ULYSSES QUARTET

CHRISTINA BOUEY

violin

RHIANNON BANERDT

violIN

PETER DUDEK 

VIOLA

GRACE HO

cello

PAOLO BARTOLANI

Piano

OPENING CONCERT

The Beatitudes
Piano Quintet
 at 
RG | NY
6025 Sound Avenue Riverhead, NY

   Sunday, May 12th, 2024, 5:00pm

Music by
Beethoven, Shostakovich, Schubert & Martynov 

Ulysses Quartet
Paolo Bartolani, piano

BUY TICKETS / make a riservation

​We're kicking off the Rites of Spring concert season with a new partnership with RG | New York Vineyard!
It's an exciting event of music, spring celebration and appreciation of the North Fork agricultural scene. Doors open at 4pm. You will receive a glass of wine and can walk through the vineyard to enjoy the natural landscape.

Attendees can also come earlier at the vineyard for a tasting flight or some wine + bites ahead of the performance.  RG | NY normal business hours is open from 11am to 5pm.



Description
The Sunrise Quartet, which opens this program, represents human energy and feeling alive on earth. Then we present Shostakovich's Piano Quintet in which the daily difficulties and struggles of the human condition are highlighted. We continue with Beethoven's Heiliger from the quartet op. 132 which is about feeling so bad, almost on the brink of death, but then healing and coming back to life. Beethoven was at the end of his life when he wrote this quartet and was thinking a lot about mortality. Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" follows with a thrilling race to the finish line and Death carries the maiden away at the end of the movement. We are transported on a chariot by Florence Price's "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" to the afterlife, and finally reach the bliss with Vladimir Martynov's extraordinary piece.

Of all the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the peacemakers" resonates as the most active, inviting us to move away from an attitude of indifference and become builders of harmony, starting with ourselves and those around us, by using our intelligence, our hearts and our hands.  It calls for commitment to care for others and to heal personal and social wounds and traumas caused by selfishness. \
It encourages us to promote every effort that tries to achieve this goal. 

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
​
Music Program
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN: Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 76, No. 4,” Sunrise” 
I. Allegro con spirito

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 
I. Prelude: Lento
II. Fugue: Adagio
III. Scherzo: Allegretto
IV. Intermezzo: Lento
V. Finale: Allegretto

-Intermission-

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 
III. Molto adagio – Andante

FRANZ SCHUBERT: Quartet No. 14 in D minor “Death and the Maiden” 
IV. Presto
​
FLORENCE PRICE: Five Folksongs in Counterpoint 
V. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

VLADIMIR MARTYNOV: The Beatitudes 


Public Funds come from the Statewide Community Regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Huntington Arts Council.  Public Funds come from the Suffolk County Omnibus Grant, ​sponsored by Legislator Al Krupski and with the support of the Suffolk County Legislature.   

This concert is presented by
Rites of Spring Music Festival
in collaboration with
​RG | NY

Ulysses Quartet 
Christina Bouey, violin
Rhiannon Banerdt , violin
Peter Dudek, viola
Grace Ho, cello

