Monday, January 16, 2023, at 12:00
Hyde Park Art Center
SOUTH SIDE STORIES
SOTO STRING QUARTET
Jesús Linárez Violin
Gabriela Lara Violin
Stephanie Block Viola Lidanys Graterol Cello
MUSIC BY FLORENCE PRICE (1887–1953)
String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor (1935)
Moderato
Andante cantabile
Juba: Allegro Finale: Allegro
Five Folksongs in Counterpoint (1951)
Calvary
Oh My Darlin’ Clementine
Drink to Me Only with Thine Own Eyes
Shortnin’ Bread Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
There will be no intermission.
Members of the Soto String Quartet are also members of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Institute of Music, a partner of the Hyde Park Arts Center.
The 2022–23 Civic Orchestra of Chicago season is generously sponsored by the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship Program.
Soto String Quartet
The Soto String Quartet takes its inspiration from famed Venezuelan artist Jesús Rafael Soto (1923–2005). Soto was a proponent of the kinetic art movement and used a range of techniques to create a sense of movement in his work. The energy expressed in Soto’s art resonates with the members of the Soto Quartet, who believe that the artist’s significant contribution to Venezuelan art deserves to be better known. The name of the quartet is intended to represent “energy in art” in honor of this important Venezuelan artist.
National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. Linárez participated in tours with three different Venezuelan orchestras: the National Youth Orchestra, Teresa Carreno Youth Orchestra, and Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela, with which he has also performed as a soloist. Linárez is the first prize winner of the 2021 Chicago Violin Competition and Evanston Music Club Scholarship Competition, a finalist at the 2020 Aeolian Classic Emerging Artist Competition, and semi-finalist of the 2022 Sphinx Competition. Linárez currently studies with Almita Vamos at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, Chicago.
Venezuelan violinist Gabriela Lara began her music studies at the Music Conservatory Vicente Emilio Sojo in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Lara was a member of El Sistema in Venezuela, where she served as a concertmaster of the Lara Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in 2017. Lara toured with the National Children’s Orchestra of Venezuela, Teresa Carreno Youth Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela, and the Venezuelan Mozart Children’s Orchestra of the Mozarteum Foundation. She has performed as a soloist with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Lara Youth Symphony Orchestra, Lara Symphony Orchestra, Caracas Symphony Orchestra, and Miranda Youth Orchestra. She won the 2019 Roosevelt University Concerto Competition and the third International Violin Competition “Frank Preuss,” and she is currently the first Fellow of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Lara studies with Almita Vamos at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.
Violist Stephanie Block is a Chicago native and member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. A recent alumna of the New World Symphony, she holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Juilliard School. Block has appeared as a soloist in New Yorkand Chicago-based ensembles and has performed with Amernet String Quartet. She has performed with the Chicago and London symphony orchestras as well as the Sarasota Orchestra. She has appeared as a performer on PBS NewHour and PBS American Masters. A survivor of the rare cancer Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, Block has organized hospital visits in Miami and has been a recurring speaker for Miami Cancer Institute’s Inspire You. She is also a triathlete and runner and has competed in the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships.
Violinist Jesús Linárez began his musical studies in Venezuela, at the Music Conservatory Vicente Emilio Sojo. Linárez worked at the Latin American Academy with Jose Francisco del Castillo for seven years and was a member of the Venezuelan orchestra organization, El Sistema, serving as a principal with the 2017
Cellist Lidanys Graterol began her studies as a part of José Antonio Abreu’s system of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela, known as El Sistema and, in 2017, was invited to join Venezuela’s National Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with orchestras throughout Venezuela, including the prestigious Simón Bolívar Orchestra, and as a soloist with orchestras such as the Falcon Symphony Orchestra, Falcon Regional Symphony Orchestra, and the Rafael Urdaneta Symphony Orchestra. She was the first prize winner in the 2020 Bellagrande International Music Competition and the 2020 CCPA SOLO Competition. She studies cello performance at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University with Tanya Carey. Graterol is an affiliate artist with Guarneri Hall NFP, and performs on a cello by Charles, J.B. Collin Mezin courtesy of Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins and Guarneri Hall NFP in Chicago.