Saturday, February 15, 7:30 p.m.
Augustana College's Centennial Hall, 3703 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island IL
With The New Yorker deeming the group “an ensemble of eloquent intensity” and “one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene,” the gifted musicians of the Jupiter String Quartet appear as special guests in the WVIK/QCSO Signature Series, their February 15 performance at Augustana College's Centennial Hall sure to deliver what the Boston Classical Review called “an intensely alert investigation of the musical possibilities in each work.”
Composed of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband), the Jupiter String Quartet, in its 17th year, is a tightly knit ensemble that has become firmly established as an important voice in the modern world of chamber music. The quartet has performed across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Americas in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Meanwhile, the Jupiter String Quartet's major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival & School, the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Virginia Arts Festival, and the Seoul Spring Festival, among many others. Among the ensemble's highlights for the 2019-2020 season include appearances at Bay Chamber Concerts, Chamber Music in Napa Valley, the Washington University Guest Artists Series, and collaborations with pianists Jon Nakamatsu and Michael Brown, baritone Tyler Duncan, and the Jasper String Quartet.
The performers' chamber-music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2004, and the following year, they won the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City, which quickly led to a busy touring schedule. They consequently received the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America in 2007 and an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2008, and from 2007 to 2010, the Jupiter String Quartet was in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two. In 20912, the musicians were appointed as artists-in-residence and faculty at the University of Illinois, where they continue to perform regularly in the beautiful Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, maintain private studios, and direct the chamber music program. Reviewing a recent concert event, the Cleveland Plain Dealer called the group “an alert and energetic ensemble with plenty of communication and an individual sonic sheen that was at once light and, when called for, warm and burnished.”
The Jupiter String Quartet headlines the third WVIK/QCSO Signature Series concert of the 2019-20 season on February 15, admission to the 7:30 p.m. event is $10-25, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)322-7276 or visiting QCSO.org.
