MUSIC
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Audience Information
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The Schwartz Center wishes to gratefully acknowledge the generous ongoing support of Donna and Marvin Schwartz.
Cover Design: Lisa Baron | Cover Photo: Mark Teague | Vega Quartet photos by: Fernando Decillis
MUSIC
ECMSA Emerson Series
Friends and Mentors
Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta
William Ransom, artistic director
Ettore Causa, viola
The Vega Quartet
Amy Schwartz Moretti, guest first violin
Saturday, November 2, 2024, 8:00 p.m.
Emerson Concert Hall
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Program
String Quintet in C Minor, op. 104 (1817) Ludwig van Beethoven
I. Allegro con brio (1770-1827)
II. Andante cantabile con variazioni
III. Minuet: Quasi allegro
IV. Finale: Prestissimo
Lament for Two Violas (1912) Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Terzetto in C Major, op. 74 (1887)
Antonín Dvořák
I. Introduzione: Allegro ma non troppo (1841-1904)
II. Larghetto
III. Scherzo: Vivace—Trio:Poco meno mosso
IV. Tema con variazioni: Poco Adagio; Molto Allegro; Moderato e risoluto; Molto Allegro
Intermission
String Quintet No. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 97 “American” (1893) Dvořák
I. Allegro non tanto
II. Allegro vivo—Un poco meno mosso
III. Larghetto with 5 variations
Variation 1: Un poco più mosso
Variation 2: Poco più mosso
Variation 3: Un poco più mosso
Variation 4: Poco meno mosso
Variation 5: Un poco più mosso
Coda: Meno mosso
IV. Finale: Allegro giusto
The Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta is supported by the Cherry L. Emerson Endowment, the Rebecca Katz-Doft Chamber Music Endowment, the Crescendo Fund, the Ethel Orentlicher Gershon Fund, the Yinzi Kong Viola Chair fund, a generous gift from Dr. John and Linda Cooke, an anonymous gift for the Lawless Family Series, and by annual contributions from music lovers like you.
Ettore Causa
Awarded both the P. Schidlof Prize and the J. Barbirolli Prize for “the most beautiful sound” at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola competition in England in 2000, Italian-born violist Ettore Causa is praised for his exceptional artistry, passionate intelligence, and complete musicianship. He has made solo and recital appearances in major venues around the world, such as Carnegie Hall, Zurich Tonhalle, Madrid National Auditorium, Salle Cortot, Tokyo Symphony Hall, Teatro Colon, etc., and has performed at numerous international festivals, such as the Menuhin, Salzburg, Tivoli, Prussia Cove, Savonlinna, Launadire, and Norfolk festivals.
A devoted chamber musician, Causa has collaborated extensively with internationally renowned musicians such as the Tokyo, Artis, Brentano, Cremona, and Elias string quartets, Pascal Rogé, Boris Berman, Peter Frankl, Thomas Ades, Natalie Clein, Ana Chumachenco, Ani Kavafian, Alberto Lysy, Liviu Prunaru, Thomas Demenga, Ulf Wallin, William Bennett, and others.
Having studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy with Alberto Lysy and Johannes Eskar, and later at the Manhattan School of Music with Michael Tree, then having taught both viola and chamber music for many years at the International Menuhin Music Academy, Causa joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2009.
Causa has recorded many highly-regarded CDs on the Claves label, including Romantic Transcriptions for Viola and Piano, on which he performs his own transcriptions and which was awarded a prestigious “5 Diapasons” by the French magazine Diapason. His latest CD of Brahms works with Clive Greensmith and Boris Berman for the Le Palais de Dégustateur label was given the distinguished CHOC de Classica award by France’s esteemed Classica magazine.
Ettore Causa was one of the guests of honor at the 43rd International Viola Congress where he performed, with enormous success, his own arrangement of the Schumann Cello Concerto. The British Viola Society has awarded him an Honorary Membership in recognition of his enormous contribution to the viola community.
