August 19, 2008
Alexander String Quartet
The Alexander String Quartet will be in residence at the Music Department from October 28-31. They will present classroom presentations for departments across campus, including Philosophy, First Year Program, Music, Performance and Communication Arts, Anthropology, German, and Fine Arts. The quartet will offer a noon matinee performance on Wednesday, with a full length concert the following evening. The concert will feature Beethoven’s Op. 18, movement I; Riley’s Mythic Birds Waltz; and Brahms Op. 51, movement I.
Having celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2006, THE ALEXANDER STRING QUARTET has performed in the major music capitals of four continents, securing its standing among the world’s premier ensembles. Widely admired for its interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, and Shostakovich, the quartet has also established itself as an important advocate of new music through over 25 commissions and numerous premiere performances. In 1999 BMG Classics released the Quartet’s nine-CD set of the Beethoven cycle on its Arte Nova label to tremendous critical acclaim. The FoghornClassics label released a three-CD set (Homage) of the Mozart quartets dedicated to Haydn in 2004. Foghorn recently released the completion of a six-CD album (Fragments) of the complete Shostakovich quartets, and a recording of the complete quartets of Pulitzer prize-winning San Francisco composer, Wayne Peterson, is forthcoming in the fall of 2007.