Aeolus Quartet
String Quartet
String Quartet
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BIOGRAPHY
Nicholas Tavani & Rachel Shapiro, violins
Caitlin Lynch, viola
Alan Richardson, cello
Since its inception in 2008 at the Cleveland School of Music, the Quartet has had a vision to share the permanent power of the string quartet repertoire with wide-ranging audiences. Based in New York City, the quartet brings equal dedication to all of its artistic endeavors, placing new and lesser-known works side-by-side with the time-honored masterworks.
The all-American quartet has been awarded prizes at nearly every major competition in the United States and performed across the globe with showings “worthy of a major-league quartet” (Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News). Mark Satola of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, “The quartet has a rich and warm tone combined with precise ensemble playing (that managed also to come across as fluid and natural), and an impressive musical intelligence guided every technical and dramatic turn.” Praised by the Baltimore Sun for combining “…smoothly meshed technique with a sense of spontaneity and discovery,” the Aeolus Quartet is committed to presenting time-seasoned masterworks and new cutting-edge works to widely diverse audiences with equal freshness, dedication, and fervor.
The 2021-2022 season highlights include performances at the Charles Wadworth Chamber Competition, Victoria Bach Festival, the Morgan Library, the Fullerton Friends of Music, Chamber Music Northwest, the California Baptist University, Musica Viva NY, Friends of Chamber Music Reading, Spruce Peak Chamber Music Society, and the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. The Quartet were featured in the PROTOTYPE Festival in Brooklyn and Musica Viva, New York.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Aeolus Quartet spearheaded an innovative project Bach for All with the intention of bringing their listeners a moment of peace and beauty each week during these challenging times. The Quartet have recorded and released a different chorale by J.S. Bach every Monday hoping these chorales will “…lift spirits, hearts, and minds during this unparalleled time, while becoming a moment for a deep breath in your new weekly routine.” The Bach for All project and the Aeolus Quartet was featured in November 2021’s issue in the Chamber Music America Magazine.
In recent seasons, the Aeolus quartet held performances at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the University of Texas at Austin, Cornell University, Fairmont Chamber Music Society, University of Missouri-Columbia, NYC’s Bohemian National Hall, and in NYC’s Prototype Festival, where they premiered a new chamber opera composed by Ricky Ian Gordon.
The Quartet has also performed across North America, Europe, and Asia in venues such as the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (as part of the Great Performer’s Series), Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Reinberger Recital Hall at Severance Hall, Merkin Hall, The Library of Congress, Renwick Gallery, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. The Quartet was also recently featured on the hit Netflix show The Defenders.
The Aeolus Quartet have been Grand Prize winners of the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. They were awarded First Prize at the Coleman International Chamber Ensemble Competition, a Silver Medal at the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, and a Bronze Medal at the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in New England. The Aeolus Quartet has released two critically acclaimed albums of classical and contemporary works through the Longhorn/Naxos label which are available on iTunes, Amazon, and major retailers worldwide.
Dedicated to bringing music into the community, the Aeolus Quartet has been widely recognized for their highly innovative and engaging outreach programs. The Quartet was the recipient of a CMA Residency Partnership Grant, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association Educator Award and the Guarneri Quartet Residency project which involved extensive outreach and performances at Duke Ellington School for the Arts, the Sitar Arts Center, and George Washington University. Additionally, they were awarded the 2012 Lad Prize which culminated in large-scale community engagement work, performing in the Stanford, CA area, and a masterclass residency at Stanford University. The Aeolus Quartet has also served as teaching faculty at Stanford University’s Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY), the Austin Chamber Music Workshop, and Da Camera of Houston’s Music Encounters Program. Working in collaboration with the University of Texas through the Rural Chamber Music Outreach Initiative, the Quartet has presented educational programs and performances in communities throughout the state of Texas.
The Aeolus Quartet has studied extensively with the Miró, Guarneri, and Juilliard Quartets. Other mentors include artists William Preucil, Peter Salaff, Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Gerhard Schulz, and Mark Steinberg. Members of the Quartet hold degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Texas at Austin, where they served as the first Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence. The Quartet has also held residences at Musica Viva NY, the New Orchestra of Washington (DC), and the Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School.
02/2022 – PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUSLY DATED MATERIALS.
