Shriver Hall Concert Series Presents Escher String Quartet & Violist Jordan Bak

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mallory McFarland | Morahan Arts and Media
mallory@morahanartsandmedia.com | 646-241-0899

SHRIVER HALL CONCERT SERIES
CONTINUES 2024-2025 SEASON WITH
ESCHER STRING QUARTET & VIOLIST JORDAN BAK

Works by Mozart, Dvorák, and Brahms,
Sunday, October 27, 2024 at Shriver Hall

"Gutsy, with plenty of edge and a brilliant precision of attack."
—The Guardian about Escher String Quartet

“complete commitment and unfailing charisma”
—Gramophone about Jordan Bak

www.ShriverConcerts.org

Baltimore, MD (September 16, 2024) — Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) — Baltimore’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists — continues its 2024-25 and 59th concert season with the “gutsy” (The Guardian) Escher String Quartet and the “dazzling” (New York Classical Review) violist Jordan Bak, both making their Shriver Hall Concert Series mainstage debuts, on Sunday, October 27, 2024 at 5:30pm. They will perform works by Mozart (String Quartet in D major, K. 575), Dvorák (String Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 97, “American”), and Brahms (String Quintet in G major, Op. 111).

“The Escher Quartet could not be more thrilled to be making our Shriver Hall debut with this incredible program of all-time classics with our dear friend, Jordan Bak!” the Escher String Quartet shares. “The Mozart is craft perfected and balances beautifully with the joyous and heartwarming Dvorák Quintet. We close with Brahms’s masterful G-major string quintet—one of the most rich and life-affirming pieces we have in the chamber music repertoire.”

The Escher String Quartet, known for their profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty, are former BBC New Generation Artists and recipients of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. The Quartet got their start in New York and serves as season artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. They last performed with SHCS on its Discovery Series in 2011.

“I am so thrilled to be returning to Shriver Hall Concert Series this October after making my recital debut here just two years ago,” remarks Jordan Bak. “I am eagerly looking forward to joining my good friends of the Escher Quartet for both the Dvorák and Brahms viola quintets, two of the most celebrated masterpieces for this instrumentation. Both the Dvorák Op. 97 and the Brahms Op. 111 offer considerable depth, richness, and warmth, especially with two violas in the mixture. And, what is especially moving is that at one point, Brahms declared that his Quintet would be the last piece he would ever write! I can't wait to share both of these incredible works with Shriver Hall's enthusiastic audience in Baltimore.”

Jordan Bak, an award-winning Jamaican-American violist, is known as a trailblazing artist internationally and is praised for his radiant stage presence, dynamic interpretations, and fearless power. I Care If You Listen described him as “an exciting new voice in Classical performance” and Gramophone recognized him for his “haunting lyrical grace”. Bak recently released his second solo album earlier this year, Cantabile: Anthems for Viola on Delphian Records. He last appeared with SHCS on its Discovery Series in 2022.

Shriver Hall Concert Series kicks off its 2024-25 season at Shriver Hall with acclaimed pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason in her solo Baltimore Recital Debut on Sunday, October 6, 2024 at 5:30pm. As a Decca Classics recording artist, Isata recently released her fourth solo album, Mendelssohn, on August 9, 2024, presenting music from two Mendelssohn siblings, including the First Piano Concerto by Felix and the long-lost ‘Easter Sonata’ by his elder sister Fanny. She recently performed during the opening night of the 2024 BBC Proms, London's 8-week classical music festival. In 2021, she was awarded the Leonard Bernstein Award, an internationally coveted prize for young musicians, and is also an Opus Klassik award recipient.

Following Escher String Quartet and Jordan Bak’s performance is the opening of Shriver Hall Concert Series’ 2024-25 free Discovery Series with guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre on Saturday, November 16, 2024 at 3pm at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Hailed as “A tremendously versatile and sensitive player” by Classical Guitar, Feuillâtre has made international waves as a competition winner and Deutsche Grammophon recording artist. In his Baltimore debut, Feuillâtre shares his passion for Baroque music with works by J.S. Bach and his French contemporaries, and shines in exuberant selections by South American composers spanning the centuries.

The next mainstage concert after Escher String Quartet and Jordan Bak take to the Shriver Hall stage features Baroque band ACRONYM on Sunday, December 8, 2024, at 5:30pm. The “outstanding young early-music string ensemble” (The New Yorker), presents a feast of musical delights in the band’s Baltimore debut. ACRONYM’s 11 members perform on strings, violas da gamba, theorbo, and keyboards, bringing “gutsy, fresh explorations” (Early Music America) to these rare treasures.

