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American String Quartet to open October music schedule
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The annual Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle—the only one of its kind in the world—will begin its 48th year on Oct. 3 with a performance by the American String Quartet.
Later in the month, the Muir String Quartet will perform the second concert in the cycle on Oct. 24.
American String Quartet
PHOTO:
STU LEVY
The concert schedule for October presented by the Department of Music also will include performances by five-time Grammy nominated pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the Kevin Norton/Haewon Min Percussion and Piano Duo, and recitals by faculty members Tony Arnold, John Fullam and Cheryl Gobbetti-Hoffman.
Dubbed "the finest quartet based in New York" by Strad magazine in December 2001, the American String Quartet has won critical acclaim for its presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartok and Mozart. The quartet will perform at 8 p.m. on Oct. 3 in Slee Concert Hall, North Campus, and will moderate a pre-concert talk at 7:15 p.m. in Slee.
The American has served as resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and the Manhattan School of Music since 1984. It celebrated its 25th anniversary in the 1998-99 season with a tour that included concerts in all 50 states, a performance at the Kennedy Center and two European tours.
The Muir String Quartet, considered by many to be one of the world's most powerful and insightful ensembles, will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 24 in Slee.
The Muir won the 1980 Evian International String Quartet Competition and the 1981 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, and was featured on the acclaimed PBS broadcast "In Performance at the White House." It has premiered works by esteemed American composers Lukas Foss ("String Quartet #4"), Joan Tower ("Night Fields") and Ezra Laderman ("String Quartet #9").
Marc-André Hamelin, who will appear at 8 p.m. Oct. 11 in Slee, was the only classical artist to play live at the 2001 Grammy Awards ceremony, where both his recording of the Busoni Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (UK) and double album of the complete Chopin-Godowsky Etudes were nominated.
His recent engagements include a recital series in Tokyo, multiple programs in London's Wigmore Hall and tours with the BBC Symphony.
Slee concert-goers will have the rare opportunity to hear the work of composer, multi-instrumentalist, teacher and conductor Anthony Braxton performed live with a performance by the Kevin Norton/Haewon Min Percussion and Piano Duo at 8 p.m. Oct. 16. The duo will perform again at noon on Oct. 17 in Baird Recital Hall, North Campus, in a concert featuring the work of UB graduate composers.
A composer and percussionist who has performed internationally for nearly 20 years, Norton is focused on widening the palette of sounds and rhythms in jazz and new music. He has played creative percussion with Braxton's ensembles and has worked with many other unique musicians.
Min is a classically trained pianist from South Korea. A faculty member at Nyack College, she has performed as a soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic and the Aquinas Orchestra.
The October music schedule will close with recitals by three UB faculty members.
Flutist Cheryl Gobbetti-Hoffman will call upon some of the finest musicians UB has to offer when she presents a concert of music that spans the centuries. Gobbetti-Hoffman will be joined by cellist Jonathan Golove and pianist Stephen Manes—two-thirds of The Baird Trio, UB artists-in-residence—in a performance at 8 p.m. Oct. 21 in Slee.
Gobbetti-Hoffman also will premiere a work by fellow UB faculty member David Felder called "Dionysiacs."
Principal flute for the Slee Sinfonietta, UB's professional chamber orchestra, Gobbetti Hoffman studied at the Manhattan School of Music. She is a former tenured musician and board director for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
A small group of esteemed local musicians will join John Fullam in a program of clarinet classics, including "The Shepherd on the Rock"—Schubert's popular work for clarinet, piano and soprano—at 8 p.m. Oct. 28 in Slee.
Principle clarinetist of the BPO, Fullam will be accompanied by BPO second clarinet Patti Diluits, pianist Claudia Hoca and husband and wife Roman and Sebnem Mekinulov, BPO principal cellist and soprano, respectively.
Fullam holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Joseph Allard, soloist with the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra and principal clarinetist of the Juilliard Concert Orchestra. He has appeared at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with Eugene Ormandy, the Marlboro Festival with Pablo Casals and Rudolf Serkin, the Tanglewood Festival with Leonard Bernstein and the Roundtop Festival with Leon Fleischer.
Soprano Tony Arnold, who performed as guest soloist twice last season with the Slee Sinfonietta, will give her first recital as a UB faculty member at 8 p.m. Oct. 30 in Baird Recital Hall, accompanied by fellow faculty members Movses Pogossian, violin, and Jacob Greenberg, piano.
In 2001, Arnold became the only vocalist ever to be awarded First Prize in the International Guadeamus Interpreters Competition, the oldest and most important competition for performers of contemporary music. She also won First Prize in the Louise D. McMahon International Music Competition.
Tickets for the American String Quartet, the Muir String Quartet and Marc-Andr&#eacute; Hamelin are $12 for the general public; $9 for UB faculty, staff and alumni, senior citizens and WNED members with card, and $5 for students.
Tickets for Tony Arnold, John Fullam and Cheryl Gobbetti Hoffman are $5; students are admitted free with valid ID.
The concerts presented by the Norton-Min Duo are free of charge.
Tickets may be purchased at the Slee 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 outlets.
For more information, see the Slee Web site at http://www.slee.buffalo.edu.