MODIFIED VERSIONS MUST BE APPROVED BY DISPEKER ARTISTS.
NEWS
ACCLAIM
Dusky lyricism from the Aeolus Quartet
“Ricky Ian Gordon’s elegantly impassioned score drew dusky lyricism from the Aeolus Quartet, conducted here by Lidiya Yankovskaya”
– Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times – Related Link
Aeolus Quartet gives dynamic concert for Music in the Great Hall
“What was most rewarding on Sunday was the way the Aelous Quartet combined smoothly meshed technique with a sense of spontaneity and discovery….
The Aelous players dug into the thorny work with admirable technical clarity, tonal vibrancy and, above all, an appreciation for the dark vein of lyricism running through it. The surging performance communicated richly at every turn.”
– Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun – Related Link
Aeolus Quartet delivers divine Dvorák; Tesla’s Ravel simply perfect in day three of Banff competition
“But perhaps it was Aeolus Quartet who produced the most unexpected performance of all: a highly intelligent, crisp, but deeply considered reading of Dvorák’s Quartet No. 14 in A-flat major, a difficult work to pull off on several different levels.
And what a pleasure it was to hear this piece so well performed and to hear Aeolus meet the interpretive, harmonic and formal challenges inherent in the work. The folkloric aspects in the suave and lovely Lento movement, the structural sophistication so typical of late Dvorák which Aeolus brushed aside with enviable ease, and especially the unstinting ensemble panache to exploit those darker chordal sonorities combined with a completely authentic presentation of the Czech folkloric and seemingly inexhaustible rhythmic ideas were all elements fully at the command of a masterful Aeolus Quartet. An overwhelming presentation, especially the ending to the fourth movement — froze me in my seat.”
– Stephan Bonfield, Calgary Herald – Related Link
Aeolus Quartet gets new Rocky River Chamber Music Society year off to vibrant start
“Immediately evident, too, was the Aeolus Quartet’s fully formed personality. A rich and warm tone combined with precise ensemble playing (that managed also to come across as fluid and natural), and an impressive musical intelligence guided every technical and dramatic turn.”
– Mark Satola, Cleveland Plain Dealer – Related Link
Sampling Lincoln Center’s Great Performers With the Aeolus Quartet
– Delarue, New York Music Daily – Related Link
Passionate Aeolus on Music Mountain
“Aeolus’ performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet no. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 (1827) offered the palpable treat of the afternoon…
The audience at august Gordon Hall was ecstatic, hypnotized, demanding a second bow, rising to their feet. While I had sensed slight nervous tension in the players at the opening of the performance, it was clear that they were glowing, relaxed, bathing in that extraordinary aura of something special well-achieved.”
– Kevin T. McEneaney, The Millbrook Independent – Related Link
A dual hymn to the modern in quartet and dance concert at Freer|Sackler
“Though the musical selection ranged from sugary neo-tonality to more discordant asperities, the ensemble’s clean intonation and collaborative spirit showed everything in the best light. Dense, dissonant homophony in Akira Miyoshi’s String Quartet No. 3 (“Constellation in black”) was frenetic and strident, enlivened by contrapuntal lines on which each voice rocketed out of the tumult. Regular shifts of texture sustained interest until the piece evaporated in a mist of harmonics and ethereal notes.”
– Charles T. Downey, Washington Classical Review – Related Link
DISCOGRAPHY
REPERTOIRE
22-23 Season Sample Programs
-
The Aeolus Quartet celebrates their 15th season with a quartet of programs inspired by the Earth’s elements: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Each program explores music with evocative connections to and depictions of individual elements. These programs combine works of masters old and new to offer transcendent, illustrative, and powerful experiences that engage and delight from start to finish.
Program I: Fire
Beethoven: Quartet in Bb Major, Op. 18 No. 6
Shaw: Blueprint
Schubert: Quartet in G Major, D. 887Inspired by the energy and power of fire, this program opens with Beethoven’s vivacious, electric Quartet in Bb Major. Caroline Shaw’s Blueprint is a work inspired by the Beethoven quartet that opens the program. Shaw writes “Blueprint is also a conversation – with Beethoven, with Haydn (his teacher and the “father” of the string quartet), and with the joys and malinconia of his Op. 18, No. 6”. The program concludes with Schubert’s epic and triumphant Quartet in G Major, a fiery, dramatic work in which the height of Schubert’s expressive genius is on full display.