​The Ulysses Quartet has been praised for their “textural versatility,” “grave beauty” and “the kind of chemistry many quartets long for, but rarely achieve” (The Strad), as well as their “avid enthusiasm ... [with] chops to back up their passion” (San Diego Story), “delivered with a blend of exuberance and polished artistry” (The Buffalo News).
Founded in the summer of 2015, the group won the grand prize and gold medal in the senior string division of the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and first prize in the 2018 Schoenfeld International String Competition. In 2017, the quartet finished first in the American Prize and won second prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. They were winners of the Vietnam International Music Competition in 2019. Ulysses garnered a career development grant in the 2016 Banff International String Quartet Competition. 
Consisting of violinists Christina Bouey and Rhiannon Banerdt, violist Colin Brookes and cellist Grace Ho, the quartet’s members hail from Canada, the United States and Taiwan. They have performed in such prestigious halls as Carnegie Hall, the Harbin Grand Theatre, Jordan Hall and the Taiwan National Recital Hall. Recent performance highlights include their debut at Carnegie Hall along with appearances at the Chautauqua Institution (New York), Sociedad Filarmónica de Bilbao (Spain), Ciclo de Cámara y Solistas in Salamanca, the Picasso Museum in Málaga, Teatro Mayor Julio Santo Domingo in Bogotá, Highlands Cashiers Festival (North Carolina), Music Mountain (Connecticut) with pianist Tanya Bannister, Chelsea Music Festival and PS21 (NY), National Gallery of Art (DC), Jasper Arts Center (Indiana), and San Juan Chamber Music Festival (Colorado). The 22-23 season also features their Mexico City debut at UNAM, along with performances for Sociedad Filarmónica in Lima, Gretna Music, Yale School of Music with guitarist Ben Verdery, Kansas City Friends of Chamber Music, Fundación Juan March (Madrid), Sociedad Filarmónica in Valencia, Basel Kammermusik, and Chamber Music Society of Utica (NY). Other notable engagements have included the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Premiere Performances Hong Kong, National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall (Istanbul)
In spring 2023, Ulysses visited Louisiana State University for a residency. At Juilliard from 2019 to 2022, they were the Lisa Arnhold Fellows, serving as the School’s Graduate Resident String Quartet for 3 years. From 2016 to 2019, Ulysses was in residence at the Louis Moreau Institute in New Orleans, working with composer Morris Rosenzweig.
Ulysses recently completed work on their debut album, to be released later this year, and four more albums are forthcoming in the near future, including collaborations with flutist Ransom Wilson and guitarist Ben Verdery, as well as albums of quartet works. As a special project, the group will record the quartets of composer Joseph Summer at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, over the next several years.
The group’s name pays homage to Homer’s hero Odysseus and his 10-year voyage home. Additionally, the quartet’s members live in close proximity to the resting place of former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant in Upper Manhattan. The Ulysses String Quartet believes intensely in the power of music to inspire, enlighten and bring people together. This is the guiding principle of the Ulysses Quartet Foundation, dedicated to the performance and promotion of classical music of the past and present day to benefit the broadest possible audience of music lovers and potential music lovers by expanding their understanding and appreciation of the musical arts. Ulysses aims to use this platform to raise the voices of underrepresented BIPOC and female composers. The quartet also offers interactive programs and workshops for all ages that serve to demystify the traditional repertoire while introducing audiences to diverse programming. Their programs enable participants to learn about the inner workings of a string quartet and to explore the connections between classical music and our world today.
The members of Ulysses hold degrees from the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory and Yale University. The musicians perform on instruments and bows graciously on loan from the Maestro Foundation and private donors. Ulysses is grateful for the support of Shar Music and Connolly Music as YSOA ambassadors.
Keep up with Ulysses Quartet on their website Ulyssesquartet.com, as well as their social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.



​
Paolo Bartolani,
​pianist, Founder and Artistic Director of Rites of Spring Music Festival
Paolo Bartolani is a pianist, musicologist and music manager, working in both classical and contemporary music. He graduated in 1989 from the Santa Cecilia Music Conservatory in Rome (Italy). He studied with Eduardo Hubert, and after graduation, with Charles Rosen, György Sándor and Andor Foldes. He also studied French piano repertoire with Germaine Mounier at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. In 1994, he received his Master in Musicology of the 20th century degree under the direction of Hugues Dufourt at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in collaboration with IRCAM / Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Paolo performs as a soloist and also as a member of chamber ensembles in Europe and United States.
He writes articles for the musicology journals Sonus-Materials for Contemporary Music and Music/Reality. In 2006, he created a Master Degree Program in Cultural Enterprise Administration at the University of Perugia, where he also teaches.
At the Venice Biennale, from 2008 to 2012, Paolo was the General Coordinator of ENPARTS - European Network of Performing Arts, which promotes the creation of new works in dance, music and theater by young artists. From 2009 to 2014 he was the Director of the Résonnance Italy, a nonprofit organization based in Switzerland, where he was responsible for its artistic and humanitarian program, "bringing music to places where it is not heard."  The members of the organization – singers, instrumentalists, conductors – have performed more than two hundred concerts in hospitals, nursing homes and prisons in order to promote musical sensibilities and share the joy of music.
He has been the General Coordinator of Music Up Close Network at Santa Cecilia National Academy in Rome. The Network includes seven European orchestras who promote new orchestral works and support a new generation of musicians to connect with young audiences.
He founded the Rites of Spring Music Fest in 2016 to promote classical and contemporary music on the North Fork of Long Island, and to combine music, history and the natural environment. The Festival currently is a non-profit organization 501c3 and he is the Artistic Director and Responsible for developing the Festival’s program. 

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