Thursday, July 7, 2022 at 5pm

6 Normandy Heights Road | Morristown, NJ 

Tickets and information: https://morrismuseum.org/events/telegraph-quartet/ 

"precise tuning, textural variety, and impassioned communication” – The Strad

Telegraph Quartet: www.telegraphquartet.com

Morristown, NJ – On Thursday July 7, 2022, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) will be presented by the Morris Museum (6 Normandy Heights Rd), as part of the the museum’s third annual Lot of Strings Music Festival, which has been described by the The New York Times as a “Live Music Splendor in a Parking Lot.”

For their festival performance, the Telegraph Quartet will present their Divergent Paths concert program, which includes Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7. Highlighted through this program are the distinct ways in which both Ravel and Schemberg reacted to the Romantic tradition that came before them.

Ravel’s String Quartet was written just as he was finally finding his voice as a composer, having been swept up into the color world of Debussy’s “Impressionism.” It is a clear break from the excesses of German-Romanticism, while looking back farther to the Apollonian structure of classicism. Ravel uses the quartet medium to find a space and vibrancy, using clear, etched themes set against a backdrop of colorfully evocative environments.

In stark contrast, Schoenberg described his first string quartet as a culmination of the end of that very German-Romantic musical tradition that Ravel was trying to eschew. Greatly inspired by Wagner and Mahler, Schoenberg manages to pack an unending wealth of musical themes and tortuous counterpoint into the four voices of the quartet, creating a kind of Wagnerian epic in chamber form. It has both a Dionysian excess and a rigorously worked-out overarching structure that ties the entire work together in almost one breath. Schoenberg believed that he had expended all of the possibilities of late romanticism in this work, and so felt he had no choice but to forge a strange new path forward out of the remnants of that tradition. That path would reshape much of the 20th Century’s musical image and add greatly to that ecosystem of diverse musical styles.

About the Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works alike. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “…an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. The Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence.

Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; the Henschel Quartett, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet.. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger, and Osvaldo Golijov.

In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The San Francisco Chronicle praised the album, saying, "Just five years after forming, the Bay Area’s Telegraph Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of serious depth and versatility, and the group’s terrific debut recording only serves to reinforce that judgment." AllMusic acclaimed, “An impressive beginning for an adventurous group, this 2018 release puts the Telegraph Quartet on the map.

Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan.

The Telegraph Quartet adapted to the challenging times presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and performed virtual concerts presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Crowden Chamber Music Workshop, Noe Music, Noontime Concerts, Music in Corrales, and Intermusic SF. For Earth Day 2020 (the 50th anniversary of Earth Day), the National Academy of Science in collaboration with the ClimateMusic Project hosted a virtual performance by the Telegraph Quartet of Richard Festinger’s Icarus in Flight. In 2020, Telegraph launched an ongoing online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet. For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.

About the Morris Museum: Founded in 1913, the Morris Museum is an award-winning, multifaceted arts and cultural institution serving the public through its exhibitions and performances, which strive to interpret the past and discover the future through art, sound, and motion. The Museum is home to the historic and internationally-significant Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata. The Museum’s Bickford Theatre is a 312-seat performing-arts facility, offering unique programming in film, jazz, and live performance through its innovative series, Live Arts. As New Jersey’s only Smithsonian Affiliate Museum, it launched Spark!Lab, a dynamic, Smithsonian-created learning space which will inspire young visitors to create, collaborate, and innovate. A strong team of volunteers assists the Museum's professional staff in many operations. Training for volunteer Spark!Lab Ambassadors is offered on a quarterly basis. To learn more, visit www.morrismuseum.org.