Program II: Air
Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 64 No. 5 ‘Lark‘
Montgomery: Strum OR
Wiancko: Lift
Beethoven: Quartet in Eb Major, Op. 74 ‘Harp’Named for the keeper of the four winds, the Aeolus Quartet deftly carries this program of music buoyed by lightness and featuring the interplay of different musical currents. From the sparkle of the much beloved opening of Haydn’s Quartet in D Major, Op. 64 No. 5 ‘The Lark’, to the playful tempest just barely contained within Jessie Montgomery’s remarkable “Strum”, the ability of the string quartet to defy gravity is on full display. The powerful sweep of Beethoven’s celebrated Quartet in E-flat Major Op. 74 “Harp” demonstrates both the heroism and grace emblematic of the composer’s Middle Period.
Program III: Earth
Johnston: Amazing Grace OR
Bartok: Quartet 2 or 4
Marsalis: At the Octoroon Balls Suite
Dvorak: Quartet in G Major, Op. 106This program celebrating music rooted in deeply treasured folk traditions opens with the simple, hauntingly beautiful tones of “Amazing Grace” in Ben Johnston’s Quartet No. 4. Featuring sinewy harmonic turns and a highly specialized tuning system, the end result is the hymn in its most explosively joyful form. Acclaimed jazz musician Wynton Marsalis’ “At the Octoroon Balls’ is a sometimes raucous, sometimes solemn journey through American Creole traditions of New Orleans, where Marsalis spent his early life. Dvorak’s incomparable Quartet in G Major, Op. 106 shows the composer at the height of his powers in this late work, drawing on both Czech and American folk traditions to create his own unmistakable voice.
Program IV: Water
Haydn: Quartet in D Major Op. 50, No. 6 ‘The Frog‘
Negrón: Marejada OR
Tower: White Water
Coleridge Taylor: Fantasiestücke for String Quartet Op.5A celebration of water, this vivacious program opens with a conversation between frogs across a pond in Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 50, No. 6 “The Frog”. Angélica Negrón’s Marejada combines field recordings from the waves at Seven Seas Beach in Fajardo with evocative wave gestures from the live quartet. Composed during the height of pandemic isolation, Negron writes “I wanted to capture the feeling of joy and calmness I feel when I’m in Puerto Rico in these beautiful places while also expressing the complexity of the diaspora experience for those who like me cannot be physically present in those places.” The program ends with Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Fantasiestücke for String Quartet, a transcendent work that conveys the peace one feels as the sun rises over the ocean and the gentle rocking of a boat.
**
21-22 Season Sample Programs
-
Program I:
Haydn: Quartet om F Minor, Op. 20 No. 5
Bolcom: 3 Rags for String Quartet
Dvorak: Quartet in F Major “America”Program II:
Haydn: Quartet in F minor, Op. 20 No. 5
Bolcom: Three Rags for String Quartet
Price: Quartet in A minor
22-23 Season Sample Programs
The Aeolus Quartet celebrates their 15th season with a quartet of programs inspired by the Earth’s elements: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Each program explores music with evocative connections to and depictions of individual elements. These programs combine works of masters old and new to offer transcendent, illustrative, and powerful experiences that engage and delight from start to finish.
Program I: Fire
Beethoven: Quartet in Bb Major, Op. 18 No. 6
Shaw: Blueprint
Schubert: Quartet in G Major, D. 887Inspired by the energy and power of fire, this program opens with Beethoven’s vivacious, electric Quartet in Bb Major. Caroline Shaw’s Blueprint is a work inspired by the Beethoven quartet that opens the program. Shaw writes “Blueprint is also a conversation – with Beethoven, with Haydn (his teacher and the “father” of the string quartet), and with the joys and malinconia of his Op. 18, No. 6”. The program concludes with Schubert’s epic and triumphant Quartet in G Major, a fiery, dramatic work in which the height of Schubert’s expressive genius is on full display.
