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The Ives Quartet Announces 2008-09 I0th Anniversary Season “ In The Vernacular ”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact Pam Lampkin
September 29, 2008
Tel: 650.224.7849  info@ivescollective.org     

Palo Alto, CA – Equally acclaimed as interpreters of the established repertoire and as champions of contemporary music, the Ives Quartet celebrates its 10thAnniversary Season with an exploration of the vernacular of string quartets that span four centuries in both the Old and New World. In this milestone season, the quartet continues its presentation of under-appreciated gems, neglected scores and new commissions alongside well known and much loved works of the string quartet canon.

The 10th Anniversary Season offers a distinguished roster of guest artists,William Wellborn, pianist, Eugene Brancoveanu, baritone, Christopher Basso, pianist, and two new works by composersJoseph Gregorio and Dan Becker, specially commissioned by the Ives Quartet. All concerts are preceded by “Raising Your IQ” – the quartet’s unique preview presentations. To enrich the context for its concert programs, the quartet offers pre-concert events in which quartet members and guest speakers provide insights and musical illustrations of the music and the music-making.

The season opens with:

“Paradoxes: The American Legacy”
Sunday, October 19, Le Petit Trianon, San Jose, 7PM
Friday, October 24, St. Mark’s Church, Palo Alto, 8PM

The divide between academic music adhering to European tradition and the budding New World school of self-taught, home-grown composers becomes a feature of 20th century American music.

  • George Gershwin, Lullaby
  • Charles Ives, Quartet No. 2
  • Amy Beach, Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op.67;
    William Wellborn, guest pianist

– What’s a composer to do?
If you’re a woman in a man’s world (like the early 20th century virtuoso pianist/composer Amy Beach) you write music and make sure it reaches the public by performing it yourself. If you’re Charles Ives, brought up with a struggling, ex-civil war bandleader for a father (in a town where the rest of your family is in “legitimate” business) you become an insurance innovator who composes largely for your desk drawer. And if you’reGeorge Gershwin, a successful composer of Broadway shows and popular songs, you mine the vernacular traditions you know best to write your only piece of chamber music.

San Francisco based, William Wellborn, guest pianist, will join the Ives Quartet in presenting Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet in F sharp minor, Op.67. Mr. Wellborn is in demand as a pianist, teacher and lecturer throughout North America and Europe. The quartet and Mr. Wellborn will also present Ms. Beach’s work at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, October 27, 7PM. This program coincides with the San Francisco Public Library’s presentation of an Amy Beach retrospective in the Music Library, Main Branch.

Guest musicologist, Emiliano Ricciardi, along with the quartet musicians, will share insights into Charles Ives’, Quartet No. 2 during the pre-concert presentation. All pre-concert programming begins 45 minutes before the concert.

The celebration continues:

Ives Quartet Winter Series:

With an American Voice
Sunday, January 25,Le Petit Trianon, San Jose, 8PM
Sunday, February 22, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 2PM

American experiences told with an American voice, this program explores the classical quartet aesthetic overlaid with American musical styles.

  • Quincy Porter, Early Works: Prelude, Andante, Scherzo, In Monasterio.
  • Joseph Gregorio, Voices of Lincoln, for string quartet and baritone, commissioned by the Ives Quartet to honor the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. Eugene Brancoveanu, acclaimed SF Opera baritone, will join the quartet for these premiere performances.
  • Anton Dvorak, Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, “American”

Ives Quartet Spring Series:

New Horizons
Sunday, April 26,Le Petit Trianon, San Jose, 7PM
Friday, May 1, St. Mark’s Church, Palo Alto, 8PM

Each of the compositions featured in this program is the composer’s first exploration of the genre and its language.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven, Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3; his first quartet.
  • Dan Becker, world premiere of a work commissioned by the Ives Quartet
  • Ernst von Dohnanyi, Piano Quintet in C Minor, Op. 1; Christopher Basso, guest pianist

Spring Premiere:

Locally Grown
May 3, 2009, Koret Auditorium-De Young Museum, San Francisco, 2PM

For its 10th anniversary season, IQ is launching this new concert series featuring the works of composers who lived or who now live within 100 miles of the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

  • Dan Becker
  • Hyo-Shin Na
  • Andrew Imbrie
  • Joseph Gregorio

The Ives Quartet is a 501(c) (3) Non-Profit charitable organization. Major support is provided by Arts Council Silicon Valley in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council in partnership with Adobe Systems, Inc., the Argosy Foundation, Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, Fleischhacker Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Maverick Capital Foundation, A Meet the Composer, Commissioning Music/USA Commission and the Waldfogel Family Foundation.

Commissioned by the Ives Quartet in honor of their Tenth Anniversary (2009),
“A New Work”, by Dan Becker, was commissioned as a part of a national series of works from Meet the Composer’s Commissioning Music/USA program, which is made possible by generous support from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Francis Goelt Trust, the Helen F. Whitaker Fund, Target, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

All programs, artists and repertoire are subject to change.

General : $25 ~ Seniors: $20 ~ Students 13-18: $15

Tickets available at
http://www.ivescollective.org/tickets.htm

B/W and Color jpg photos available athttp://ivescollective.org/news.htm#photo

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