July 29, 2006

The Arianna String Quartet at the SOU Recital Hall

Staff Reports

The Arianna String Quartet, performing in the SOU Music Recital Hall on Monday, July 31 at 8 p.m., have been hailed as one of America’s top 10 chamber ensembles and praised by critics for their warmth and polish.

Formed in 1992, the quartet captured grand prize in the 1994 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and first prize in both the Coleman and Carmel National Competitions. They are the Faculty Artist Teachers and quartet-in-residence at the University of Missouri-St.Louis.

Steeped in the belief that today’s youth is tomorrow’s audience, the quartet is excited to serve as quartet-in-residence for the Britt Institute Chamber Strings Camp.

The Britt Institute is the educational component of Britt Festivals. It was founded 20 years ago to provide talented young musicians with opportunities to develop their skills as performers, to study with superb master teachers and develop lifelong friendships.

The quartet’s performance signals the beginning of the students two weeks of study.

Their Arianna String Quartet’s program includes the Beethoven String Quartet in G Major, the Shostakovich String Quartet No. 3 in F Major and Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor.

Praised by critics for their warmth and polish, the Chicago Tribune recently said

“the silken refinement of the playing was achieved with no loss of expressive vitality or spontaneity. Quartet playing doesn’t get much better than this.”

The Arianna Quartet has concertized throughout the United States, Mexico, Japan, Canada and France, and has given successful debuts at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. They have collaborated with artists such as Paul Katz, Gilbert Kalish, Bernard Greenhouse, Andres Cardenes, Richard Stoltzman, and the Vermeer Quartet. The Arianna Quartet has recorded for the Centaur, Albany, and Urtext classical labels.

The Arianna String Quartet has been featured in concerts at the Spoleto, Banff, Norfolk, and Strings in the Mountains festivals, was Ensemble-in-Residence at the Tanglewood Music Center, and was invited by Isaac Stern to perform in his first ever Carnegie Hall master classes. They have been heard on live nationally broadcast performances in Osaka, Japan, and on Canada’s CBC radio, several times as part of Chicago’s prestigious Dame Myra Hess Series, and on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” program. After being awarded a Chamber Music America Residency Grant in 1996, the Arianna String Quartet performed more than four hundred outreach concerts in four years in southeast Michigan as Eastern Michigan University’s quartet-in-residence. In 2003, The ASQ was a recipient of a Chamber Music America Residency Grant for their outreach work in St. Louis.

The quartet will also continue their concert series at Eastern Michigan University, where they were artists-in-residence from 1996 to 2000. The Arianna String Quartet performed over four-hundred outreach concerts in southeast Michigan between 1996 and 2000.

Violinist John McGrosso has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard, and holds a Performer’s Certificate from Northern Illinois University. His teachers have included Dorothy Delay, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joyce Robbins, and Gerald Beal, and he has studied chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Tokyo and Vermeer Quartets. From 1992 to 1999 Mr. McGrosso was a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He joined the Arianna String Quartet in 1998.

Violinist David Gillham holds his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Manitoba, Master’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory, and Performer’s Diploma from Indiana University. His teachers have included Franco Gulli, Martin Beaver, David Stewart and David Zafer, and he has studied chamber music with members of the Juilliard and Tokyo String Quartets. Since 1998, he has been performing with his wife, pianist Chiharu Iinuma. The duo’s recent performances have included concerts in China, Canada and the United States. He has served on the faculties of Memorial University and the University of Central Arkansas. In 2003, Gillham was awarded the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the arts.

Violist Robert Meyer began playing the viola in the public school strings program in New Rochelle, New York. While in high school, he studied at the Manhattan School of Music, and holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Rice University in Houston, Texas. His primary teachers were Yizhak Schotten, Wayne Brooks, and Karen Ritscher, and he has studied chamber music with Andrew Jennings, Norman Fischer, Paul Katz, members of the Juilliard String Quartet, and the late Isaac Stern. An experienced and versatile chamber musician, Mr. Meyer was a founding member of the New Fromm Players, a contemporary music ensemble in residence at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. From 2001-2003, he performed as the Assistant Principal Violist of the Richmond Symphony, where he was active in the symphony’s outreach programs.

Cellist Kurt Baldwin began his studies in Iowa City, Iowa, in the public schools at the age of 12. His first teachers included Candace Wiebener, Margaret Brooke, and at Augustana College, Janina Ehrlich. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied with Irene Sharp. He then earned a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, studying with Bernard Greenhouse, and a Performer’s Certificate from Northern Illinois University studying with Marc Johnson. As a founding member of the Arianna String Quartet, Mr. Baldwin has won Grand Prizes in the Fischoff, Coleman, and Carmel competitions, and has given concerts throughout the United States and Japan. For several summers, Mr. Baldwin was the principal cellist of the Spoleto Festival in Italy and the United States.

Tickets for this performance are available at the door the evening of the concert or in advanced through the Britt Festival box office (800) 822-7488. Reserved Seats are $22, $19, and $15 for students and seniors.