Program II: Air
Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 64 No. 5 ‘Lark‘
Montgomery: Strum OR
Wiancko: Lift
Beethoven: Quartet in Eb Major, Op. 74 ‘Harp’Named for the keeper of the four winds, the Aeolus Quartet deftly carries this program of music buoyed by lightness and featuring the interplay of different musical currents. From the sparkle of the much beloved opening of Haydn’s Quartet in D Major, Op. 64 No. 5 ‘The Lark’, to the playful tempest just barely contained within Jessie Montgomery’s remarkable “Strum”, the ability of the string quartet to defy gravity is on full display. The powerful sweep of Beethoven’s celebrated Quartet in E-flat Major Op. 74 “Harp” demonstrates both the heroism and grace emblematic of the composer’s Middle Period.
Program III: Earth
Johnston: Amazing Grace OR
Bartok: Quartet 2 or 4
Marsalis: At the Octoroon Balls Suite
Dvorak: Quartet in G Major, Op. 106This program celebrating music rooted in deeply treasured folk traditions opens with the simple, hauntingly beautiful tones of “Amazing Grace” in Ben Johnston’s Quartet No. 4. Featuring sinewy harmonic turns and a highly specialized tuning system, the end result is the hymn in its most explosively joyful form. Acclaimed jazz musician Wynton Marsalis’ “At the Octoroon Balls’ is a sometimes raucous, sometimes solemn journey through American Creole traditions of New Orleans, where Marsalis spent his early life. Dvorak’s incomparable Quartet in G Major, Op. 106 shows the composer at the height of his powers in this late work, drawing on both Czech and American folk traditions to create his own unmistakable voice.
Program IV: Water
Haydn: Quartet in D Major Op. 50, No. 6 ‘The Frog‘
Negrón: Marejada OR
Tower: White Water
Coleridge Taylor: Fantasiestücke for String Quartet Op.5A celebration of water, this vivacious program opens with a conversation between frogs across a pond in Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 50, No. 6 “The Frog”. Angélica Negrón’s Marejada combines field recordings from the waves at Seven Seas Beach in Fajardo with evocative wave gestures from the live quartet. Composed during the height of pandemic isolation, Negron writes “I wanted to capture the feeling of joy and calmness I feel when I’m in Puerto Rico in these beautiful places while also expressing the complexity of the diaspora experience for those who like me cannot be physically present in those places.” The program ends with Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Fantasiestücke for String Quartet, a transcendent work that conveys the peace one feels as the sun rises over the ocean and the gentle rocking of a boat.
**
21-22 Season Sample Programs
Program I:
Haydn: Quartet om F Minor, Op. 20 No. 5
Bolcom: 3 Rags for String Quartet
Dvorak: Quartet in F Major “America”Program II:
Haydn: Quartet in F minor, Op. 20 No. 5
Bolcom: Three Rags for String Quartet
Price: Quartet in A minor
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Short Biography
Since its inception in 2008 at the Cleveland School of Music, the Quartet has had a vision to share the permanent power of the string quartet repertoire with wide-ranging audiences. Based in New York City, the quartet brings equal dedication to all of its artistic endeavors, placing new and lesser-known works side-by-side with the time-honored masterworks.
The all-American quartet has been awarded prizes at nearly every major competition in the United States and performed across the globe with showings “worthy of a major-league quartet” (Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News). Mark Satola of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, “The quartet has a rich and warm tone combined with precise ensemble playing (that managed also to come across as fluid and natural), and an impressive musical intelligence guided every technical and dramatic turn.” Praised by the Baltimore Sun for combining “…smoothly meshed technique with a sense of spontaneity and discovery,” the Aeolus Quartet is committed to presenting time-seasoned masterworks and new cutting-edge works to widely diverse audiences with equal freshness, dedication, and fervor.
The 2021-2022 season highlights include performances at the Charles Wadworth Chamber Competition, Victoria Bach Festival, the Morgan Library, the Fullerton Friends of Music, Chamber Music Northwest, the California Baptist University, Musica Viva NY, Friends of Chamber Music Reading, Spruce Peak Chamber Music Society, and the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. The Quartet were featured in the PROTOTYPE Festival in Brooklyn and Musica Viva, New York.
Their competition success includes the Grand Prize in the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, First Prize at the Coleman International Chamber Ensemble Competition, and Silver Medal at the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet has studied extensively with the Miró, Guarneri, and Juilliard Quartets. Other mentors include artists such as Peter Salaff, Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Gerhard Schulz, and Mark Steinberg.
