Escher String Quartet to present first three concerts in Slee/Beethoven cycle

The Escher String Quartet, one of the very few chamber ensembles to be awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, will make its debut at UB next month when it presents the first three concerts of this season’s Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle.

The concerts will take place at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13, 14 and 15 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

As part of its visit to UB, the Escher also will work with music students in a public coaching session, or master class, at 11 a.m. Nov. 14 in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus. The class is free and open to the public.

Founded in 2005, the Escher — Adam Barnett-Hart and Aaron Boyd, violins; Pierre Lapointe, viola; and Brook Speltz, cello — serves as artists of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and this season is presenting the complete Zemlinsky Quartets Cycle in a concert streamed live from the Rose Studio.

The quartet also has performed at such prestigious venues as the BBC Proms and Wigmore Hall.

Tickets for the Escher String Quartet are $15 for the general public and $10 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, seniors and non-UB students, and free for UB students with a valid ID.

In addition to the Escher, other concerts to be presented by the Department of Music in November include the New York City-based contemporary music quartet loadbang on Nov. 12, faculty recitals by bassoonist Glenn Einschlag on Nov. 6 and clarinetist Jean Kopperud on Nov. 11, and organist Hector Olivera on Nov. 21.

Who is loadbang? This quartet — bass clarinetist Carlos Cordeiro, trumpeter Andy Kozar, baritone vocalist Jeffrey Gavett and trombonist William Lang — is building a new kind of music for mixed ensemble. Since its founding in 2008, its unique, lung-powered instrumentation has provoked diverse responses from composers, resulting in a stylistic palette ranging from whistled Brazilian rhythms and microtonal jazz standards to the decoupled and deconstructed sounds of the second modernity.

The quartet will perform at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 in Lippes Concert Hall. Members also will lead a composer workshop session with graduate composition students at 11 a.m. Nov. 13 in Baird Recital Hall. The session is open to the public.

The concert is presented by Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21^st Century Music, along with the UB music department.

Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, seniors and non-UB students, and free for UB students with a valid ID.

The faculty recitals by Einschlag, adjunct instructor and principal bassoonist for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Kopperud, professor of music, will take place at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 6 and Nov. 11, respectively, in Lippes Concert Hall.

Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, seniors and non-UB students, and free for UB students with a valid ID.

Einschlag has performed with such ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. As a soloist, he has played numerous solo recitals, as well as various concerti, with the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra, the BPO and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra.

Kopperud is one of the most versatile and innovative clarinetists performing today, known for her virtuoso performances both in the concert hall and in music theater. A graduate of the Juilliard School, she has toured internationally as a concert soloist and chamber musician. Presently, she is performing with The New York New Music Ensemble, Omega, Ensemble 21, Washington Square Chamber Players and the Slee Sinfonietta, UB’s professional chamber orchestra in residence.

To close out the concert schedule for November, organ virtuoso Hector Olivera will present an eclectic selection of classics, lighter classics and an improvisation on a submitted theme in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21 in Lippes Concert Hall.

Tickets to the concert, co-sponsored by the Buffalo chapter of the American Guild of Organists, are $15 for the general public and $10 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, seniors and non-UB students, and free for UB students with a valid ID.

Born in Buenos Aires, Olivera began playing the pipe organ at age 3. At 5, he played for the legendary Eva Perón, at 12 he entered the University of Buenos Aires and by 18 he had performed for heads of state and celebrities throughout Latin America.

He moved to the U.S. to attend Juilliard on scholarship and three years later launched an outstanding professional concert career when he won the AGO’s National Improvisation Contest.

Olivera has performed solo concerts throughout the U.S, Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and Latin America, and as a guest soloist with prominent symphony orchestras worldwide.

Tickets to Department of Music concerts may be purchased in person at the Center for the Arts box office or online at www.tickets.com.