Calidore String Quartet Performs Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F minor
Our final streaming performance for Spring 2021 featured the Calidore String Quartet performing Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F minor and Dvorák’s Quintet in G major for Two Violins, Viola, Cello, and Bass. This limited engagement has ended its run. But we present a performance of the Mendelssohn work which was recorded by the Calidore Quartet Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio on November 30, 2017 and is now available on YouTube.
This young ensemble has generated enthusiasm for their recordings and performances. A review in the Violin Channel said “The New York-based Calidore String Quartet has in recent years firmly established themselves as one of the most celebrated young chamber ensembles to emerge internationally – praised for their confidence, finesse, intellect and expression.”
We hope you have enjoyed these streaming performances and stayed safe during the pandemic. We are optimistic about the possibility of presenting concerts in Westchester beginning in September but state guidelines and a concern for everyone’s safety remains a paramount concern. When we have news to report we will send updates by email and update our Facebook page and the website at once.
Felix Mendelssohn(1809-1847)
Quartet in F minor for Strings, Op. 80 (1847)
- Allegro vivace assai
- Allegro assai
- Adagio
- Finale: Allegro molto
Calidore String Quartet (Jeffrey Myers, Ryan Meehan, violin; Jeremy Berry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello)
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The Calidore String Quartet has been praised by the New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” and by the Los Angeles Times for its balance of “intellect and expression.” Recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, the quartet first made international headlines as winner of the $100,000 Grand-Prize of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition. The quartet was the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program.
In the 2019-20 season, the Calidore String Quartet celebrated both its tenth anniversary and the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth by presenting cycles of his string quartets at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, and the Universities of Buffalo, Toronto, and Delaware. Additionally, the Calidore premiered a new work by composer Anna Clyne inspired by Beethoven’s “Grosse Fuge” and commissioned by Music Accord in performances at Lincoln Center, Princeton University, Penn State University, Caramoor, San Francisco Performances, and Boston’s Celebrity Series. The quartet also made its debut at Strathmore and with Kansas City’s Friends of Chamber Music. In Europe, the Calidore performed in series in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Spain, and Switzerland. Highlights of recent seasons have included performances in major venues throughout North America, Europe, and Asia such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Kennedy Center, Berlin Konzerthaus, Brussels BOZAR, Cologne Philharmonie, Seoul’s Kumho Arts Hall, and at significant festivals, including the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Music@Menlo, Rheingau, East Neuk, and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The Calidore String Quartet’s second Signum album, entitled Babel, was released in October 2020 and features works by Schumann, Shostakovich, and Caroline Shaw. The quartet’s other recordings include 2018’s Resilience including “lively, intelligent performances of an attractive and thought-provoking program” (Gramophone) of quartets by Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Janáček, and Golijov; quartets by Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn recorded at the 2016 Music@Menlo festival; a debut album of quartets by Mendelssohn and Haydn, and an album of music commemorating the World War I centennial.
As a passionate supporter of music education, the Calidore String Quartet is committed to mentoring and educating young musicians, students, and audiences. The Calidore serves as quartet-in-residence at the University of Delaware and the University of Toronto. It has conducted master classes and residencies at Princeton, Stanford, University of Michigan, the Colburn School, Stony Brook University, UCLA, and Mercer University. The Calidore String Quartet was founded at the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2010. Within two years the quartet won grand prizes in the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions, and captured top prizes at the 2012 ARD Munich International String Quartet Competition and Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition. Using an amalgamation of “California” and “doré” (French for “golden”), the ensemble’s name represents a reverence for the diversity of culture and the strong support it received from the place of its founding, Los Angeles, California, the “golden state.”