Photo: Marco Borggreve
The Asheville Chamber Music Series (ACMS) presents the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) in concert on Friday, March 23, at 8 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville. The group, composed of Geoff Nuttall and Owen Dalby on violin, Lesley Robertson on viola and Christopher Costanza on cello, is known for its broad repertoire and intense, intellectually exciting performances.
“SLSQ first appeared on the ACMS series in 2014 and the concert quickly sold out, which is not a common occurrence in the classical music world,” says ACMS administrative assistant Nathan Shirley. “The audience was thrilled by the performance and thoroughly entertained by the anecdotes the Quartet provided as a way of introducing the music.”
Established in Toronto in 1989, the SLSQ quickly earned acclaim at top international chamber music competitions and was soon playing hundreds of concerts per year worldwide. They established an ongoing residency at Spoleto Festival USA, made prize-winning recordings of music by Schumann, Tchaikovsky and Golijov, and earned two Grammy nominations and a host of other prizes before being appointed ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University in 1998. The Quartet frequently performs at Stanford Live, hosts an annual chamber music seminar and runs the Emerging String Quartet Program through which they mentor the next generation of young quartets.
Their March 23 concert will include three compositions spanning the Classical and Romantic musical periods. The first, Haydn’s String Quartet, Op. 20, written in 1772, is a landmark piece that helped transform the field of music and introduced compositional techniques that are still in use today. It is followed by Voces intimae, written in 1909 by Sibelius, who is considered Finland’s greatest composer. The evening will end with Beethoven’s last major work, String Quartet, Op. 135, which was written in 1826 and took inspiration from Haydn’s quartets.
“As with so many ensembles that ACMS presents in performance, SLSQ plays with professional exuberance and great passion,” says ACMS president Valerie Poullette Altman. “The program they will be performing is filled with the humor of Haydn, complexity of Beethoven and melodies of Sibelius.”
For more than half a century, the ACMS has been a valued cultural resource in Asheville, bringing world-renowned chamber artists to the city. As one of the nation’s oldest continuous performing chamber music organizations, it has been recognized for its outstanding programs and for its unique education component through collaboration with the strings program of the Asheville Buncombe Schools and other cultural partners in the community, including the Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra.
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville is located at 1 Edwin Place, in Asheville. Tickets are $38 general admission. Youth under 25 are free. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit ashevillechambermusic.org, call 828.575.7427 or email support@ashevillechambermusic.org.
