Pacifica Quartet performs final concert in Beethoven series April 14 at Schwab
March 21, 2005
Pacifica Quartet, one of America's most accomplished young ensembles, performs the sixth and final concert of the Center for the Performing presentation of the complete Beethoven string quartets at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, in Penn State's Schwab Auditorium.
The scheduled program includes the quartets in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3; E-flat Major, Op. 74, Harp; and C-sharp Minor, Op. 131.
Tickets for the University Park concert are on sale now at $22 for an adult; $10 for a full-time University Park student; and $16 for a person 18 and younger. For tickets and information, log on to www.cpa.psu.edu or phone 863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at Eisenhower Auditorium, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; Penn State Tickets Downtown in the lobby of State College‚s Penn State Downtown Theatre Center, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; HUB-Robeson Center Information Desk, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays; and Bryce Jordan Center, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
"There's no point predicting future greatness for the young Pacifica Quartet," writes a critic for the Los Angles Times. "That future is already here." A Denver Post critic writes that the quartet has "a zest for performance that carries a listener along breathlessly, passionately." A Chicago Sun-Times reviewer describes the quartet members as "confident musicians playing at the top of their game."
Formed in Los Angeles in 1994, the quartet quickly garnered three of chamber music's important international awards: the 1996 Coleman Chamber Music Competition, the 1997 Concert Artists Guild Competition and the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award.
In 2002, the ensemble earned Chamber Music America's prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award and was appointed resident quartet of New York City's Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two. The appointment, which concludes this spring, involves the quartet in a range of activities–from concerts to community partnerships to leading roles in the society‚s educational programs.
The ensemble–violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Masumi Per Rostad and cellist Brandon Vamos–has been resident quartet at the University of Chicago since 1998. Since 2003, the Pacifica has also been faculty quartet in residence at the University of Illinois.
The ensemble, which records on the Cedille label, last year released its rendition of the complete Mendelssohn string quartets. Leading advocates of contemporary music, the quartet commissions and performs as many as eight compositions a year.
In addition to appearances at leading venues in the United States such as Carnegie and Alice Tully halls, the Pacifica has toured across America and to Australia, Europe and Central America.
The Norma and Ralph Condee Chamber Music Endowment sponsors the performance. WPSU-FM is the media partner. Artistic Viewpoints, sponsored by the Center for the Performing Arts Community Advisory Council, provides insight from an artist or expert perspective and is offered free to interested ticket holders in Schwab Auditorium one hour before the performance.
Contact: Laura Sullivan
(814) 863-6379