Tesla Quartet program

Sunday

OCT 4

2:00 pm

TESLA QUARTET

This performance is made possible through generous support from the J. Anthony Burzle Chamber Music Fund.

Sponsored by

Dave and Gunda Hiebert are pleased to sponsor this afternoon’s performance by the Tesla Quartet.

OCT 4 | Tesla Quartet

Musical Fusion String Quartet in D major, Op. 20 No. 4 . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Allegro di molto Un poco adagio ed affettuoso Menuet: Alla Zingarese Presto e scherzando String Quartet No. 6, Sz. 114 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Béla Bartók (1881-1945) Mesto—Più mosso, pesante—Vivace Mesto—Marcia Mesto—Burletta Mesto—Molto tranquillo

Intermission: 20 Minutes String Quartet No. 14 in A flat major, Op. 105. . . . . . Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) Adagio, ma non troppo—Allegro appassionato Molto vivace Lento e molto cantabile Allegro non tanto

OCT 4 | Tesla Quartet

About the program Folk music has always been an inspiring source of material for classical musicians, as exemplified in this program from the Tesla Quartet. Haydn’s proximity to Hungary, by way of his employment at the Esterházy court, meant that he had regular interaction with Hungarian musicians. The finale of Haydn’s String Quartet in D major, Op. 20, No. 4 (Menuet alla Zingarese, or Gypsy Minuet) shows the composer’s love of the folk idiom.

Perhaps the one composer who made the greatest use of material from folk music in his own work was Béla Bartók. Bartók spent years traveling throughout eastern Europe collecting the traditional music of the peasant population far from the urban centers. His thorough study and exploration of this folk music led to his development of a unique musical language that assimilated many different styles of music into one voice. His String Quartet No. 6, written just before his emigration from Hungary to the U.S. during World War II, is a perfect synthesis of chromaticism and folksong modality that is typical of his late style.

Dvořák began his final string quartet, Op. 105, while living in New York and working as the director of the National Conservatory of Music. His homesickness is apparent in much of his musical output of this period, as evidenced by the many Czech folk melodies that found their way into his works. At that time, Dvořák was also interested in Native American melodies, and even suggested that the future of American classical music lay in African American spirituals.

Tesla Quartet Dubbed “technically superb” by The Strad, the Tesla Quartet has garnered top prizes at numerous international competitions, including the Gold Medal at the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The quartet also received Third Prize and the Best Interpretation of the Commissioned Work at the 6th International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna, Third Prize at the 2012 London International String Quartet Competition and the Prize for the International Summer Academy for Chamber Music Niedersachsen at the 2013 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. The Tesla Quartet was formed at The Juilliard School in 2008 and quickly established itself as one of the most promising young ensembles in New York, winning Second Prize at the J.C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition only a few months after its inception. The London Evening Standard called their rendition

OCT 4 | Tesla Quartet

of the Debussy Quartet “a subtly coloured performance that balanced confidently between intimacy and extraversion.”

The quartet has enjoyed a busy performing schedule, both in the U.S. and abroad, with recent international appearances in Austria, England, and France. During the 2015-16 season the Tesla Quartet will perform across the U.S., including Alabama, California, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The quartet will also begin a community residency in Hickory, North Carolina that will include performances and workshops at local colleges, universities, and in the public school system, as well as a dedicated chamber music series.

Community involvement and outreach are integral parts of the Tesla Quartet’s mission, and the group has brought inspiring music to children’s hospitals, soup kitchens, libraries, retirement communities, and schools. The ensemble spent three years in partnership with the Aspen Music Festival’s Musical Odysseys Reaching Everyone program (M.O.R.E), providing lessons, master classes, workshops and performances for young string players in the Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado. As Quartet-in-Residence at the Strings Music Festival from 2012 to 2013, the quartet provided community enrichment programs to the Steamboat Springs and Craig, CO, communities. The quartet has also coached a chamber music program in conjunction with the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestras and in the summer of 2012 they were the faculty quartet at the Renova Music Festival in Pennsylvania.

From 2009 to 2012 the quartet held a fellowship as the Graduate String Quartet-inResidence at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where they studied with the worldrenowned Takács Quartet. They have also worked with Günter Pichler and Rainer Schmidt in ProQuartet-CEMC’s professional training program in France. Additional coaches include the Tokyo String Quartet, the Artis Quartet, Mark Steinberg, James Dunham, Robert Mann, Sylvia Rosenberg, and members of the Alban Berg, Emerson, Endellion, and Kronos Quartets. In the summer of 2011, the quartet held a fellowship at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and in 2010 they were fellows at the Aspen Music Festival’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies.

“Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them,” Nikola Tesla.

These words are the inspiration behind the Tesla Quartet’s vision. For the quartet, music is the conduit for this incredible, binding force. Through performance, teaching and outreach, the Tesla Quartet strives to tap into this palpable feeling and create meaningful connections with their audiences. The Tesla Quartet is Ross Snyder (violin), Michelle Lie (violin), Edwin Kaplan (viola), and Serafim Smigelskiy (cello).