Shriver Hall Concert Series’ season is made possible through generous support from the Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore County Commission for Arts & Sciences, and Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.

Concert Information
Escher String Quartet and Jordan Bak, viola
Sunday, October 27, 2024, at 5:30pm
Shriver Hall | 3400 N. Charles Street | Baltimore, MD 21218
Tickets: $46 Single Tickets and $10 Students
Link: shriverconcerts.org/escherbak 

Program:
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: String Quartet in D major, K. 575
ANTONÍN DVORÁK: String Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 97, “American”
JOHANNES BRAHMS: String Quintet in G major, Op. 111 

Artists:
Escher String Quartet
          Adam Barnett-Hart, violin
          Brendan Speltz, violin
          Pierre LaPointe, viola
          Brook Speltz, cello
Jordan Bak, viola

A pre-concert talk with WBJC’s Jonathan Palevsky precedes the concert at 4:30pm in Shriver Hall.

The Howard Family Concert
The Reiko T. and Yuan C. Lee Fund for Outstanding String Performers

About Escher String Quartet
The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. A former BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Quartet has performed at London’s BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall. In its hometown of New York, the ensemble serves as season artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Highlights of the Escher String Quartet’s 2024-25 season include performances at Alice Tully Hall, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Shriver Hall Concert Series, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, University Musical Society at University of Michigan, Atlanta’s Spivey Hall, and Chamber Music Houston, among others. Overseas, the Quartet returns to Wigmore Hall for a BBC live broadcast as well as engagements in Germany and continental Europe.

The Escher String Quartet has made a distinctive impression internationally, with recent debuts including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, London’s Kings Place, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Auditorium du Louvre. The group has appeared at festivals such as the Heidelberg Spring Festival, Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, Norway’s Risør Chamber Music Festival, the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, and Australia’s Perth International Arts Festival. Alongside its growing European profile, the American group flourishes at home, performing at the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, Bowdoin Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music, Chamber Music San Francisco, Music@Menlo, and the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals, among others.

The Escher String Quartet achieved critical success last season with its performances of the full cycle of Béla Bartók’s six string quartets in a single concert, at both Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The project was featured by The New Yorker.

The Escher String Quartet has released multiple successful albums. Most recently, it released a recording of string quartets by Pierre Jalbert, Leoš Janácek’s complete quartets, and Pavel Haas’s Quartet No. 2 with percussionist Colin Currie (BIS Label). Recordings of Felix Mendelssohn’s complete quartets and quartets by Antonín Dvorák, Alexander Borodin and Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky were released on the BIS label 2015-18 to critical acclaim, with comments such as “eloquent, full-blooded playing... The four players offer a beautiful blend of individuality and accord” (BBC Music Magazine). In 2019, the group released “DANCE”, an album of quintets with Grammy-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux, and in 2021, the complete quartets of Charles Ives and Samuel Barber.

Beyond the concert hall, the Escher String Quartet recently formed ESQYRE (Escher String Quartet Youth Residency Education). A non-profit, ESQYRE’s mission is to provide a comprehensive educational program through music performance and instruction for people of all ages. The Quartet has held faculty positions at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and the University of Akron, OH.

Founded in 2005, the Escher String Quartet was championed by the Emerson Quartet, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, and others. The group takes its name from the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, inspired by Escher’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole. Its website is escherquartet.com.

About Jordan Bak
Award-winning Jamaican American violist Jordan Bak has achieved international acclaim as a trailblazing artist, praised for his radiant stage presence, dynamic interpretations, and fearless power. Critics have described him as “a powerhouse musician, with a strong voice and compelling sound” (The Whole Note) and lauded his “haunting lyrical grace” (Gramophone). The recipient of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Alexandra Jupin Award and a former Young Classical Artist Trust’s (YCAT) Robey Artist, Bak was also a prizewinner in the Sphinx, Lionel Tertis, and Concert Artists Guild competitions and has received accolades from ClassicFM, Musical America, and WQXR.

