Denison University Announces Ensemble in Residence Partnership with ETHEL String Quartet

Denison announces ensemble in residence partnership with quartet ETHEL

GRANVILLE, Ohio - Denison University announces the launch of its first Ensemble-in-Residence program, a collaboration between the Department of Music and the Vail Series. The Ensemble-in-Residence program will engage the entire campus and the greater community in an exploration of music and other academic disciplines. The program will host the renowned string quartet ETHEL for the 2014-2015 academic year.



We look forward to having ETHEL on campus to deepen the learning of all our students and engage our community across a variety of settings,said Denison President Adam Weinberg. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to connect with world-class musicians about music and over a whole host of academic disciplines.



Founded in 1998 and based in New York, ETHEL is comprised of Ralph Farris (viola), Kip Jones (violin), Dorothy Lawson (cello) and Tema Watstein (violin). ETHEL experienced its first Denison welcome at the opening of last years Vail Series. Those who attended that concert, as well as their bonus performance in front of Doane Library, can attest to their virtuosity as well as the connection they made with the Denison community,says Mike Morris, interim director of the Vail Series. In turn, ETHELs musicians were taken by our students level of engagement and the warm reception they received at Denison.



As the Denison University Ensemble-in-Residence, ETHEL will be on campus for three weeks in 2014/15; Tuesday, Oct. 21 to Saturday, Oct. 25; Monday, March 2 to Saturday, March 7, during which they will be the featured performers for the Tutti New Music Festival; and finally from Wednesday, April 22 to Saturday, April 25. The quartet will coach and mentor students in the music department. In addition, they will engage their talents in a series of interdisciplinary activities, including:

- With the Dance Department: Workshops in improvisation with Technique and Improvisation classes;

- With Environmental Studies: A lunch discussion on considerations of being an environmentally active ensemble, which will include subjects such as an ETHEL members efforts to reclaim a New York City park, and how to reduce a touring artist's carbon footprint;

- With the Communication Department: Contributions from their perspective regarding music and the arts;

 With the Homestead: Tour, dinner and seminar presentation;

- With the Newark Granville Youth Symphony: A master class, funded in part by a grant from Arts Midwest;

 With Kendal of Granville: A mini-concert and reception.



As part of their residency, ETHEL will carry the Denison banner with them as they perform and conduct master classes across the country and internationally. We are excited to have ETHEL help tell the Denison story of students from around the world who come together to pursue academic inquiry and research, to analyze and solve problems, and to forge the skills needed to succeed,says Ching-chu Hu, associate professor of music.



We are so pleased to be returning to Denison,says Ralph Farris, co-founder and violist of ETHEL. We feel so welcomed into this thriving community and look forward to working with everyone. Its going to be a fantastic year!



About ETHEL

Acclaimed as unfailingly vital(The New York Times), brilliant,downtowns reigning string quartet(The New Yorker), and one of the most exciting quartets around(Strad Magazine), ETHEL invigorates the contemporary music scene with exuberance, intensity, imaginative programming, and exceptional artistry.

At the heart of ETHEL is a quest for a common creative expression that is forged in the celebration of community. As cultural and musical pollinators,the quartet brings its collaborative discoveries to audiences through multi-dimensional musical repertoire and community engagement. ETHEL's 2014-15 season celebrates the diversity of regional American music, anchored by a national tour of the evening-length ETHELs Documerica. Described by The New York Times as new music bonding with old images in rich, provocative and moving ways,this program directed by Steve Cosson features montages by acclaimed projection artist Deborah Johnson in concert with commissioned work by Mary Ellen Childs, Ulysses Owens Jr., Jared Impichchaachaaha Tate and James "Kimo" Williams and new music by the members of ETHEL.

Throughout the season ETHEL tours several critically-acclaimed signature programs, ranging from a collaboration with guitar virtuoso Kaki King, to the Music of the Sunconcerts with Robert Mirabal, to an introspective program Grace,featuring ETHEL's arrangements of music by Ennio Morricone and Jeff Buckley. Other highlights include: a Composer Portraitof Missy Mazzoli featuring a premiere of her new quartet commissioned by ETHEL at Miller Theater; performances as the Resident Ensemble at The Metropolitan Museum of Arts Balcony Bar; and a new residency at Denison University culminating in a performance at the Tutti Contemporary Music Festival.

Always striving to demonstrate the unifying power of music, ETHEL has initiated innovative collaborations with an extraordinary community of international artists including David Byrne, Bang on a Can, Todd Rundgren, Carlo Mombelli, Ursula Oppens, Loudon Wainwright III, STEW, Ensemble Modern, Jill Sobule, Dean Osborne, Howard Levy, Simone Sou, Andrew Bird, Iva Bittov?, Colin Currie, Thomas Dolby, Jeff Peterson, Oleg Fateev, Stephen Gosling, Jake Shimabukuro, Polygraph Lounge and Vijay Iyer.

For ten consecutive years, ETHEL has served as the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Grand Canyon Music Festival's Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project. The groups ongoing dedication to working with indigenous people and music culminated in the 2010 release of Oshtali: Music for String Quartet (Thunderbird Records), the first commercial recording of American Indian student works. ETHEL is also the 2014-15 Ensemble-in-Residence at Denison University.

ETHELs debut eponymous CD was a Billboard Magazine Best Recording of 2003.Its second CD, Light, ranked #3 on Amazon.coms Best of 2006and #5 on WYNCs Best of 2006 Listener Poll.The groups most recent CD, Heavy, was released in 2012 to great critical acclaim. ETHEL has appeared as a guest artist on many albums, including The Paha Sapa Give-Back by Jerome Kitzke, (Innova, 2014), Cold Blue Two (Cold Blue Music, 2012), Glow by Kaki King (Velour Recordings, 2012); Blue Moth by Anna Clyne (Tzadik, 2012); A Map of the Floating City by Thomas Dolby (Redeye Label, 2012); The Duke by Joe Jackson (Razor & Tie, 2012); John the Revelator: A Mass for Six Voices by Phil Kline (Cantaloupe Music, 2008) with vocal group Lionheart; and the Grammy Award-winning Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman (Concord Records, 2009).

Over the past five years, ETHEL has premiered 100 new works by 20th- and 21st-century composers including: Phil Klines SPACEat the gala reopening of Alice Tully Hall; RADIOby Osvaldo Golijov at the debut of WNYC Radios Jerome L. Greene Space; ETHELs TruckStop?: The Beginning and ETHELs Documerica at BAMs Next Wave Festival; ETHEL Fair: The Songwriters at opening night of Lincoln Centers Out of Doors; WAIT FOR GREENwith choreographer Annie-B Parson commissioned by arts>World Financial Center; and HonBiBaekSanby Dohee Lee at Meet the Composers 3-City Dash Festival. ETHELs HomeBaked series has to date commissioned and premiered works by emerging NYC composers Andy Akiho, Hannis Brown, Anna Clyne, Lainie Fefferman, Dan Friel, Judd Greenstein, Matt Marks, and Ulysses Owens Jr. ETHEL has debuted original scores in combination with new choreography by Aleksandra Vrebalov/Dusan Tynek Dance Company and Son Lux/Gina Gibney Dance; and works by contemporary music luminaries such as Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, John Zorn, Evan Ziporyn, Steve Reich, John King, Raz Mesinai, John Luther Adams, JacobTV, Hafez Modirzadeh, David Lang, Kenji Bunch, Don Byron and Marcelo Zarvos. For more information, visit www.ethelcentral.org.