Full Biography
Nicholas Tavani & Rachel Shapiro, violins
Caitlin Lynch, viola
Alan Richardson, cello
Since its inception in 2008 at the Cleveland School of Music, the Quartet has had a vision to share the permanent power of the string quartet repertoire with wide-ranging audiences. Based in New York City, the quartet brings equal dedication to all of its artistic endeavors, placing new and lesser-known works side-by-side with the time-honored masterworks.
The all-American quartet has been awarded prizes at nearly every major competition in the United States and performed across the globe with showings “worthy of a major-league quartet” (Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News). Mark Satola of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, “The quartet has a rich and warm tone combined with precise ensemble playing (that managed also to come across as fluid and natural), and an impressive musical intelligence guided every technical and dramatic turn.” Praised by the Baltimore Sun for combining “…smoothly meshed technique with a sense of spontaneity and discovery,” the Aeolus Quartet is committed to presenting time-seasoned masterworks and new cutting-edge works to widely diverse audiences with equal freshness, dedication, and fervor.
The 2021-2022 season highlights include performances at the Charles Wadworth Chamber Competition, Victoria Bach Festival, the Morgan Library, the Fullerton Friends of Music, Chamber Music Northwest, the California Baptist University, Musica Viva NY, Friends of Chamber Music Reading, Spruce Peak Chamber Music Society, and the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. The Quartet were featured in the PROTOTYPE Festival in Brooklyn and Musica Viva, New York.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Aeolus Quartet spearheaded an innovative project Bach for All with the intention of bringing their listeners a moment of peace and beauty each week during these challenging times. The Quartet have recorded and released a different chorale by J.S. Bach every Monday hoping these chorales will “…lift spirits, hearts, and minds during this unparalleled time, while becoming a moment for a deep breath in your new weekly routine.” The Bach for All project and the Aeolus Quartet was featured in November 2021’s issue in the Chamber Music America Magazine.
In recent seasons, the Aeolus quartet held performances at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the University of Texas at Austin, Cornell University, Fairmont Chamber Music Society, University of Missouri-Columbia, NYC’s Bohemian National Hall, and in NYC’s Prototype Festival, where they premiered a new chamber opera composed by Ricky Ian Gordon.
The Quartet has also performed across North America, Europe, and Asia in venues such as the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (as part of the Great Performer’s Series), Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Reinberger Recital Hall at Severance Hall, Merkin Hall, The Library of Congress, Renwick Gallery, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. The Quartet was also recently featured on the hit Netflix show The Defenders.
The Aeolus Quartet have been Grand Prize winners of the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. They were awarded First Prize at the Coleman International Chamber Ensemble Competition, a Silver Medal at the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, and a Bronze Medal at the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in New England. The Aeolus Quartet has released two critically acclaimed albums of classical and contemporary works through the Longhorn/Naxos label which are available on iTunes, Amazon, and major retailers worldwide.
Dedicated to bringing music into the community, the Aeolus Quartet has been widely recognized for their highly innovative and engaging outreach programs. The Quartet was the recipient of a CMA Residency Partnership Grant, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association Educator Award and the Guarneri Quartet Residency project which involved extensive outreach and performances at Duke Ellington School for the Arts, the Sitar Arts Center, and George Washington University. Additionally, they were awarded the 2012 Lad Prize which culminated in large-scale community engagement work, performing in the Stanford, CA area, and a masterclass residency at Stanford University. The Aeolus Quartet has also served as teaching faculty at Stanford University’s Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY), the Austin Chamber Music Workshop, and Da Camera of Houston’s Music Encounters Program. Working in collaboration with the University of Texas through the Rural Chamber Music Outreach Initiative, the Quartet has presented educational programs and performances in communities throughout the state of Texas.
The Aeolus Quartet has studied extensively with the Miró, Guarneri, and Juilliard Quartets. Other mentors include artists William Preucil, Peter Salaff, Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Gerhard Schulz, and Mark Steinberg. Members of the Quartet hold degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Texas at Austin, where they served as the first Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence. The Quartet has also held residences at Musica Viva NY, the New Orchestra of Washington (DC), and the Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School.
02/2022 – PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUSLY DATED MATERIALS.
MODIFIED VERSIONS MUST BE APPROVED BY DISPEKER ARTISTS.
WEBSITE