January 12, 2006

Chamber Music Concerts will present the Pacifica Quartet on Friday at 8 p.m., and with pianist Alexander Tutunov on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the SOU Music Recital Hall. Tickets are $26 and $29, with a student price of only $5. Please call 552-6154 for tickets, or visit CMC’s web site at www.sou.edu/cmc for more information. The program for the evening concert on Friday will include Franz Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in D Major, Op. 71, No. 2; Leos Janacek’s Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters”; and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quartet in a minor, Op. 132. The matinee concert on Saturday features Beethoven’s Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2, “Compliments”; Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quintet for piano and strings, Op. 57; and Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 44, No. 3. CMC thanks Ilana Rubenfeld for helping to sponsor the January 13th performance.

In addition to its active North American touring schedule during the 2005-2006 season, the Pacifica Quartet continues its rise to prominence in overseas cultural capitals with a month-long tour of Europe, including a return engagement at London’s famed Wigmore Hall. Concerts in North American include appearances in Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater and Alice Tully Hall, the National Gallery in Washington DC, and many other prominent chamber music venues. The Pacifica’s CD set of the complete Mendelssohn string quartets, released in April 2005 by Cedille Records, has won wide critical acclaim.

Soon after its creation in 1994, the Pacifica won top prizes in three of chamber music’s most important international competitions for young ensembles, the 1996 Coleman Chamber Music Competition, the 1997 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. In 2002, the Quartet was further honored with Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, giving them concerts in eight of America’s most important venues, and appointment as a member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program for gifted young musicians. For two years beginning in the fall of 2003, this position involves the Quartet in the full range of activities of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, from performances in Alice Tully Hall to community partnerships and leading roles in the Chamber Music Society’s educational activities.

Ashland Pianist Alexander Tutunanov will join the Pacifica Quartet for a Saturday Afternoon matinee. Submitted photo

The Quartet has increased its active touring of Europe, with the entire month of November, 2005 devoted to concert performances in Britain and on the Continent. They have been featured on several of the nation’s most prominent radio broadcasts, including National Public Radio’s Performance Today, Minnesota Public Radio’s St. Paul Sunday, and Chicago’s WFMT. The Pacifica’s schedule has included appearances at the Aspen, Caramoor, Santa Fe, Bellingham, Music in the Vineyards, Britt, Cape and Islands, and Vermont Mozart Festivals and collaborations with distinguished artists such as Paul Katz, Michael Tree, Ursula Oppens, Wu Han, and the Emerson String Quartet. The Pacifica’s North American touring schedule has included such prominent venues as Alice Tully Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress, National Gallery, and Supreme Court in Washington DC, in addition to many other concert performances from coast-to-coast.

The Pacifica is an ardent advocate of contemporary music, commissioning and performing as many as eight new works a year. In the past three seasons, the ensemble has distinguished itself with concerts of Elliott Carter’s complete string quartets at Miller Theater in New York City, the University of Chicago, UCLA, the Cleveland Museum, San Francisco Performances and the Edinburgh International Festival. The New York Times wrote glowingly of the “astounding performances” by the “brilliant Pacifica Quartet,” and the Chicago Tribune praised the Quartet’s “astonishing talent, energy and dedication.” As resident string quartet for the Contemporary Chamber Players, one of the country’s leading contemporary music organizations, the Quartet presents a series of concerts each year devoted exclusively to new music.

In the fall of 2003, the Pacifica Quartet became Faculty Quartet in Residence at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, while continuing as Quartet in Residence at the University of Chicago, where it is the first resident ensemble in the history of the institution. Reflecting its dedication to musicians and music lovers of the next generation, the Pacifica Quartet was instrumental in creating the Music Integration Project, an innovative program that provides musical performances and teacher training to inner-city elementary schools. In addition, the Quartet regularly teaches at summer festivals, including Interlochen Arts Camp, Madeline Island Music Festival, and the Britt Festival in Oregon. The ensemble is also frequently invited for visiting residencies at universities and schools nationwide.

The Pacifica’s recordings of the complete string quartets by Felix Mendelssohn, released by Cedille Records in April, 2005, join the Quartet’s earlier Cedille recordings of Dvorak chamber works and the complete quartets of Easley Blackwood. All have been widely praised. Additional information about the Pacifica Quartet can be found on the web at www.pacificaquartet.com.

Pianist Alexander Tutunov’s playing was described by Soviet Culture, Moscow, as “exhilarating and inspired, and which demonstrated a unique talent.” Born in Vitebsk, Belarus, he entered the Central Music School of the famed Moscow Conservatory at age 7, one of three chosen out of 200 applicants, where he graduated magna cum laude. He also holds diplomas in concert performance, with honors, from the Minsk Musical College, University of North Texas, and the Belarussian National Academy of Music. Tutunov won the first prize of the Belarussian National Piano Competition, and was a winner of the Russian National Piano Competition. He maintains a busy concert schedule and has performed widely in the former Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, the former Czechoslovakia, China, Mexico, and the United States as a recitalist, soloist with orchestras, and on radio and television.

His recent recordings include a Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Peter Sacco with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and he is presently under contract with Altarus Records to record the complete solo piano works of Lev Abeliovich. Currently an Associate Professor of Music and Director of Keyboard Studies at Southern Oregon University, Dr. Tutunov has also taught at the Minsk College of Music, the University of North Texas, and Illinois Wesleyan University and is in demand as an adjudicator for piano competitions.