Bak’s enthusiastically received sophomore album, “Cantabile: Anthems for Viola” (Delphian Records), has garnered significant international attention. Featuring works by Arnold Bax, Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, the album pairs them with contemporary compositions by Jonathan Harvey, Bright Sheng, and Augusta Read Thomas. A new-music advocate, Bak has given the world premieres of works by Kaija Saariaho, Jessica Meyer, and Augusta Read Thomas. He has also championed works by H. Leslie Adams, Esteban Zapata Blanco, Carlos Carrillo, Caroline Shaw, and Alvin Singleton.

Bak has appeared as soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, London Mozart Players, New York Classical Players, Juilliard Orchestra, and Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra among others, and has performed under such esteemed conductors as Howard Griffiths, Stephen Mulligan, Keith Lockhart, Gerard Schwarz, and Ewa Strusinska. As a recitalist and chamber musician, he has been heard at some of the world’s greatest stages, including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Jordan Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, The Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater, Elgar Concert Hall, and Helsinki Musiikkitalo. Bak’s recent performances include recitals at Kravis Center, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harriman-Jewell Series, Lichfield Festival, and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.

Bak has been a presence at numerous chamber music festivals including Marlboro, Tippet Rise, Chamber Music Northwest, and Newport Classical, and has appeared at Chamber Music Detroit, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Emory University’s Candler Concert Series, and Shriver Hall Concert Series. Bak has performed with the Verona Quartet and Merz Trio and has collaborated with artists including Jonathan Biss, Lara Downes, Jennifer Frautschi, Ani Kavafian, Soovin Kim, Charles Neidich, Marina Piccinini, and Gilles Vonsattel.

Bak currently serves as Assistant Professor of Viola at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He was a former faculty member of Bowling Green State University and served as a visiting artist and Ambassador for Music Masters in London. Additionally, he has given masterclasses at NYU Steinhardt, Oberlin Conservatory, The Peabody Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (U.K.), Conservatorio del Tolima (Colombia), and the Brevard Music Festival.

Only the third violist to earn the Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, Bak holds degrees from New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School, where he was awarded the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. His principal teachers were Dimitri Murrath, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Samuel Rhodes.

Jordan Bak plays a 2016 viola made by Jon van Kouwenhoven. He is married to violist Rubina Bak and shares two cats, Bartok and Walton.

About Shriver Hall Concert Series
For almost 60 years, Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) has been “Baltimore’s finest importer of classical music talent” (The Baltimore Sun) and the area’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists with a mission to craft performances and educational programs at the highest level of excellence. A 5-time recipient of Baltimore Magazine’s distinction “Best Classical Music” in its annual “Best of Baltimore” issue, the coveted subscription series features many of the world’s most renowned soloists and ensembles, presented in The Johns Hopkins University’s Shriver Hall.

Founded in 1966 by Dr. Ernest Bueding, a pharmacologist at Johns Hopkins University, and a group of similarly dedicated music enthusiasts, SHCS set out to make an important contribution to the vitality of an already vibrant city. When flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal walked onto the stage of Shriver Hall for the first concert, more than 1,100 people witnessed the launch of what is now recognized as a remarkable success story: Shriver Hall Concert Series. In the succeeding years, SHCS has presented hundreds of acclaimed and emerging international artists in classical chamber music and recitals and a legacy of important debuts and premieres. In addition, SHCS collaborates with local schools and subsidizes hundreds of student tickets each season.

The list of artists presented by SHCS is remarkable—Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Ewa Podlés, Maurizio Pollini, Jacqueline du Pré, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jordi Savall, András Schiff, Rudolf Serkin, Janos Starker, Daniil Trifonov, Lynn Harrell, Emmanuel Ax, Alban Berg Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, and Quartetto Italiano, among many others. SHCS also has a history of championing important musicians early in their careers, including Richard Goode, Hilary Hahn, Hélène Grimaud, Dawn Upshaw, Lang Lang, and the Emerson String Quartet. Commissioned composers include Timo Andres, Sebastian Currier, Jonathan Leshnoff, James Lee III, Han Lash, Caroline Shaw, and Nina C. Young.

Designed specifically for the community, SHCS offers the Discovery Series, a series of free concerts presented in venues throughout the region focused on artists emerging on the national and international scene. Artists featured include Narek Hakhnazaryan, Colin Currie, Xavier Foley, Eric Lu, and the Dover Quartet. SHCS also offers the annual Spring Lecture Series, a series of free talks focused on annual topics related to the intersection of music and society and a variety of student programs.

For more information, visit www.shriverconcerts.org.

Photo of Escher String Quartet by Anna Kariel; photo of Jordan Bak by Dario Acosta

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