American String Quartet returns for string festival
The College's ninth annual string festival features a return of the acclaimed American String Quartet in two performances this coming weekend.
American String Quartet (Photo by
Peter Schaaf)
The world-renowned American String Quartet (ASQ) returns to Skidmore College as artists-in-residence during the weekend of March 22-24 for the ninth annual Skidmore String Festival, which is part of its ELM Chamber Music Residency.
The festival features a performance by the ASQ at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 23, in Arthur Zankel Music Center. Tickets are on sale in advance. A second concert, the festival finale, features ASQ and Skidmore faculty joining the student performers. Scheduled for Sunday, March 24, at 2 p.m., also in Zankel, the festival finale is free, but tickets are required. (See ticket information below.)
Festival activities include individual and group coaching with the dynamic quartet and Skidmore faculty. Michael Emery, senior artist-in-residence at Skidmore, invited established high school string quartets to join Skidmore students for a weekend of individual, non-competitive coaching with members of the ASQ and Skidmore faculty as well as a performance in the Arthur Zankel Music Center’s acoustically spectacular Helen Ladd Concert Hall.
Recognized as one of the world’s foremost quartets, the ASQ is back for a second year at the Skidmore String Festival. Quartet members are Peter Winograd (violin), Laurie Carney (violin), Daniel Avshalomov (viola), and Wolfram Koessel (cello). The ASQ celebrated its 35th anniversary during the 2010-2011 season, and in its years of touring has performed in all 50 states and appeared in the most important concert halls worldwide. The group’s presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim, and its MusicMasters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire.
The string festival finale will include all festival quartets, with Skidmore faculty and the ASQ joining on stage for a group performance. Skidmore offers this annual event at no cost to students and will host the invited quartets as guests.
Admission for the March 23, 8 p.m., American String Quartet concert is free for students and children, $8 adults, and $5 seniors and Skidmore community. Admission for the March 24, 2 p.m. String Festival Finale is free and open to the public; tickets are required. For advance reservations please click here or call the Zankel box office (518) 580-5321 for more information. The Zankel Music Center is wheelchair accessible and offers listening devices for the hearing impaired. For more information, please click here.
