Telegraph Quartet presents ChamberFEAST Taiwan - a festival of education, engagement, and performances throughout Taiwan

Telegraph Quartet Presents ChamberFEAST Taiwan
A festival of education, engagement, and performances throughout Taiwan
Co-presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

November 12-22, 2020
More information: www.telegraphquartet.com/tq-in-taiwan

"soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail ... an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape." – San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, CA – The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) announces ChamberFEAST, its first chamber music festival in Taiwan, from November 12-22, 2020. ChamberFEAST is born out of Telegraph’s mission to spread music through education and audience engagement, and is presented by Revolving Gate Music. The Telegraph is co-hosting the festival with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where the quartet is currently on chamber music faculty as the Quartet-in-Residence.

During the festival, the Telegraph Quartet will work intensively with university and high school music students throughout Taiwan in various activities including chamber music coachings, performance classes, masterclasses, lectures, and sight-reading sessions, culminating with a student performance. Among these students are some of the Telegraph’s very own from the San Francisco Conservatory, who stayed home in Taiwan due to the pandemic. Other participating institutions include National Kaohsiung Normal University, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan National University of Art, four high schools in Kaohsiung, and one high school in Hsinchu. They will also participate in a summit for the arts in the affiliate senior high school of National Taiwan Normal University, which is Telegraph violist Pei-Ling Lin’s alma mater.

Telegraph Quartet’s performance highlights include two concerts at Eslite Concert Hall in Taipei. On Monday, November 16, the quartet will perform Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 and Brahms’ Sextet No. 2 with Dr. Kuan-Chen Huang and Dr. Victor Coo – violist and cellist of the Voyager Quartet in Taiwan. On Friday, November 27, they will present Eleanor Alberga's String Quartet No. 2, Korngold’s Quartet No. 3, and Mendelssohn’s Viola Quintet No. 2 with Dr. Yi-Wen Chao. 

About the Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet 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, 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.

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

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. 

Recent and upcoming highlights include the group’s debut on the Lincoln Center Great Performers series, a concert with acclaimed composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann at San Francisco Performances, and performances at Gretna Music, Friends of Chamber Music, Morris Museum, Mill Valley Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Houston, Chamber Music Society of Utica, Rossmoor Chamber Music Society, Music at Oakmont, Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, and Chamber Music San Francisco. For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.

About the San Francisco Conservatory of Music: Founded in 1917, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) is a global destination for musical excellence, earning an international reputation for producing musicians of the highest caliber. Located in the heart of San Francisco's Civic Center, SFCM's faculty includes nearly 30 members of the San Francisco Symphony as well as Grammy Award-winning artists in fields ranging from orchestral and chamber performance to classical guitar. The Conservatory offers its 400-plus collegiate students fully accredited bachelor's and master's degrees and professional diplomas in composition and instrumental and vocal performance, as well as in newly established, groundbreaking tracks such as Technology and Applied Composition and Roots, Jazz, and American Music. SFCM's collaborations with major Bay Area arts presenters, including the San Francisco Symphony, Opera, Ballet, and SFJAZZ Center, present an unprecedented learning environment for Conservatory students to engage with the world's leading artists. The Conservatory's relationships with Sony PlayStation, Skywalker Sound, and other Silicon Valley companies also offer unique opportunities that reinforce the institution's innovative curricular approach in artistic, intellectual, professional, and individual development, a connected learning sequence that gives students an education for life. SFCM's collegiate and Pre-College students have appeared at such storied venues as Carnegie Hall and Davies Symphony Hall and have performed on national radio programs including NPR's Live from Here and Performance Today. Notable alumni include violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern, conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, soprano Elza van den Heever, the Naumburg Award-winning Telegraph Quartet (on faculty as SFCM's Quartet-in-Residence), Blue Bottle Coffee founder James Freeman, and Ronald Losby (President of Steinway & Sons - Americas), among others. In October 2018, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music broke ground on the Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts (the Bowes Center), a building that will transform San Francisco’s arts district with an unparalleled space for students and the community to create, share, and engage with music. Opening in fall 2020, the Bowes Center will more than double the size of SFCM’s facilities and dramatically expand the school’s campus in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center. For more information, visit www.sfcm.edu. 

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