Quartets to Complete Slee/Beethoven Cycle

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Two outstanding string quartets -- the Miami String Quartet and the Daedalus String Quartet -- will perform the final two concerts next month in the Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle for 2004-05.

Winners of the 2000 Cleveland Quartet Award, the Miami String Quartet will perform the fifth concert in the cycle at 8 p.m. April 1 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

The Daedalus String Quartet, the Grand Prize winner of the Banff International String Quartet Competition just a year after the ensemble's founding in 2000 at the Marlboro Music Festival, will perform the final concert at 8 p.m. April 15 in Lippes Concert Hall.

The Daedalus also will conduct a composer reading with UB graduate students, which will be free and open to the public, at 10 a.m. April 16 in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus.

Rounding out the concert schedule for the first half of an extremely busy month will be faculty recitals by organist David Fuller and soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Jacob Greenberg.

Praised by The New York Times as having "everything one wants in a quartet: a rich, precisely balanced sound, a broad coloristic palette, real unity of interpretive purpose and seemingly unflagging energy," the Miami String Quartet became the first string quartet in a decade to win first prize in the Concert Artists Guild New York Competition in 1992. The group also has won recognition in competitions throughout the world, including as laureate of the 1993 Evian Competition and as the 1989 Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

The ensemble's interest in new music has led to many commissions and premieres, most recently a work by composer Annie Gosfield commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Quartet members joined the faulty of Kent State University last fall, where the ensemble will be named as Quartet-in-Residence.

The Daedalus String Quartet takes its name from the mythical Greek inventor, artist, and architect who is celebrated for creating the art of sculpture, designing the Labyrinth and above all, for regaining his freedom by devising wings that made it possible for him to fly.

The quartet has been selected by Carnegie Hall to participate in the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) Rising Stars program, making debuts during the current season at the Philharmonie (Cologne), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Musikverein (Vienna), the Mozarteum (Salzburg), Symphony Hall (Birmingham), the Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels), the Megaron (Athens) and the Cite de la Musique (Paris), as well as a presentation by Carnegie Hall as part of its "Distinctive Debuts" series at Weill Recital Hall. 

The ensemble has been named by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be the Chamber Music Society Two string quartet for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. As a member of Chamber Music Society Two, the quartet will perform on numerous occasions at Lincoln Center, including its own concerts, and concerts in collaboration with artist members of the society, and other Chamber Music Society Two artists. The quartet will also participate in many of the society's educational programs.

David Fuller's technical input into the design of the path-breaking Fisk organ in Lippes Concert Hall allows him an intimacy with the instrument that few others have. A professor emeritus in the Department of Music, he will present a faculty recital at 8 p.m. April 2 in Lippes hall.

A native of West Newton, Mass., Fuller studied organ with E. Power Biggs, William Self and André Marchal. He received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, all from Harvard. He taught the history of music at the UB from 1963-98, and was deeply involved in the design and acquisition of the Fisk organ. On this instrument, he recorded the last two symphonies of Widor and two further sets devoted to Germanic romantic music, including the tone-poem "Saul" by Eduard Stehle, and Hans Fuhrmann's eighth sonata.

As a musicologist, he specializes in French music of the 17th and 18th centuries and in problems of historical performance, on which he has published widely.

The faculty recitals will continue with a joint performance by soprano Tony Arnold, visiting assistant professor, and pianist Jacob Greenberg, assistant professor, at 8 p.m. April 8 in Lippes hall.

In an earlier collaboration, Greenberg accompanied Arnold in her first-prize appearance at the 2001 International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where she was the first vocalist ever to win the prestigious award. Later that year, she took top honors at the McMahon International Music Competition, and he received the special award for outstanding accompanist. Their recent recording of Elliott Carter's "Of Challenge and of Love" is available on Bridge Records.

Arnold's future performances will include Brian Ferneyhough's "Etudes Transcendantales" with Ensemble 21 at the Miller Theater, and return engagements with Contempo, International Contemporary Ensemble and at June in Buffalo.

For Greenberg, highlights of the 2004-05 season include a performance of Messiaen's "Sept Haïkaï" at Oberlin College, a concert with the George Crumb Ensemble and recitals at New York's Symphony Space, New York University and the Boston Conservatory.

Tickets for the Miami and Daedalus quartets are $12 for the general public, $9 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, senior citizens and WNED members with a card, and $5 for students. Tickets for the faculty recitals are $5, with UB students admitted free with ID.Tickets can be obtained at the Slee Hall box office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, at the Center for the Arts box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.