“Orange,” the Grammy Award-winning collaboration between Attacca Quartet and composer Caroline Shaw, is a “completely gorgeous” (BBC) “love letter to the string quartet” (NPR).
On April 3, Attacca Quartet — one of the most acclaimed young ensembles in contemporary classical music — will present works by Shaw, Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt and Maurice Ravel in a performance for the Great Artists Series at Washington University in St. Louis.
Founded while its four members — violinists Amy Schroeder and Keiko Tokunaga, violist Nathan Schram and cellist Andrew Yee — were students at Julliard, Attacca Quartet has risen “to become a respected and popular quartet distinguished by a rangy, expansive, 21st-century orientation” (The Nation).
The April 3 program will begin with Shaw’s playful “Entr’acte” (2011), the opening track from “Orange,” whose abrupt shifts and unexpected juxtapositions were inspired by a passage from Haydn. Next will be selections from Glass’ String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima” (1985), created as score for Paul Schrader’s genre-defying film about the acclaimed Japanese author.
Following intermission, the program will continue with Pärt’s stately “Summa” (1977), which the Estonian composer originally wrote for chorus. Concluding the evening will be Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major (1903). Completed when Ravel was a student at the Paris Conservatoire, the quartet would precipitate his third and final expulsion yet soon become one of his earliest popular successes.
The performance, sponsored by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, will begin at 7 p.m. in WashU’s E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall. Single tickets are $37-40, or $32-35 for WashU faculty and staff, and $15 for students and children.
Tickets are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, 314-935-6543, or at edison.wustl.edu.
Attacca Quartet
One of the most versatile and outstanding ensembles performing today, Attacca Quartet are passionate advocates of contemporary repertoire — a quartet for modern times. Recent concert highlights include performances at Lincoln Center and the Miller Theatre in New York; Kings Place in London; and the Vertavo Haydn Festival in Oslo. Attacca Quartet also has served as the Quartet in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; as Ensemble-in-Residence at the School of Music at Texas State University; and as Graduate Resident String Quartet at Juilliard.
In addition to its Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, “Orange” was featured in NPR’s list of “25 Best Albums of 2019” and “10 Classical Albums to Usher in the Next Decade,” as well as The New York Times’ “25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2019.” It also was shortlisted for the 2020 BBC Music Magazine Awards and several Opus Klassik Awards. Other recordings include an album of string quartets by Michael Ippolito and the complete works for string quartet by John Adams.
Read the group’s full bio here.
Great Artists Series
The Great Artists Series hosts intimate recitals with some of the brightest stars on the contemporary concert stage. Following Attacca Quartet, the 2022 series will continue April 24 with “sumptuously voiced soprano” (The New York Times) Angel Blue. South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho will conclude the series May 1.
The E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall is located in the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., at the intersection with Delmar Boulevard. To ensure the safety of all concert-goers, the concert hall will be kept at reduced capacity and campus visitors must show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter.
For more information about campus COVID-19 policies, visit the WashU Together website.
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