Emerson String Quartet will conclude the String Theory Season on May 19
String Theory, in partnership with Lee University and the Hunter Museum of American Art, will present the Emerson String Quartet in concert on Thursday, May 19, at 6:30 p.m.
Founded in 2009 by Artistic Director Gloria Chien, String Theory brings acclaimed chamber musicians from around the world to perform in the intimate setting of the Hunter Museum.
The evening’s program will feature Haydn’s String Quartet in C, Op.76, No.3, “Emperor,” in addition to Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No.3 in E-flat, Op.30.
Prior to the performance, Art Connection will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Hunter Museum gallery. Art Connection gives attendees the opportunity to hear Ellen Simak, former Hunter Museum chief curator, and Maestro Robert Bernhardt discuss works from the Hunter collection that relate to the music featured in the concert.
Review for the Emerson String Quartet:
The Emerson String Quartet has accumulated an unparalleled list of achievements over three decades: more than 30 acclaimed recordings, nine Grammy awards (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year,” and collaborations with many of the greatest artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Quartet includes Eugene Drucker, violin; Lawrence Dutton, viola; Philip Setzer, violin; and Paul Watson, cello.
The New York Times wrote of the Quartet, “The Emerson brought the requisite virtuosity to every phrase, but this music is equally demanding emotionally and intellectually, and the group’s powers of concentration and sustained intensity were at least as impressive.”
The Emerson’s season has included performances at BBC Proms and the Ravinia, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chamber Music Northwest, Evian, Berlin, Great Lakes, Norfolk, Cape Cod, and Mostly Mozart festivals. The Quartet will appear at the second Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall this month. Multiple international tours comprise 10 European countries in addition to stops in Moscow, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Seoul. The Emerson also performed at the Smithsonian Institution and was included in Lincoln Center’s “Great Performers” three-part series.
The Quartet, which took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, is Quartet-in-Residence at Stony Brook University. In January 2015, the Quartet received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America’s highest honor, in recognition of its significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field.
Individual tickets for the concert are $30 for Hunter members, $40 for non-members, $10 for students with a valid student ID and $25 for groups of 20 or more people. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 267-0968 or visit stringtheorymusic.org.