor founders Walter and Lucie Rosen began to present private concerts in the Music Room, and today it is used for all ‘Caramoor Indoors’ concerts and arts-in-education programs. For more information, go to Caramoor.org or call (914) 232-5035.

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



Tickets: Individual tickets: $25.00. To purchase, call the Caramoor Box Office at 914.232.1252, or visit www.caramoor.org.  

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

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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.