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Tesla Quartet
July 20, 2021 | 7:00 pm
photos by Dario Acosta
THE BROYHILL CHAMBER SERIES presents
TESLA QUARTET
Sponsored by McDonald’s of Boone
This year’s series is dedicated to the memory of Larry Freiman, a generous and devoted supporter of An Appalachian Summer Festival’s classical music programming.
“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, these “ties inseparable.” Through performance, teaching, and outreach, the Tesla Quartet strives to tap into this palpable feeling and create meaningful connections with their audiences.
Praised for their “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play, regardless of era, style, or technical demand” (The International Review of Music), the Tesla Quartet brings refinement and prowess to both new and established repertoire. Dubbed “technically superb” by The Strad, the Tesla Quartet has won top prizes in numerous international competitions, most recently taking Second Prize as well as the Haydn Prize and Canadian Commission Prize at the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition. In 2018, the Tesla Quartet released its debut album of Haydn, Ravel, and Stravinsky quartets on the Orchid Classics label to critical acclaim. BBC Music Magazine awarded the disc a double 5-star rating and featured it as the “Chamber Choice” for the month of December. Gramophone praised the quartet for its “tautness of focus and refinement of detail.” Their second disc on the Orchid Classics label, Joy & Desolation, a collaboration with clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein featuring quintets by Mozart, Finzi, John Corigliano, and Carolina Heredia, was released in October 2019.
Musical Program:
String Quartet in C Major, Op. 76 No. 3 “Emperor” Joseph Haydn
String Quartet No. 1 in a minor, Op. 7 Bela Bartok
Cypresses, B.152 Antonin Dvorak
LOCATIONS:
Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts – Limited in-person seating available for live indoor performance. Due to social distancing requirements, seats are grouped primarily in groups of two to six. Please call the box office for special seating requests.
Livestream – A partnership with The Violin Channel allows this event to be livestreamed free of charge.
Where to Watch: Facebook Live at @anappalachiansummerfestival or @theviolinchannel, or via Appalachian Summer Festival YouTube Live.
Following the concert, the recording will be available to view for a period of 7 days at theviolinchannel.com.
ESTIMATED SHOW LENGTH: 75 minutes; no intermission
FOR INFORMATION OR TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Contact theschaefercenter@appstate.edu, call 800-841-2787 or 828-262-4046, visit in person the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts, 733 Rivers Street, Boone, NC, or purchase online.
SCHAEFER CENTER IN-PERSON EVENT POLICIES
View here
ACCOMMODATION STATEMENT: Appalachian is committed to providing an inclusive experience for individuals with disabilities. If accommodations are needed in order to fully participate on the basis of a disability contact the Office of Disability Resources (828.262.3056). It is recommended that accommodation requests be made two weeks prior to the event.
TICKETS:
In-person: $35 per person
STUDENTS FREE WITH PURCHASE OF ADULT TICKET
Livestream: FREE
SHOWTIMES:
Tuesday, July 20, 2021 | 7pm (in-person); doors open at 6:30pm
Tuesday, July 20, 2021 | 7pm ET (livestream)
ABOUT TESLA QUARTET
Now entering its second decade, the quartet performs regularly across North America and Europe, with recent highlights including their debut at New York’s Lincoln Center, a return to London’s Wigmore Hall, and performances at Stanford University’s Bing Concert Hall as winners of the prestigious John Lad Prize. Other recent international engagements include tours of Brazil, China, and South Korea. Notable festival appearances include the Banff Centre International String Quartet Festival; the Joseph Haydn String Quartet Festival at the Esterházy Palace in Fertőd, Hungary; the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany; and the Festival Sesc de Música de Câmara in São Paulo, Brazil. Having served as the Marjorie Young Bell String Quartet-in-Residence at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada from 2016-2017, the Tesla Quartet also recently completed a four-year community residency in Hickory, North Carolina that included performances and workshops at local colleges, universities, and in the public school system, as well as a dedicated chamber music series.
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. From 2009 to 2012, the quartet held a fellowship as the Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where they studied with the world-renowned Takács Quartet. They have also held fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies, the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
The Tesla Quartet is Ross Snyder (violin), Michelle Lie (violin), Edwin Kaplan (viola), and Serafim Smigelskiy (cello). Learn more at www.teslaquartet.com.
REVIEWS
“Impassioned interpretation was the rule throughout. …There were many refined moments of sweet repose too, particularly in the coda that were given duly sensitive treatment by the ensemble, an important contrast that helped to display the many sides of Brahms’s musical personality . . . [The ensemble] handled it all with an astute combination of power and grace, shifting gears seamlessly throughout the manifold textures.” —Stephen Bonfield, Calgary Herald
“The Tesla Quartet (US) followed with Debussy’s String Quartet, the fleeting atmospheres of which have defeated some of the world’s finest. This was a subtly coloured performance that balanced confidently between intimacy and extraversion. A real sense of four players listening to each other did not obstruct a natural rapport with the audience.” —The London Evening Standard
“The Tesla players…offered an impressive program of music reaching across centuries of compositional creativity. And they did so with a superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they played, regardless of era, style or technical demand.” —Don Heckman, The International Review of Music
“There was poise, mystery and elegance in the first movement, and playing in the second that was at once strong and delicate, the staccato perfectly judged to both speak and bite, the fortissimo outbursts raw and vehement. …The Tesla was technically superb in Debussy’s Quartet, its performance full of urgency, colour and subtle dynamics. This was a masterclass in quartet technique, with great momentum in the last movement.” —The Strad
“Their commitment to excellence has paid off for them in a big way in a short time. …When a chamber group can make you feel like you are listening to a full orchestra, you have to admit there’s some real magic taking place.” —Midwest Record
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