5/14/2022 ECMSA American String Quartet

2021–2022

MUSIC@ EMORY

This concert is presented by the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.

404.727.5050 | schwartz.emory.edu | boxoffice@emory.edu

Audience Information Please turn off all electronic devices.

Full details on COVID safety protocols are available at schwartz.emory.edu/FAQ The concert hall capacity has been reduced in order to allow distance between seated parties. Please be mindful of distancing.

Photographs and Recordings

Digital capture or recording of this concert is not permitted.

Ushers

The Schwartz Center welcomes a volunteer usher corps of approximately 60 members each year. Visit schwartz.emory.edu/volunteer or call 404.727.6640 for ushering opportunities.

Accessibility

The Schwartz Center is committed to providing performances and facilities accessible to all. Please direct accommodation requests to the Schwartz Center Box Office at 404.727.5050, or by email at boxoffice@emory.edu.

Design and Photography Credits

Cover and Program Design: Lisa Baron | Cover Photo: Mark Teague

Acknowledgment

The Schwartz Center gratefully acknowledges the generous ongoing support of Donna and Marvin Schwartz.

ECMSA EMERSON SERIES Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta William Ransom, artistic director

2021 2022

American String Quartet with Yinzi Kong, viola; Guang Wang, cello Saturday, May 14, 2022, 8:00 p.m.

Emerson Concert Hall Schwartz Center for Performing Arts

Program Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 18, No. 6 Allegro con brio Adagio, ma non troppo Scherzo: Allegro—Trio La malinconia: Adagio Allegretto quasi allegro

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

String Quartet No. 3 Prima parte: Moderato Seconda parte: Allegro Ricapitulazione della prima parte: Moderato Coda: Allegro molto

Béla Bartók (1881–1945)

—Intermission— Sextet for Strings in G Major, op. 36 Allegro non troppo Scherzo—Allegro non troppo—Presto giocoso Adagio Poco allegro

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)

The Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta is supported by the Cherry L. Emerson Endowment, the Rebecca Katz-Doft Chamber Music Endowment, the Ethel Orentlicher Gershon Fund, a generous gift from Dr. John and Linda Cooke, and by music lovers like you.

4

American String Quartet Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney, violins; Daniel Avshalomov, viola; Wolfram Koessel, cello Internationally recognized as one of the world’s finest quartets, the American String Quartet has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous. The quartet celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2019, and, in its years of touring, has performed in all 50 states and has appeared in the most important concert halls worldwide. The group’s presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim, and its MusicMasters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire.

Recent seasons featured performances of the quartet’s major project together with the National Book Award–winning author Phil Klay and the poet Tom Sleigh, which offers a groundbreaking program combining music and readings that examines the effects of war. The quartet also collaborated with renowned author Salman Rushdie in a work for narrator and quartet by film composer Paul Cantelon built around Rushdie’s novel The Enchantress of Florence. These tremendously imaginative collaborations cement the American String Quartet’s reputation as one of the most adventurous and fearless string quartets performing today, as comfortable with the groundbreaking as with the traditional.

The quartet’s diverse activities have also included numerous international radio and television broadcasts, including a recent recording for the BBC; tours of Asia; and performances with the New York City Ballet, the Montreal Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Recent highlights include performances of an all-sextet program with Roberto and Andrès Díaz, many tours of South America, and performances of the complete Beethoven cycle of string quartets at the Cervantes Festival in Mexico and the Tel Aviv Museum in Israel.

The American String Quartet’s additional extensive discography can be heard on the Albany, CRI, MusicMasters, Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch, and RCA labels. Most recently the group released Schubert’s Echo, which pairs Schubert’s monumental last quartet with works bearing its influence by Second Viennese masters Alban Berg and Anton Webern. This repertoire posits that the creative line from the First to the Second Viennese Schools is continuous—and evident when these works are heard in the context of each other.

5

As champions of new music, the American String Quartet has given numerous premieres, including George Tsontakis’s Quartet No. 7.5 “Maverick,” Richard Danielpour’s Quartet No. 4, and Curt Cacioppo’s a distant voice calling. The premiere of Robert Sirota’s American Pilgrimage was performed around the United States in the cities the work celebrates.

The quartet premiered Tobias Picker’s String Quartet No. 2 in New York City in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Manhattan School of Music.

Formed when its original members were students at the Juilliard School, the American String Quartet’s career began with the group winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Award in the same year. Resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York since 1984, the American String Quartet has also served as resident quartet at the Taos School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Yinzi Kong, viola Violist Yinzi Kong, born and raised in Shanghai, China, is a founding member of the international award-winning Vega String Quartet.

Kong began her musical training at age five and gave her first public performances at age seven. After moving to the United States in 1995, she received a bachelor’s degree from the Harid Conservatory in Florida and a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Since winning several top prizes at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France, the Carmel String Quartet Competition, and the Coleman Competition in the United States with the Vega String Quartet, Kong has enjoyed a versatile career in both solo and chamber music performance and teaching. She has performed in major concert halls all over the world including the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, and the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, and her live performances have been heard on NPR’s Performance Today (USA), the National Radio of China, Shanghai TV, Radio France, France Musiques, and the National Radio of the Czech Republic. Kong has also collaborated with some of the finest musicians of our time including Elliot Fisk, William Preucil, David Shifrin, Richard Stoltzman, Charles Wadsworth, Mark O’Connor, and Sarah Chang, among others. Kong lives in Atlanta, where the Vega String Quartet is a full-time artist in residence at Emory University.

6

Guang Wang, cello Guang Wang is cellist with the international award-winning Vega String Quartet, in residence at Emory University. He was a prizewinner of the First National Cello Competition in China, a first-prize winner of the Boca Symphonic Pops Scholarship, and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition in 1997. He worked with maestros Michael Tilson Thomas and Christoph Eschenbach at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan in 1995 and gave concerts throughout France as a soloist and chamber musician in 1992. Playing more than 200 concerts with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra throughout Asia, Wang had been assistant principal cello for two years before he came to the United States under full scholarship from Harid Conservatory. Wang’s principal teachers were David Geber, Laszlo Varga, and Johanne Perron. He has a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York, a professional diploma from the Harid Conservatory of Music in Florida, and a bachelor’s degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Music at Emory The Department of Music at Emory University provides an exciting and innovative environment for developing knowledge and skills as a performer, composer, and scholar. Led by a faculty of more than 60 nationally and internationally recognized artists and researchers, undergraduate and graduate students experience a rich diversity of performance and academic opportunities. Undergraduate students in the department earn a BA in music with a specialization in performance, composition, or research, many of whom simultaneously earn a second degree in another department. True to the spirit of Emory, a liberal arts college in the heart of a research university, the faculty and ensembles also welcome the participation of nonmajor students from across the Emory campus.

Become a part of Music at Emory by giving to the Friends of Music. A gift provides crucial support to all of the activities. To learn more, visit music. emory.edu or call 404.727.1401.

7

Music at Emory Music at Emory brings together students, faculty, and world-class artists to create an exciting and innovative season of performances, lectures, workshops, and master classes. With more than 150 events each year across multiple Emory venues, audiences experience a wide variety of musical offerings.

As you explore Music at Emory, we hope you enjoy this variety by sampling an assortment of work from our student ensembles, community youth ensembles, artists in residence, professional faculty, up-and-coming prodigies, and virtuosos from around the world.

404.727.5050 music.emory.edu