WQXR’s Midday Masterpieces: The Ulysses Quartet
WQXR's Midday Masterpieces
Originally Aired: Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Overview
Every first Wednesday of the month, settle in for an hour of musical serenity with rising stars from The Juilliard School.
Leave your emails and phone calls behind and join us for these free midday concerts featuring selections from some of classical music’s most beloved composers. Featuring The Ulysses Quartet.
PROGRAM:
Komitas: Armenian Folk Songs for String Quartet:
- Vagharshabadi Dance
- It’s Cloudy
- The Partridge
Paul Frucht (Juilliard Alum, b. 1989):
- Rhapsody (2018)
Pavel Haas: String Quartet No. 2, “From the Monkey Mountains,” op. 7:
- Wild Night
- Vivace e con fuoco
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4 in c minor, op.18, no. 4
- Allegro ma non tanto
- Andante scherzoso quasi allegretto
- Menuetto: Allegretto
- Allegro – Prestissimo
The Spirio by Steinway & Sons is the official piano of The Greene Space.
This is free and open to all. Audience will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis and an RSVP does not guarantee your admission. If capacity is reached at any given time, we will maintain a line outside our doors and follow a one-in, one-out policy. We recommend arriving early to better secure entry to the venue.
Tickets to this event are free, but reservations are recommended.
The Ulysses String Quartet has been praised for their “textural versatility,” “grave beauty,” “the kind of chemistry many quartets long for, but rarely achieve” (The Strad) as well as “avid enthusiasm … [with] chops to back up their passion” and a “vibrant sonority” (San Diego Story).
Founded in the summer of 2015, the group won first prize in the 2018 Schoenfeld International String Competition and the grand prize and gold medal in the senior string division of the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Ulysses also finished first in the American Prize and won second prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2017. The quartet garnered a career development grant in the 2016 Banff International String Quartet Competition and were winners of the Vietnam International Music Competition this past August.
Consisting of Christina Bouey and Rhiannon Banerdt on violin, Colin Brookes on viola and Grace Ho on cello, the Ulysses Quartet were appointed the Graduate Quartet in Residence at the Juilliard School in 2019.
Hailing from Canada, the United States and Taiwan, the Ulysses String Quartet has performed in such prestigious halls such as the Harbin Grand Theatre, Carnegie Hall and the Taiwan National Concert Hall. Performance highlights have included appearances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, Bargemusic, and Premiere Performances Hong Kong, debuts at Jordan Hall and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and the Vietnam Connection Festival. As a special project, the group will record the quartets of composer Joseph Summer at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, over the next several years.
The members of Ulysses hold degrees from the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, and Yale University. The musicians perform on instruments and bows graciously on loan from Juilliard, the Canada Council of the Arts Instrument Bank and the Maestro Foundation.
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