Colorado String Quartet

The Colorado Quartet is recognized on four continents as one of the finest string quartets on the international scene.

Performance:

Tuesday, February 25, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church
1100 Carter Creek Parkway
Bryan, Texas 77802

Biography:

The Colorado Quartet is recognized on four continents as one of the finest string quartets on the international scene. Winners of both the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, their performances are noted for their musical integrity, impassioned playing and lyrical finesse.

Highlights of past years include tours of more than twenty countries and performances in major cities across the globe. New York appearances include the Mostly Mozart Festival, where they performed twenty Haydn Quartets over a two-year period, and concerts in Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center. The Quartet regularly performs the complete Beethoven Quartets, most recently in Berlin, making them the first female quartet to have performed the Beethoven cycle in both North America and in Europe. The Colorado Quartet commemorated the 50th anniversary of Béla Bartók's death in 1995 with the first complete performance of the Bartók String Quartets to take place in Philadelphia, and has since performed the Bartók cycle several times.

The Colorado Quartet is Quartet-in-Residence at Bard College in New York State, where Quartet members teach private lessons, coach chamber ensembles and present courses on the Literature of the String Quartet. The ensemble was Quartet-in-Residence at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and has also held artist residencies at The New School in Philadelphia, Swarthmore and Skidmore Colleges and Amherst College. They have given master classes across the continent, including at The Eastman School of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory, Northwestern University, The Banff Centre, Indiana University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Toronto, and are Artistic Directors of the Soundfest Chamber Music Festival and Quartet Institute in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

The Colorado Quartet's inspiring style combines a deep scholarly knowledge of the quartet literature with energy, passion, and a focus on fine details. Members of the Colorado Quartet have served on the juries for several international competitions, including the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, Banff Quartet Competition and Concert Artists Guild Competition. Their critically acclaimed recordings of Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms and contemporary composers can be found on Parnassus, Mode and Albany Records. The Colorado Quartet commemorated its 20th anniversary in 2003 with a release of the first in a complete set of Beethoven Quartet recordings; the complete recordings of Beethoven Quartets should be available by the 25th anniversary.

Members:

Julie Rosenfeld, Violin

Julie stays constantly on the go, with frequent guest appearances around the country. She has performed with Chamber Music at Lincoln Center, and at the Marlboro Music Festival, the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, the Skaneateles (NY) Festival, the Steamboat Springs (CO) Festival, and the Newport (RI) Music Festival. In 1992 Julie was the first female adjudicator at the Banff International String Quartet Competition; she's also been on juries for the Coleman, Concert Artists Guild and Juilliard Concerto Competitions. Julie has often collaborated with pianist/composer André Previn, and performed the West Coast premiere of his Violin Sonata in 1996; their recording of French chamber music is available on the BMG label.

A native of Los Angeles, Julie has been with the Quartet since 1982, and plays on a J.B. Guadagnini violin, circa 1750; her bow is a Dominique Peccatte from the early 19th century. She lives in Teaneck, NJ and is a gourmet cook.

 

D. Lydia Redding, Violin

The founder of the Quartet, Lydia bears full responsibility for the name "Colorado" - the rest of us are from Elsewhere. (After its inception at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the CQ moved to New York for training at The Juilliard School. The other Coloradans have long since fallen by the wayside.) Lydia, whom you may know by her first name of Deborah, is an ultra-runner and regularly runs races of 50 miles or more; the 26 miles of a standard marathon hold little challenge for her now. She has completed one 100-mile run, and and has run 75-95 miles on several occasions. With some recent personal best times, she now has a North American ranking as an ultra-runner. She raises money for the Soundfest Scholarship Fund with "Miles for Music" pledges for her marathons -- her last pledge race was a 3-day, 100 mile stage race in New York City.

Along with the other CQ members, Lydia teaches and coaches at Bard College; she has also taught at the Rafael Trio Workshop in Adamant, Vermont, and has lectured on Bartók at the European Mozart Academy in Poland. She plays a 1674 Italian violin by Francesco Ruggeri with an Etienne Pajeot bow circa 1800. Liddy lives in Teaneck, NJ, with her wild orange tabby, Oscar and Lucifer the black cat.

 

Marka Gustavsson, Viola

Marka has appeared on the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society's "Meet the Music" series, in Avery Fisher Hall and Boston's Symphony Hall with the Brandenburg Ensemble, and as a member of the featured string quartet in the ABC documentary "Passion to Play." Internationally, she has performed in the Festival Presence de Ligeti in Paris, for the Queen of the Netherlands in Holland, and at Toru Takemitsu's memorial concert at Oji Hall in Tokyo.

Marka received her training at Indiana University and the Mannes College of Music, and also holds a doctoral degree from the City University of New York—you may call her Dr. Marka. She has taught at Hofstra University and at the Kinhaven Music Festival, and she plays on a viola by the Brothers Grancino from 1683 with a bow by Leonard Tourte. Marka lives in Red Hook, NY with young son Benjamin and husband composer John Halle, who is head of the theory department at the Conservatory at Bard College.

 

Diane Chaplin, Cello

Diane is a workaholic, with three full-time careers at once. In addition to concerts and touring with the CQ and teaching at Bard College, she teaches a class of more than 30 students at a private school in Manhattan. Diane is Administrative Director of the Soundfest Music Festival and personally attends to all fund-raising, publicity, scheduling and Quartet Institute headaches. She writes and edits the Quartet Quarterly, as well as a monthly newsletter for her synagogue.

Now and again Ms. Chaplin finds time for a non-Quartet performance, such as her special appearances with the Flying Karamazov Brothers, with Mikhail Baryshnikov, and as a piccolo player with the Fighting Instruments of Karma Marching Chamber Band/Orchestra. She has appeared many times in recitals and as a concerto soloist, and holds a special prize from the International Cello Competition in Vina del Mar, Chile, and a certificate from the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Diane is an official Espresso Snob, owns both travel and giant non-portable machines, and never leaves home without one. She was born and raised in LA (is an official Valley Girl), joined the Quartet in 1988, and now splits her time between her 3 cats in the lovely town of Englewood, NJ, and her alternate family in Portland, OR.

More Information:

Please contact Joanne Rile Management 215-885-6400.