The Vega Quartet
Emily Daggett Smith & Jessica Shuang Wu, violins; Joseph Skerik, viola; Guang Wang, cello
The Vega Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at Emory University, is cultivating a new generation of chamber music lovers through dynamic performances and innovative community engagement. They concertize both nationally and internationally, most recently in Berlin, San Miguel Mexico, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Brahmssaal in Vienna’s Musikverein. The Quartet’s major performing projects at Emory have included performing the complete cycle of Beethoven quartets, as well as pairing Bach’s complete works for solo violin, viola, and cello with the six Bartók quartets. The Quartet’s 2024–2025 season features collaborations with pianist John Kimura Parker and violist Ettore Causa, and as regular commissioners of new music, the quartet will be premiering a Viola Quintet by Paul Coletti and Joel Thompson’s newest string quartet.
A unique aspect of the Quartet’s residency at Emory is bringing performance into the classroom, collaborating with academic professors to create interdisciplinary parallels and conversations. They also enrich the cultural life of their community, having founded the Vega Youth Chamber Music Program, which gives intensive training in small ensemble playing to advanced pre-college students.
The Vega Quartet has won numerous international awards, including at the Bordeaux String Quartet Competition, as well as top prizes from the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition, the Carmel Chamber Music Competition, and the National Society of Arts and Letters String Quartet Competition. They have toured throughout Asia, Europe, and North America and have appeared at Weill Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Bargemusic, and Duke Hall at the Royal Academy of Music, London. The members of the Vega Quartet collaborate with some of the world’s finest musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, David Shifrin, Mark and Maggie O’Connor, Andres Cardenes, Eliot Fisk, William Preucil, Richard Stoltzman, Robert Spano, Charles Wadsworth, Soovin Kim, and the Eroica Trio. They also commission, premier, and record works by leading composers. The Quartet is a frequent guest at numerous music festivals, including Amelia Island, Aspen, Brevard, Highlands-Cashiers, Juneau Jazz & Classics, Kingston, Kneisel Hall, Mostly Mozart, Rockport, San Miguel de Allende, and SummerFest La Jolla.
Amy Schwartz Moretti
Amy Schwartz Moretti is Director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, Caroline Paul King Chair in Strings, and professor of violin at the Mercer University Townsend School of Music. She developed and curates the Fabian Concert Series featuring internationally distinguished artists in chamber music concerts and master classes. In addition to her performances as an orchestral soloist and concertmaster, she is an award-winning chamber music artist, appearing in concert series and at music festivals across North America, Europe, and Asia, and she is a member of the internationally acclaimed Ehnes Quartet. She has served as guest concertmaster for the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Houston, and Pittsburgh; the New York Pops and Hawaii Pops; and the festival orchestras of Brevard, Colorado, and Grand Teton.
Recent performances include the premiere of award-winning composer Christopher Alan Schmitz’s Violin Concerto. Recent festival appearances include Bridgehampton, ChamberFest Cleveland, La Jolla, Meadowmount, Manchester, Vancouver, and Seattle. Recent projects include performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven String Quartets to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth and the performance in Seoul of the rarely heard Ludwig Spohr Concerto for String Quartet, op.131 in A Minor with the KBS Symphony Orchestra directed by Li Xinciao.
She has recorded for Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Onyx Classics, CBC Records, BCMF/Naxos, and Sono Luminus. Her Prokofiev and Bartók duos with renowned violinist James Ehnes were included in recordings that received Juno Awards for Classical Album of the Year—Solo or Chamber Ensemble in 2014 and again in 2015. The Ehnes Quartet’s recording of Schubert and Sibelius string quartets was nominated for a 2017 Gramophone Award.
The Cleveland Institute of Music has recognized her with an Alumni Achievement Award and she is the 2014 San Francisco Conservatory of Music Fanfare Honoree, their first pre-college graduate to be recognized. In 2018, she was selected as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year. She performs on her treasured Jean Baptiste Villaume violin made in Paris in 1874.
Music at Emory brings together students, faculty, and world-class artists to create an exciting and innovative season of performances, lectures, workshops, and master classes. With more than 150 events each year across multiple Emory venues, audiences experience a wide variety of musical offerings.
We hope you enjoy sampling an assortment of work from our student ensembles, community youth ensembles, artists in residence, professional faculty, up-and-coming prodigies, and virtuosos from around the world.
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