April 30, 2023 Faye Spanos Concert Hall, University of the Pacific 2:30 pm
Marian Anderson String Quartet
FOCM is pleased to conclude the season with the first appearance by the renowned Marian Anderson String Quartet. Formed in 1989 as the Chaminade Quartet, the group won the 1991 International Cleveland Quartet Competition, becoming the first African American ensemble in history to win a classical music competition. To highlight this singular achievement the members of the quartet asked permission of the great contralto, Marian Anderson, to use her name as their own. The Marian Anderson String Quartet’s artistic endeavors have brought them to New York’s Alice Tully Hall, the Corcoran Gallery, the Library of Congress, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Kilbourn Hall, The University of Southern California and the Chateau Cantanac-Brown in Bordeaux, France. From 2006-2015 the quartet founded and ran the Marian Anderson String Quartet Community Music School and the summer Community Music Institute in Bryan, TX. The Quartet’s distinguished history includes performances through the Da Camera Society, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 1993, the Marian Anderson String Quartet performed at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center as part of the 52nd presidential inaugural celebration.
Scheduled Program
On Being Enslaved
Rhiannon Giddens, “At the Purcheser’s Option” Jonathan McNair, “Follow the Drinking Gourd” Samuel Adler, “Crucifixion/In Memoriam: Marian Anderson” David Wallace, “In Honor of Marian Anderson” Antonin Dvorak, String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, “American” John Rosamond Johnson, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”
Program handout (Note: the quartet will announce program notes from the stage during the concert)
Learn More
The Marian Anderson String Quartet playing “Lento” from String Quartet No.12 in F, (American) by Antonin Dvorak at the 9/11 Interfaith Service of Remembrance and Peace on September 7th, 2021 at First Presbyterian Church in Bryan, TX.
Welcome to the 66th season of great chamber music presented by Friends of Chamber Music! Once again, the roster of artists in our series represent an engaging range of artists mixing new groups with returning ensembles. With a lineup like this, we are excited to further the presence of the arts in Stockton!
Since 1994 the Adaskin String Trio has won over audiences with exuberant playing and programming that blends classical masterpieces with unexpected treasures. The trio has toured throughout the USA and Canada performing at venues such as the The Frick Collection in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, and in Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, and Chicago. A particular pleasure for the trio is introducing audiences to gorgeous and rarely heard gems by undeservedly neglected masters such as Taneyev, Martinu, Rozsa, Berkeley and Klein. We’re excited to bring them to Stockton for the first time!
Our second concert features the return engagement with one of the most important string quartets going today. Founded in Mexico in 1982 and last appearing in our series in 2012, the Cuarteto has toured extensively throughout Europe, North and South America, Israel, China, Japan and New Zealand. They have premiered more than a hundred works written for them and they continue to introduce new and neglected composers to the genre. Winners of the 2012 and 2016 Latin Grammys for Best Classical Recordings, they have been recognized with the Mexican Music Critics Association Award and three times received Chamber Music America/ASCAP’s “Most Adventurous Programming” Award.
Trio Zimbalist—violinist Josef Špaček, cellist Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, and pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu—are all distinguished alumni of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In demand across Europe and the U.S. as soloists, chamber musicians, and recitalists, they form an inimitable ensemble with repertoire spanning Romantic masterworks to today’s most lauded composers.
Last seen with FOCM in 2013, the Dover Quartet was Named one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine. The GRAMMY® nominated group has followed a “practically meteoric” (Strings) trajectory to become one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world. In addition to its faculty role as the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Dover Quartet holds residencies with the Kennedy Center, Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Artosphere, and the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. The group’s awards include a stunning sweep of all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, grand and first prizes at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.
FOCM is pleased to conclude the season with the first appearance by the renowned Marian Anderson String Quartet. Formed in 1989 as the Chaminade Quartet, the group won the 1991 International Cleveland Quartet Competition, becoming the first African American ensemble in history to win a classical music competition. To highlight this singular achievement the members of the quartet asked permission of the great contralto, Marian Anderson, to use her name as their own. The Marian Anderson String Quartet’s artistic endeavors have brought them to New York’s Alice Tully Hall, the Corcoran Gallery, the Library of Congress, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Kilbourn Hall, The University of Southern California and the Chateau Cantanac-Brown in Bordeaux, France. From 2006-2015 the quartet founded and ran the Marian Anderson String Quartet Community Music School and the summer Community Music Institute in Bryan, TX. The Quartet’s distinguished history includes performances through the Da Camera Society, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 1993, the Marian Anderson String Quartet performed at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center as part of the 52nd presidential inaugural celebration.
