Tuesday March 20, 2007
Guest Artist Master Class: Degas String Quartet
Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2007 / 3:30 pm / Cultural Arts Building Recital Hall
The acclaimed Degas String Quartet conducts a Master Class for UNCW string students. Observation of the class is free and open to the public.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Since their founding at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in 1999, the Degas Quartet has emerged as the most exciting young string quartet on stage today. Renowned for energetic performances of the classical and contemporary quartet repertoire, the Degas Quartet plays with vibrant intensity and exceptional musicianship.
Highlights of their distinguished concert career include appearances in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Harris Hall at the Aspen Music Festival. The Degas Quartet has performed with esteemed artists including pianist Wu Han, pianist Awadigin Pratt, cellist Steven Doane, and jazz
bassisst Christian McBride. In addition, the group has collaborated in concert with the Colorado Quartet, the Fry Street Quartet, and the Jupiter Quartet.
The quartet studied the standard repertoire with some of America's finest ensembles, including the Takacs, the Emerson, the Julliard, the Colorado, the Vermeer and the Cassatt Quartet. A recipient of a 2004-2005 Residency Grant from Chamber Music America, the Degas Quartet is based in Hickory,
North Carolina, where they are featured on the UBS Chamber Classics concert series. The Quartet has performed and coached chamber music at many of North Carolina's leading Universities and Colleges, including Appalachian State, University Brevard College, UNC Pembroke, and Davidson College.
Strong advocates for the performance and composition of contemporary music, the Degas Quartet has premiered numerous new works in venues such as New York's Music Under Construction series, New York's WQXR Classical Radio, and the Gamper Contemporary Music Festival at Bowdoin College. In 2005, the Degas Quartet premiered Monotypes by Laura Kaminsky, a work inspired by five paintings by Edward Degas. The quartet has also worked closely with composer Joan Tower, who revised her composition Elegy for the quartetıs performance in 2004 with trombonist Haim Avitsur. In the upcoming seasons, the quartet will perform new works by Armando Bayalo, Shafer Mahoney, Piotr Szewczyk and Stefan Freund.
Photo of Degas String Quartet
Brought to you by the Department of Music.
