Manhattan String Quartet to headline String Festival

The Manhattan String Quartet, one of America?s best-known chamber music ensembles and ?a national treasure,? according to The Boston Globe, returns to Skidmore in February for a second residency as Sterne Virtuoso Artists during the College?s fourth annual String Festival.

MSQ will perform a program of music by Beethoven, Verdi, and Debussy in a public concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, in Filene Recital Hall. Admission for the concert is $5, or $2 for students and seniors. At 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 3, the quartet will present a master class with Skidmore students and invited guests in Filene Recital Hall. The public is invited to observe the session.

One of America?s leading string ensembles, the critically acclaimed MSQ has appeared throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico, and South America. Known for spirited performances of 20th-century ?classics,? the MSQ has also established a reputation as the pre-eminent interpreter of the 15 string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich.

The resident quartet at Colgate University for the past 17 years, MSQ is widely respected for its work with student musicians. As guest artists for Skidmore?s String Festival, quartet members will coach student ensembles and also will work with guest quartets from high schools and youth orchestras.

Members of the visiting quartet are violinists Eric Lewis and Calvin Wiersma, violist John Dexter, and cellist Chris Finkel.

The Manhattan String Quartet presented the 15 string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich in Japan and the U.S. A recording of the cycle was the only chamber music recording to be listed in Time magazine?s ?Best of 1991? classical music list.

In addition to the six-disc Shostakovich collection, other MSQ recordings include a Mozart/Beethoven pairing of live concert recordings on MSQ Enterprises, Schubert?s Quartets nos. 14 and 15 (?Death and the Maiden?) on two Centaur CDs, and ?Adagio for Strings? on Newport Classic, featuring Dvorak?s ?American Quartet.?