20230127_Ying Quartet

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

Presents

HOUSEWRIGHT VIRTUOSO SERIES GUEST ARTIST:

YING QUARTET

Robin Scott, Violin Janet Ying, Violin Philip Ying, Viola David Ying, Cello

Friday, January 27, 2023 Seven-thirty in the Evening Opperman Music Hall

PROGRAM

String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11

Samuel Barber

Molto allegro e appassionato (1910–1981) Molto adagio [attacca] Molto allegro (con prima)

Southern Harmony Jennifer Higdon Soft Summers (b. 1962) Reel Time Gentle Waltz

Agitato Billy Childs (b. 1957)

INTERMISSION

Quartet in F major, Op. 96 “American”

Antonin Dvořák Allegro ma non troppo (1841–1904) Lento

Molto vivace Finale: vivace ma non troppo

Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting while performers are playing. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Please turn off cell phones and all other electronic devices. Please refrain from putting feet on seats and seat backs. Children who become disruptive should be taken out of the performance hall so they do not disturb the musicians and other audience members. Health Reminder: The Florida Board of Governors and Florida State University expect masks to be worn by all individuals in all FSU facilities. Thank you for your cooperation.

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

Higdon: Southern Harmony

“Southern Harmony” is a portrait of the South, where I grew up (Georgia and Tennessee). The three movements depict gentle aspects of Southern life: a slower pace, simple living, and an emphasis on traditional, handed-down music. This piece includes some of the techniques that are found in Appalachian-style string playing (open strings and slides). The first movement, “Soft Summers”, is a musical portrait of long summer evenings, a time for quiet porch-sitting and “fellowshipping” with friends, neighbors and relatives. The second movement, “Reel Time”, is a dance based on the form of the reel (a dance occuring in a moderately quick duple meter)…this is a dance that you might witness in a place where there is some serious fiddling going on. The final movement is Gentle Waltz, which is self-explanatory, and was probably the result of having heard the Tennessee Waltz so many times while growing up. While this work is much less complex and moves at a slower pace than most of my music, I like to think that it doesn’t necessarily reflect the South as being simple, but rather what is for me a simpler time.

– note by Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon (b. Brooklyn, NY, December 31, 1962) is an active freelance composer. She is the recipient of awards, including a Pew Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and two awards from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. Her orchestral work Shine was named Best New Piece of the Year in USA Today’s Top Picks in Classical Music for 1996. Her works are recorded on two dozen discs, including a recent release on Telarc of blue cathedral by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Some of her recent commissions include works for the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, eighth blackbird, the Cypress String Quartet, the Ying Quartet, the American Guild of Organists, and the Verdehr Trio. She is on the composition faculty at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

– from: http://jenniferhigdon.com/biography.html

The Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet occupies a position of unique prominence in the classical music world, combining brilliantly communicative performances with a fearlessly imaginative view of chamber music in today’s world. Now in its third decade, the Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of the highest musical qualifications. The Quartet’s performances regularly take place in many of the world’s most important concert halls; at the same time, the Ying’s belief that concert music can also be a meaningful part of everyday life has drawn the foursome to perform in settings as diverse as the workplace, schools, juvenile prisons, and the White House.

The Ying Quartet first came to professional prominence in the early 1990s as the first recipient of an NEA Rural Residence Grant which led to it serving as the resident quartet of Jesup, Iowa, a farm town of 2,000 people. Playing before audiences of six to six hundred in homes, schools, churches, and banks, the Quartet had its first opportunities to use music and creative endeavor to help build community and authentic human connection. The Quartet considers its time in Jesup the foundation of its present musical life and goals. The Quartet’s recent seasons have featured performances in major halls throughout the world including in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and multiple tours throughout China. The Ying also collaborates regularly with jazz pianist Billy Childs, bassist Xavier Foley, and PUSH Physical Theatre.

The Ying’s ongoing LifeMusic commissioning project, created in response to its commitment to expanding the rich string quartet repertoire, has already achieved an impressive history. Supported by the Institute for American Music, the Ying Quartet

“The ensemble replicated the sounds of water.” – The New York Times

commissions both established and emerging composers to create music that reflects contemporary American life.

Recent works include Billy Childs’ Awakening; Lera Auerbach’s Sylvia’s Diary; Lowell Liebermann’s String Quartet No. 3, To the Victims of War; Sebastian Currier’s Next Atlantis; and John Novacek’s Three Rags for String Quartet. In August 2016, the Ying Quartet released a new Schumann/Beethoven recording on Sono Luminus with renowned cellist Zuill Bailey, and in that season the five toured with the Schumann Cello Concerto transcribed for cello and string quartet along with Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata,” also reimagined for cello quintet.

The Ying Quartet’s numerous other recordings reflect many of the group’s wide-ranging musical interests and have generated consistent, enthusiastic acclaim. The group’s CD “American Anthem” (Sono Luminus), heralding the music of Randall Thompson, Samuel Barber, and Howard Hanson, was released in 2013 to rave reviews; its 2007 Telarc release of the three Tchaikovsky Quartets and the Souvenir de Florence (with James Dunham and Paul Katz) was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category.

As longtime quartet-in-residence at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, the Ying Quartet teaches in the string department and leads a rigorous, sequentially designed chamber music program. One cornerstone of chamber music activity at Eastman is the noted “Music for All” program, in which all students curate opportunities to perform in community settings beyond the concert hall. The Quartet is also the ensemble-in-residence at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and from 2001-2008, the members of the Ying Quartet were the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University.

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