Acclaimed Chiara String Quartet to Perform at Carleton

The soaring sounds of the internationally-acclaimed Chiara String Quartet will be heard on Friday, April 24 beginning at 8 p.m. in the Carleton Concert Hall. Performing the works of composer Jefferson Friedman, this not-to-be-missed performance is free and open to the public.

Known for “playing chamber music in any chamber,” the Chiara String Quartet takes classical music from the concert hall and into clubs, bars, and galleries—expanding the places to hear live classical music while returning chamber music to its roots in intimate spaces. Described by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as “vastly talented, vastly resourceful, and vastly committed to the music of their time,” their style is best described as a nonstop journey to the edge of expressive possibility: “luminous,” “searing,” (New York Times) “soulful,” “biting,” and possessing a “potent collective force” (Strings Magazine).

The Chiara String Quartet (Rebecca Fischer and Julie Yoon, violin, Jonah Sirota, viola, and Gregory Beaver, cello) has served as the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University since the fall of 2008 and as artists-in-residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln since 2005. The Quartet, who trained and taught at The Julliard School, has performed in a variety of national and international settings, from the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall to traditionally non-classical venues such as Mucky Duck in Houston and The Hideout in Chicago. The ensemble recently completed a critically-acclaimed 
eight-city tour of Sweden with clarinetist Håkan Rosengren. In May 2009
 they will make their debut in Munich, performing “Different Trains” by 
Steve Reich at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.

The Quartet has been honored with the Guarneri Quartet Residency Award for artistic excellence by Chamber Music America, top prize at the Paolo Borciani International Competition, the Astral Artistic Services National Audition, and First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

Chiara (key-ARE-uh) is an Italian word, meaning “clear, pure, or
 light.” More information about the Chiara Quartet can be found online at 
chiaraquartet.net and on MySpace at myspace.com/chiarastringquartet.

The Quartet’s appearance in Northfield is sponsored by The Christopher U. Light Lectureship series at Carleton College, created by Christopher Upton Light, Carleton class of 1958. Each year, the series brings prominent professional artists—composers, musicians, writers, painters, and sculptors—to Carleton to perform and meet with faculty and students.

The Carleton College Concert Hall is located on First Street between Nevada and Winona Street in Northfield. For more information and disability accommodations, please call the Department of Music at (507) 222-4347.