Helen Pohl, violin
Douglas Beilman, violin
Gillian Ansell, viola
Rolf Gjelsten, cello

 

The Feldman Chamber Music Society

New Zealand
String Quartet
October 29, 2007
Program | About Group | Current Season

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Program

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
String Quartet Opus 44 No. 1 in D Major
Molto Allegro vivace
Menuetto: Un poco Allegretto
Andante espressivo ma con moto
Presto con brio

Tan Dun (b.1957)
Eight Colors
Peking Opera
Shadows
Pink Actress
Black Dance
Zen
Drum and Gong
Cloudiness
Red Sona

Intermission

Gao Ping (b.1970)
Bright Light and Cloud Shadows

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
String Quartet in F Major Opus 41 No. 2
Allegro Vivace
Andante, quasi variazioni
Scherzo : Presto
Allegro molto vivace

About the New Zealand String Quartet

The New Zealand String Quartet has distinguished itself internationally for its imaginative and unique programming, including cycles of composers' music from Mozart to Berg, and the championing of works from New Zealand and the Pacific Rim. They have won praise for their versatility in performing with jazz artists and indigenous musicians as well as for their fresh approach to the great classics of the quartet repertoire.

In their busy recent seasons the group has made acclaimed debuts in London at Wigmore Hall and in New York at the prestigious Frick Collection. They have recently given an extensive tour of Korea, two North American tours, a first tour of Mexico including two concerts at the Cervantino International Festival and some forty concerts in New Zealand alone.

The New Zealand String Quartet has been featured on North America's popular public radio programme "St Paul Sunday", and has recorded for Deutsche Welle, CBC in Canada, and Australia's ABC, as well as regularly appearing on Radio New Zealand's fine music network Concert FM. Their extensive discography includes works from the standard quartet repertoire by composers such as Bartók, Ravel, Debussy, Beethoven, Dvorák, Berg and Wolf, as well as the premiere recording of the remarkable Zoltan Székely quartet, and numerous works by acclaimed New Zealand composers. They recently began a 3-year project for the Naxos label, which will release their complete Mendelssohn quartets.

The ensemble's innovative collaborations have included performances of concertos with the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Auckland Chamber Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony. They have performed with internationally renowned artists such as Colin Carr, Anton Kuerti, Frans Helmerson, James Campbell, Alexander Lonquich, Piers Lane, Nobuko Imai, Hariolf Schlichtig, Christoph Richter, Atar Arad, and Peter Nágy; the Lafayette, Lindsay and Goldner quartets, as well as jazz greats Mike Nock, Jim Hall and Wayne Marshall.

The New Zealand String Quartet participates regularly in a number of international chamber music festivals, including recent appearances at the Festival of the Sound, Parry Sound, Ontario, Music Mountain in Lakeville, Connnecticut and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, Queensland. Quartet members play a central role in the biennial Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson, New Zealand; two members of the Quartet are Artistic Directors of this Festival and the ensemble plays in many of the concerts of the two week event, working with international guest artists. In 2007 these included the Michelangelo Quartet and James Campbell, clarinet.

Dedicated teachers as well as performers, the group has been Quartet-in-Residence at Victoria University of Wellington, now the New Zealand School of Music, since 1991. In North America they have been artist/teachers-in-residence at the Banff Center, Quartet Fest West, and the Quartet Programme at Bucknell in Pennsylvania.

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The New Zealand String Quartet is represented by

Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd., NY.

www.jwentworth.com



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