Esteemed Cassatt String Quartet Returns To Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, December 7, 2022

The Cassatt String Quartet will return to Brooklyn’s Soapbox Gallery (636 Dean St, Brooklyn, NY 11238) for an in-person and livestreamed recital on Wednesday evening, December 7, 2022, 7:30 p.m., EST. The repertoire, showcasing music from the classical to the modern period, includes works by Mendelssohn, Price, and Mozart. The full program follows:

Fanny Mendelssohn                                         String Quartet in E flat Major, H.227

Florence Price                                                  String Quartet No.1 in G Major

                                             ~ Intermission ~

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart                              String Quartet No. 23 in F Major K.590

General admission of $25 and student tickets of $17.55 are available for purchase on Soapbox Gallery’s website.  For the livestreamed concert, tickets are pay what you can with a $10 minimum donation via the Soapbox Gallery donation link. For more information, please visit Cassatt String Quartet’s website: https://www.cassattquartet.com/.

Hailed for its “mighty rapport and relentless commitment” (Jay Harvey Upstage, 2021), the Cassatt String Quartet has performed across the world to critical acclaim since its founding in 1985, with appearances at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, the Kennedy Center, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Centro National de las Artes, Maeda Hall, and Beijing’s Central Conservatory. The Cassatts have performed on the matched quartet of Stradivarius instruments at the Library of Congress; and, as resident quartet at the University of Buffalo, three complete Slee Beethoven String Quartet cycles.

The Quartet’s upcoming projects include major performances, premieres, and recordings of works by Tania León, Dylan Schneider, Shirish Korde, and Daniel S. Godfrey; collaborations with Ursula Oppens, Eliot Fisk, Magdalena Baczewska, Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, Haim Avitsur, David Jackson, and Kyo-Shin-An Arts; hometown concerts in the New York area; and appearances at Treetops Chamber Music Society, Maverick Concerts, and Music Mountain. Teaching highlights of the CSQ’s 2022-2023 season include masterclasses at Bard Conservatory, Texas Tech University, and College of the Holy Cross; and residencies at Amherst College, Bennington College, and Columbia University’s Music Department and Office of the Core Curriculum.

Alex Ross has named the Cassatt Quartet’s recordings three times in his “10 Best Classical Recordings” feature in The New Yorker Magazine. The group’s discography, which includes over forty recordings, spans the Koch, Naxos, New World, Point, CRI, Tzadik, and Albany labels. They have been featured on NPR’s “Performance Today,” WGBH Boston, WQXR and WNYC of New York, Canada’s CBC Radio, and Radio France.

Founded with the encouragement of the Juilliard Quartet, the Cassatt String Quartet served as the inaugural participants in Juilliard’s Graduate String Quartet Residency. They have received major awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the USArtists International, Chamber Music America, CMA/ASCAP, Banff International String Quartet Competition, Fischoff and Coleman Chamber Music Association, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Meet the Composer, and the Amphion, Copland, Fromm and Alice M. Ditson Music Foundations. Since 1995, the ensemble has been on the performing artist roster for the New York State Council on the Arts.

The CSQ has played nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. The New York Times praised their “bold and probing account” of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 (Anthony Tommasini, 2015). Concerto Net wrote: "Wherever one encounters the Cassatt Quartet...one is astonished both at their prowess and their unfailing inspiration” (2018). SoundWordSight praised their "wonderful performance, with a beautifully integrated sound” (Jeffrey James, 2017); and Jay Harvey said their “performance’s rapturous reception by the large audience was both predictable and well-deserved” (Jay Harvey Upstage, 2021).

The Cassatt Quartet is deeply committed to nurturing young musicians, and has given classes for composers and performers at the American Academy in Rome; the Toho School in Tokyo; the Bowdoin International Music Festival; Columbia, Cornell, Princeton and Syracuse Universities; and the University of Pennsylvania. The CSQ is in residence annually at the Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music in Vinalhaven, Maine and at Cassatt in the Basin!, a music education program based in West Texas.

The Cassatt Quartet is noted for its brilliance in both contemporary and traditional repertoire, and has collaborated with members of the Tokyo, Cleveland and Vermeer Quartets; pianists Ursula Oppens and Marc-André Hamelin; clarinetist David Shifrin, flutist Ransom Wilson, jazz pianist Fred Hersch, and didgeridoo player Simon 7; the Trisha Brown Dance Company; and composers Louis Andriessen, Kaija Saariaho, Joan Tower, John Corigliano, Tania León, Shulamit Ran, and Augusta Read Thomas.

Named for the Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt, the quartet consists of violinists Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower; violist Rosemary Nelis; and cellist Gwen Krosnick. The Cassatt String Quartet appears in 2022 performances through generous support from the following sponsors: New York Council on the Arts, the Amphion Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund.

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at (212) 772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.
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