Presented By: School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD)
Telegraph Quartet
Music of Kenji Bunch and George Rochberg
Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind the music, the Telegraph Quartet brings fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to a program that showcases the work of two contemporary American composers, Kenji Bunch (b. 1973) and George Rochberg (1918 – 2005).
The ensemble will perform Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 5, Music for a Shared Space, and George Rochberg’s String Quartet No. 3. Bunch’s fifth string quartet encrypts beautiful lines from the second movement of W.A. Mozart’s divertimenti, which pulse throughout the work, culminating in a joyous, rocking final anthem. Rochberg’s String Quartet No. 3 was born of profound loss and a longing for meaning. Rochberg breaks from strict modernism and rebuilds his musical world using memory, woven into something newly vulnerable. The resulting quartet feels like a raw confession of grief and slow recovery of beauty.
Of these two works, the Telegraph Quartet says:
“Despite being written 50 years apart, both the Rochberg and the Bunch share a kinship as art that finds its voice and power by embodying the styles of others as their own. Rochberg's String Quartet No. 3 marked a turning point for this composer, who released himself from only composing in a dissonant, academically acceptable 20th-century style. Instead, he allowed himself what was then the heresy of speaking fluently in the musical language of past composers like Mahler and late Beethoven, juxtaposing those with his former thorny modernist dialect. Similarly, Kenji Bunch's Music for a Shared Space accomplishes something very similar; between Afro-funk grooves and rhythm and blues versions of Mozart divertimenti, we find Bunch moving fluently from one popular style to the next and sweetly mixing that music with those of the past, continuing this opening of styles, cultural and chronological, that Rochberg dared to break open during his time.”
ABOUT TELEGRAPH QUARTET
Erin Chin & Joseph Maile, violins
Pei-Ling Lin, viola
Jeremiah Shaw, cello
The TELEGRAPH QUARTET formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. 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 is currently the quartet-in-residence at the University of Michigan.
The quartet has performed in 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. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the St. Lawrence Quartet and Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.
In 2023, the Telegraph Quartet released 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, the first in a trilogy of recordings on Azica Records exploring the string quartets of the first half of the 20th century – an era of music that the group has felt especially called to perform since its formation. Divergent Pathsfeatures two works that (to the best of the quartet’s knowledge) have never been recorded on the same album before: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet no. 1 in D minor, op. 7. The quartet’s new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Edge of the Storm is out now on Azica Records.
www.telegraphquartet.com
The ensemble will perform Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 5, Music for a Shared Space, and George Rochberg’s String Quartet No. 3. Bunch’s fifth string quartet encrypts beautiful lines from the second movement of W.A. Mozart’s divertimenti, which pulse throughout the work, culminating in a joyous, rocking final anthem. Rochberg’s String Quartet No. 3 was born of profound loss and a longing for meaning. Rochberg breaks from strict modernism and rebuilds his musical world using memory, woven into something newly vulnerable. The resulting quartet feels like a raw confession of grief and slow recovery of beauty.
Of these two works, the Telegraph Quartet says:
“Despite being written 50 years apart, both the Rochberg and the Bunch share a kinship as art that finds its voice and power by embodying the styles of others as their own. Rochberg's String Quartet No. 3 marked a turning point for this composer, who released himself from only composing in a dissonant, academically acceptable 20th-century style. Instead, he allowed himself what was then the heresy of speaking fluently in the musical language of past composers like Mahler and late Beethoven, juxtaposing those with his former thorny modernist dialect. Similarly, Kenji Bunch's Music for a Shared Space accomplishes something very similar; between Afro-funk grooves and rhythm and blues versions of Mozart divertimenti, we find Bunch moving fluently from one popular style to the next and sweetly mixing that music with those of the past, continuing this opening of styles, cultural and chronological, that Rochberg dared to break open during his time.”
ABOUT TELEGRAPH QUARTET
Erin Chin & Joseph Maile, violins
Pei-Ling Lin, viola
Jeremiah Shaw, cello
The TELEGRAPH QUARTET formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. 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 is currently the quartet-in-residence at the University of Michigan.
The quartet has performed in 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. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the St. Lawrence Quartet and Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.
In 2023, the Telegraph Quartet released 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, the first in a trilogy of recordings on Azica Records exploring the string quartets of the first half of the 20th century – an era of music that the group has felt especially called to perform since its formation. Divergent Pathsfeatures two works that (to the best of the quartet’s knowledge) have never been recorded on the same album before: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet no. 1 in D minor, op. 7. The quartet’s new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Edge of the Storm is out now on Azica Records.
www.telegraphquartet.com
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