WORLD-RENOWNED COLORADO QUARTET WITH GUEST ARTIST MELVIN CHEN IN CONCERT AT BARD ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5 Free program features performance of works by Debussy, Bartók, and Shostakovich

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON—The award-winning Colorado Quartet, artists in residence at Bard, will appear in concert with guest artist Melvin Chen, piano, at Bard College’s Olin Hall on Sunday, November 5, at 3:00 p.m. The program includes Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10; Béla Bartók’s Quartet No. 4; and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57. Presented by The Bard Center, this event is free and open to the public. Recognized on four continents as one of the finest string quartets on the international scene, the Colorado Quartet—Julie Rosenfeld and Lydia Redding, violins; Marka Gustavsson, viola; and Diane Chaplin, cello—have been in residence at Bard since 2000. They are “a first-class ensemble that rises with panache to meet every challenge in the music,” stated the Washington Post. Winners of both the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, their performances are noted for their musical integrity, impassioned playing, and lyrical finesse. Highlights of past years include tours of more than 20 countries and performances in major cities across the globe. New York appearances have included the Mostly Mozart Festival, where they performed 20 Haydn quartets over a two-year period, and concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. The group regularly performs the complete Beethoven Quartets, most recently in Berlin, making them the first female quartet to have performed the Beethoven cycle in both North America and Europe. The Colorado Quartet commemorated the 50th anniversary of Béla Bartók’s death in 1995 with the first complete performance in Philadelphia of the Bartók string quartets, and has since performed the Bartók cycle several times. The Colorado Quartet continues its tenure as quartet in residence at Bard College, coaching chamber music ensembles and enabling Bard students to study throughout the academic year in private lessons with the quartet’s individual members, as well as with the group as a whole, in classes on the literature of the string quartet. The Quartet’s inspiring style combines a deep scholarly knowledge of the quartet literature with energy, passion, and a focus on fine details. Their critically acclaimed recordings of Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and contemporary composers can be found on Parnassus, Mode, and Albany Records. The Colorado Quartet commemorated its 20th anniversary in 2003 with a release of the first in a complete set of Beethoven quartet recordings. The Quartet marks its 25th anniversary in 2007, when they plan to release all the late quartets of Beethoven on the Parnassus label. For further information about the program, call The Bard Center at 845-758-7425. Please note that no reservations are necessary; seating is on a first-come basis. # ABOUT THE ARTISTS MELVIN CHEN, piano, received his B.S. in physics and chemistry from Yale University, his M.Music degrees (piano and violin) from The Juilliard School, and his Ph.D in chemistry from Harvard University. He has performed at major venues in the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Frick Collection, Kennedy Center, and Boston’s Jordan Hall, in addition to other venues throughout the country and in Canada and Asia. Chen has collaborated with such artists as Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom, David Shifrin, Robert White, Pamela Frank, and Peter Wiley and with members of the St. Lawrence, Mendelssohn, Miami, Orion, Borromeo, and Arditti Quartets. He is a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two and has performed at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Chautauqua, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Bard Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire, among others. He appears on Wynton Marsalis’s series on music education, Marsalis on Music, and can be heard on Discover, Nices, and KBS label compact discs with violinist Juliette Kang. He is an associate professor of music and interdisciplinary studies at Bard and associate director of The Bard College Conservatory of Music. A native of Los Angeles, violinist JULIE ROSENFELD has been a member of the Colorado Quartet since 1982. Ms. Rosenfeld received her training at the Curtis Institute, the University of Southern California, and Yale University. Her teachers have included Szymon Goldberg, Nathan Milstein, and Yukiko Kamei. She has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, Skaneateles Festival, Steamboat Springs Festival, and Newport Music Festival as well as with Chamber Music at Lincoln Center. Ms. Rosenfeld has also served on juries for the Coleman, Concert Artists Guild, and Juilliard concerto competitions, and in 1992 she was the first female judge at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. In 1996, she was artist in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival and the International Mozart Festival in Poland, and performed the West Coast premiere of André Previn’s Violin Sonata. Her recording with Mr. Previn of French chamber music is available on the BMG label. Born in New York City, violinist LYDIA REDDING grew up in Colorado. She founded the quartet while studying at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a bachelor of music degree from that institution, where she studied with Oswald Lehnert, as well as a master of music degree from The Juilliard School, where she was a student of Szymon Goldberg. Ms. Redding has taught at the Adamant Chamber Music Workshop and lectured at the European Mozart Academy in Poland. She now teaches at Bard College and has assembled a class of violin students from the surrounding communities. A serious marathoner, Ms. Redding runs ultramarathons, distances of 50 to 100 miles, to raise scholarship money for the Soundfest Scholarship Fund. Violist MARKA GUSTAVSSON received her bachelor’s degree with high distinction from Indiana University, where she was a student of Joseph Gingold. Ms. Gustavsson also studied at the Mannes School of Music with Felix Galimir, and recently received her doctorate from the City University of New York with a dissertation on the violin music of Enesco. She has appeared in the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society’s “Meet the Music” series, on Robert Sherman’s WQXR Young Artists’ Programs, in Avery Fisher Hall and Boston’s Symphony Hall as a member of the Brandenburg Ensemble, and as a member of the featured string quartet in the ABC documentary Passion to Play. Internationally, she has performed in the Festival Presence de Ligeti at Radio-France’s Salle Messiaen in Paris, for the Queen of the Netherlands at Vredenburg Hall in Holland, and at Toru Takemitsu’s memorial concert at Oji Hall in Tokyo. Ms. Gustavsson has worked with such composers as Martin Bresnick, Tan Dun, John Halle, and Henri Dutilleux, and has collaborated with such performing artists as Bayla Keyes, Daniel Phillips, David Geber, and Michael Tree. She has served on the faculty of Hofstra University and also as a member of the Hofstra String Quartet and the Kinhaven Music Festival in Vermont. She recently gave birth to a son, Benjamin; they live with her husband, John Halle, in New York. A native of Los Angeles, cellist DIANE CHAPLIN has been a member of the quartet since 1988. She holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts, where she was a student of Cesare Pascarella, and a master of music degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Harvey Shapiro. Ms. Chaplin currently serves as the administrative director of the Soundfest Chamber Music Festival and Quartet Institute, and also holds teaching positions at Bard College and at a private school in Manhattan. She has performed throughout the United States and Europe, including with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the Flying Karamazov Brothers. Ms. Chaplin received a special prize from the International Cello Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile, as well as a certificate from the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. ###

This event was last updated on 11-06-2006

Back to Top