Rolston String Quartet

December 8, 2017

7:00 p.m.

Americas Society

680 Park Avenue

New York

(Image: Tianxiao Zhang Photography)

Overview

Pre-registration for this event is now closed. The box office will open in the lobby beginning at 6:15 PM.

Admission: FREE for AS and YPA Members, and Hunter College students; $20 for non-members. (No additional fees will be charged when purchasing online.) $10 tickets will be available for purchase at the door for students and seniors with ID.

Not yet a member? Learn how to become a Cultural Circle member to access this event.

Since 2008, Music of the Americas has hosted first-place winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC). For the most recent competition, Americas Society co-commissioned Canadian composer Zosha Di Castri's first string quartet with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the BISQC. Hailed as "electrifying" by Strings Magazine, Rolston String Quartet was recently named fellowship quartet-in-residence at Yale School of Music. The ensemble will perform Di Castri's piece alongside Canadian compatriot R. Murray Schafer's second string quartet ("Waves") and Tchaikovsky's first string quartet.

Read more about Di Castri's commission on the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity website.

Meet the Rolston Quartet, interviewed by Sebastián Zubieta (Video: Luisa Leme). About the artists First-place winners of the 2016 BISQC, the Rolston String Quartet has become Canada's newest ensemble attracting attention on the international stage. As Germany's Südwest Press stated of their recent performance, "an impressive, deeply serious interpretation … highly sensitive, delicately transparent. A musical sound treasure, blissful." The quartet, a winner of the 2016 Astral Artists National Auditions, was awarded First Prize at the 31st Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, Third Prize at the inaugural M-Prize Competition, and the Durosoir Prize at the 2016 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. Performances have taken them throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe in venues such as the Kennedy Center, Harris Hall, Koerner Hall, and the Auditorium de Bordeaux. Notable collaborations include performances with renowned artists Andrés Díaz, Gil Kalish, Mark Morris, Donald Palma, Jon Kimura Parker, and Miguel da Silva. Additionally they have worked closely with composers John Luther Adams and Brian Current. Formerly the Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, the quartet has also participated in residencies and fellowships at the Académie musicale de Villecroze, Aspen Music Festival, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, McGill International String Quartet Academy, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, and the Yehudi Menuhin Chamber Music Festival. Mentored primarily by James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith, they have received additional guidance from Steven Dann, Paul Kantor, Barry Shiffman, Miguel da Silva, Mark Steinberg, and Alastair Tait. The Rolston String Quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s Chamber Music Residency. They take their name after the Canadian violinist Thomas Rolston, founder and longtime director of the Music and Sound Programs at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. They were the only ensemble to be featured on CBC's 2016 list of hot Canadian classical musicians under 30.

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Video: Meet the Rolston Quartet

November 22, 2017

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Rolston String Quartet

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Overview

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