Rustic Live Outdoor Concert French Music Soirée featuring Argus Quartet Clara Kim, violin, Giancarlo Latta, violin Maren Rothfritz, viola Audrey Chen, cello at McCall Vineyard 22600 NY-25, Cutchogue, NY 11935 Sunday August 15, 2021 at 6:00pm BUY TICKETS Music Program Visions and Miracles by Christopher Theofanidis (15 min) "The Path" from Five by Christopher Theofanidis (5 min) String Quartet by Germaine Tailleferre (10 min) String Quartet in F major, Op. 96 "American" by Antonin Dvorak (25 min) Ticket price: General admission picnic tables: $75/person (2-6/table) or Individual Seats Friends of Rites of Spring and Members of McCall Wines receive a $15/person discount. Children Under 16 FREE $5 Make a Donation to The Retreat: Where Violence Ends and Hope Begins. This concert is made possible with the contribution of EETA Grant In collaboration with McCall Vineyard Attendance to this in-person performance will be limited and restrictions in place per NYS COVID-19 guidelines required at the time of the event. |
Description
This colorful program takes listeners from America to France and back again with works by Christopher Theofanidis, Germaine Tailleferre, and Antonin Dvorak. Theofanidis, who teaches at Yale, and is one of the Argus Quartet’s closest long-term collaborators, wrote Visions and Miracles--an incredibly bright and happy piece—as he came out of a period of intense personal darkness not unlike what many of us may be emerging from after a year of isolation. The Path, also by Theofanidis, takes us to France: more serious in tone and mood, it transitions us from a bright atmosphere to something more pensive. In France, we meet Tailleferre, the only female member of the famous “Les Six,” a group of composers who were friends and collaborators in Montparnasse in the 1920s. Tailleferre, who was classmates with Milhaud and friends with Ravel, shows a great mastery of the form in her brief but evocative String Quartet. Finally, we return to America with one of the most beloved works of the string quartet repertoire, Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, written in a two-week burst of inspiration when the composer visited the small town of Spillville, Iowa, in summer 1893.
Argus Quartet
The Argus Quartet is dedicated to encouraging the joys of human connection, community, and discovery by bringing a wide-ranging repertoire to life through bold and meaningful programming and a vibrant commitment to collaboration and education. Praised for playing with “supreme melodic control and total authority” and “decided dramatic impact” (Calgary Herald), the Quartet has quickly emerged as one of today’s most dynamic and versatile ensembles, winning First Prize at both the 2017 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the 2017 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition.
Since then, increasingly busy concert seasons have taken Argus to some of the country’s most prestigious venues and festivals, including Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Chamber Music Society of Detroit, the Ravinia Festival, the Albany Symphony’s American Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West. Highlights of the 2019-20 season include debut performances for Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series, along with a return engagement in New York for the Schneider Concerts at the New School.
Argus has worked with many of today’s leading musical voices, including Martin Bresnick, Chris Cerrone, Ted Hearne, Garth Knox, Andrew Norman, Christopher Theofanidis, and Augusta Read Thomas. Recent commissions include new quartets by Katherine Balch, Donald Crockett, GRAMMY nominee Eric Guinivan, Hermitage Prize winner Thomas Kotcheff, and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Juri Seo. Argus’s recording of Seo’s works for string quartet was released in May 2019 on Innova Recordings. The Quartet has received grants from the Koussevitsky Foundation, Chamber Music America, and the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in support of their commissioning efforts.
From 2015-17, the Quartet served as the Fellowship Quartet in Residence at the Yale School of Music under the guidance of the Brentano Quartet, and from 2017-19 held the position of Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School, where they worked closely with the Juilliard String Quartet. They have also held residencies at New Music on the Point, working with the JACK Quartet, and at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts as the Ernst Stiefel Quartet in Residence.
Education and outreach are an important part of the Argus Quartet’s mission. The Quartet has worked with students through residencies and masterclasses at Yale and Princeton, James Madison University, Rockport Music, the Milken School, the Young Musicians Foundation, California State University Long Beach, and Los Angeles City College.
Based in New York City, the Quartet was founded in Los Angeles in 2013, where its members shared many meals at their favorite taco truck on Argus Drive.
This colorful program takes listeners from America to France and back again with works by Christopher Theofanidis, Germaine Tailleferre, and Antonin Dvorak. Theofanidis, who teaches at Yale, and is one of the Argus Quartet’s closest long-term collaborators, wrote Visions and Miracles--an incredibly bright and happy piece—as he came out of a period of intense personal darkness not unlike what many of us may be emerging from after a year of isolation. The Path, also by Theofanidis, takes us to France: more serious in tone and mood, it transitions us from a bright atmosphere to something more pensive. In France, we meet Tailleferre, the only female member of the famous “Les Six,” a group of composers who were friends and collaborators in Montparnasse in the 1920s. Tailleferre, who was classmates with Milhaud and friends with Ravel, shows a great mastery of the form in her brief but evocative String Quartet. Finally, we return to America with one of the most beloved works of the string quartet repertoire, Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, written in a two-week burst of inspiration when the composer visited the small town of Spillville, Iowa, in summer 1893.
Argus Quartet
The Argus Quartet is dedicated to encouraging the joys of human connection, community, and discovery by bringing a wide-ranging repertoire to life through bold and meaningful programming and a vibrant commitment to collaboration and education. Praised for playing with “supreme melodic control and total authority” and “decided dramatic impact” (Calgary Herald), the Quartet has quickly emerged as one of today’s most dynamic and versatile ensembles, winning First Prize at both the 2017 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the 2017 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition.
Since then, increasingly busy concert seasons have taken Argus to some of the country’s most prestigious venues and festivals, including Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Chamber Music Society of Detroit, the Ravinia Festival, the Albany Symphony’s American Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West. Highlights of the 2019-20 season include debut performances for Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series, along with a return engagement in New York for the Schneider Concerts at the New School.
Argus has worked with many of today’s leading musical voices, including Martin Bresnick, Chris Cerrone, Ted Hearne, Garth Knox, Andrew Norman, Christopher Theofanidis, and Augusta Read Thomas. Recent commissions include new quartets by Katherine Balch, Donald Crockett, GRAMMY nominee Eric Guinivan, Hermitage Prize winner Thomas Kotcheff, and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Juri Seo. Argus’s recording of Seo’s works for string quartet was released in May 2019 on Innova Recordings. The Quartet has received grants from the Koussevitsky Foundation, Chamber Music America, and the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in support of their commissioning efforts.
From 2015-17, the Quartet served as the Fellowship Quartet in Residence at the Yale School of Music under the guidance of the Brentano Quartet, and from 2017-19 held the position of Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School, where they worked closely with the Juilliard String Quartet. They have also held residencies at New Music on the Point, working with the JACK Quartet, and at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts as the Ernst Stiefel Quartet in Residence.
Education and outreach are an important part of the Argus Quartet’s mission. The Quartet has worked with students through residencies and masterclasses at Yale and Princeton, James Madison University, Rockport Music, the Milken School, the Young Musicians Foundation, California State University Long Beach, and Los Angeles City College.
Based in New York City, the Quartet was founded in Los Angeles in 2013, where its members shared many meals at their favorite taco truck on Argus Drive.