Verona Quartet: Parallel Planes
$6
Cheng Jin Koh — Mountains of Echoing Halls for Yangqin, String Quartet, and Dance (world premiere)
Béla Bartók — String Quartet No. 3, BB. 93, Sz. 85
Texu Kim — Ritus Sanitatem (world premierre)
Two new works by Cheng Jin Koh and Texu Kim take stabs at examining elements of their respective cultures through the lens of a classical string quartet. Cheng’s new work will feature a dancer and the yangqin (Chinese dulcimer) alongside western strings to paint pictures of the Xiangtangshan Caves and their magnificent carvings and detailed decorations. Texu Kim’s new work for string quartet, “Ritus Sanitatem” (Right of Healing), will focus on Kim’s native Korean tradition of Byoung-goot (shamanistic healing rituals) as inspiration. In order to combine this Korean tradition with a string quartet, Kim has made the music more universal by including inspiration from medieval European chants, shaman drumming, and psychedelic rock.
Each of these new works is partnered with a twentieth-century European string quartet by Bacewicz and Bartók. These composers have each taken inspiration from their own folk traditions and have infused them with their compositional language. For Bacewicz, her favorite Polish dance, the Oberek, fills the music of the finale with movement and effervescence, while Bartók’s integration of folk music within his compositional language celebrates his recognition as one of the earliest and most revered ethnomusicologists.
About Verona Quartet
Acclaimed as an "outstanding ensemble…cohesive yet full of temperament" (The New York Times), the Verona Quartet has firmly established itself amongst the most distinguished ensembles on the chamber music scene today. The group's singular sense of purpose earned them Chamber Music America's coveted 2020 Cleveland Quartet Award, and a reputation for its "bold interpretive strength, robust characterization and commanding resonance" (Calgary Herald). The Quartet serves on the faculty of the Oberlin College and Conservatory as the Quartet-in-Residence. In addition to its position at Oberlin, the Quartet recently held residencies at Nova Scotia's Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, North Carolina's Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle and the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute. As committed advocates of diverse programming, the Verona Quartet curated the UpClose Chamber Music Series on behalf of the COT, electrifying audiences with their "sensational, powerhouse performance[s]" (Classical Voice America).
http://www.veronaquartet.com/