Nov. 13: ASPECT Chamber Music Series Presents Haunted Minds Feat. the Ariel Quartet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214

ASPECT Chamber Music Series Presents Haunted Minds 
on November 13 at the Italian Academy of Columbia University

Featuring the Ariel Quartet with an Illustrated
Talk by Musicologist Nicholas Chong
 

New York, NY (October 16, 2019) — The ASPECT Chamber Music Series continues its fourth New York City season of illuminating performances with Haunted Minds on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 7:30pm at the Italian Academy of Columbia University. The concert features the Ariel Quartet in Bartók’s String Quartet No. 1 and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8.

Musicologist Nicholas Chong gives an illustrated talk about how both Bartók and Shostakovich not only survived traumatic experiences, but transformed them into music of inspirational nature. Profoundly hurt when rejected by violinist Stefi Geyer, Bartók turned inwards, weaving music from a ‘Stefi’ motif that passes from grief to energetic folk-inspired resolution. Half a century later, guilt-ridden at having been pressured into joining the Communist Party, Shostakovich wrote his Eighth Quartet as a kind of epitaph for himself, filling it with quotations from his own works. Both quartets reveal much about how confrontation with darkness can ultimately lead back to the light.

ASPECT Chamber Music Series’ fall season continues with Russian Elegy on Thursday, December 4, 2019 at 7:30pm at Bohemian National Hall featuring violinist Misha Keylin, cellist Zlatomir Fung and pianist Pavel Nersessian with an illustrated talk by Stephen Johnson.

Program Information
Haunted Minds
Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 7:30pm
Italian Academy of Columbia University | 1161 Amsterdam Ave | New York, NY 10027
Tickets: $45 includes wine and refreshments
Link: https://www.aspectmusic.net/payment-test/haunted-minds 

Performers:
Ariel Quartet
Illustrated talk by Nicholas Chong

Program:
Bartók – String Quartet No. 1
Shostakovich – String Quartet No. 8                                       

About the Ariel Quartet
Distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned, fiery performances, the Ariel Quartet has garnered critical praise worldwide over the span of nearly two decades. Formed in Israel as teenagers at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance, the Ariel was named recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, granted by Chamber Music America in recognition of artistic achievement and career support. The ensemble serves as the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where they direct the chamber-music program and present a concert series, in addition to maintaining a busy touring schedule in the United States and abroad.

Following appearances at leading festivals in the United States, Canada, and Italy, the Ariel Quartet begins the 2018-2019 season at the Newport Music Festival, followed by Music Mountain in Lakeville, CT, where they are joined by clarinetist Oskar Espina Ruiz for an all-Mozart program. Additional fall engagements include programs in New York and Washington, DC, and concerts with Calgary Pro Musica, where the Ariel Quartet gives the Canadian premiere of John Harbison’s String Quartet No. 6. In November, the quartet embarks on a European tour, with dates in Basel, Paris, and Berlin. Highlights of 2019 are performances at the University of California, San Diego, and Mannes School of Music in New York. The Ariel Quartet is presented by Music Toronto and Chamber Music Society of Utica, where they are joined by pianist Orion Weiss for the Schumann Piano Quartet and the Brahms Piano Quintet. At the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati, the Ariel gives the U.S. premiere of the Quintet for Piano and Strings by Daniil Trifonov, with the composer as pianist.

The Ariel Quartet regularly collaborates with today’s eminent and rising young musicians and ensembles, including pianist Orion Weiss, violist Roger Tapping, cellist Paul Katz, and the American, Pacifica, and Jerusalem String Quartets. The Quartet has toured with cellist Alisa Weilerstein and performed frequently with pianists Jeremy Denk and Menahem Pressler. In addition, the Ariel served as Quartet-in-Residence for the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program, as well as the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Festival.

Formerly the resident ensemble of the Professional String Quartet Training Program at the New England Conservatory, from which the players obtained their undergraduate and graduate degrees, the Ariel was mentored extensively by acclaimed string-quartet giants Walter Levin and Paul Katz. It has won numerous international prizes in addition to the Cleveland Quartet Award: Grand Prize at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Székely Prize for the performance of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and Third Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. About its performances at the Banff competition, the American Record Guide described the group as “a consummate ensemble gifted with utter musicality and remarkable interpretive power” and noted, in particular, their playing of Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, as “the pinnacle of the competition.”

Avie Records has recently issued the Ariel’s debut recording, which features the Brahms String Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2, and Bartók’s String Quartet No. 1. About the recording, Gramophone enthuses, “Here, on their debut recording, the precision and tonal polish they’ve honed over two decades is on proud display…elucidating the often meaty textures of Brahms’s A-minor Quartet without sacrificing any of its warm luxuriance. And in Bartók’s First, they negotiate the rhythmic intricacies of the finale with such deftness that I had the distinct (and delightful) sense of the composer glancing back across the 19th century to Haydn.”

The Ariel Quartet has received significant support for its studies in the United States from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation, Dov and Rachel Gottesman, and the Legacy Heritage Fund. Most recently, they were awarded a grant from the A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Family Foundation.

About ASPECT Chamber Music Series
ASPECT Chamber Music Series was founded by Irina Knaster in London in 2011 and relocated to New York City in 2016. ASPECT presents a new concert format – one that transforms the traditional recital into an intimate, engaging, and thought-provoking blend of performance, speech, and image.

The series’ chamber-music events feature some of today’s leading musicians and music experts. For each concert, they set the works on the program in context with presentations supported by visuals. These “illustrated talks” reveal fascinating details about the composer, the music, and the cultural history of the period in question.

ASPECT aims both to support and promote artists, and to welcome audiences old and new to explore new aspects of a classical repertoire of endless riches. It’s more than a concert. To find out more, please visit www.aspectmusic.net.  

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