Arts Performing Arts

Asheville Chamber Music Series Presents Rolston String Quartet, Pianist Michael Brown

Michael Brown

By Natasha Anderson

The Asheville Chamber Music Series (ACMS) celebrates its 70th anniversary this year with a distinguished roster of internationally acclaimed ensembles for its 2022-23 season. Its opening concert on Friday, September 16, features the Rolston String Quartet and pianist Michael Brown. The concert will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville, 1 Edwin Place, beginning at 8 p.m.

Ralston String Quartet

“Michael Brown won the hearts of the ACMS virtual audience with his amazing performance from his New York apartment during the height of the pandemic,” says ACMS programming committee chair Polly Feitzinger. “It was fitting that we would engage him again and when the programming committee saw that he would be performing with the award-winning Rolston String Quartet it provided the perfect opportunity.”

The program begins with Joseph Haydn’s String quartet in G major, Op. 33, Russian, a work that was highly admired by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Next, Alexander Scriabin’s Fantasie in B minor, Op. 28, contains one of the composer’s most beautiful melodies. The evening closes with Sergei Taneyev’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 20, a monumental work by one of Russia’s greatest, albeit lesser known, composers.

“The program links the Taneyev Quintet, described by Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music as a ‘colossal, monumental masterpiece from the Russian Romantic period’, with the composition by Scriabin,” says Feitzinger. “Taneyev was Scriabin’s teacher at the Moscow Conservatory.”

The Rolston String Quartet takes its name from Canadian violinist Thomas Rolston, founder and longtime director of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s Music and Sound Program. The quartet was first-prize winner of the 2016 Banff International String Quartet Competition, and the 2018 recipient and first international ensemble chosen for Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award. Its debut recording, Souvenirs, was recently named BBC Music Magazine’s recording of the year.

Michael Brown’s musical life began at age two as he danced in front of the television to the songs of Raffi. “By age three,” he says, “I had listened to Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’ so many times that I wore out the cassette tape. At four, I realized I wanted to be the reincarnation of Mozart, so I embarked upon a life of exploration, some isolation, but mostly pure and utter joy.”

Brown has earned much acclaim for his artistry as a pianist and composer. He is a prolific recording artist and his latest album, Noctuelles, features Ravel’s Miroirs and newly discovered movements by Russian composer Nikolai Medtner.

Other featured artists of the 2022/23 Season are Cann Sisters Piano Duo; Rosamunde String Quartet; Seraph Brass; and Trio Verado.

For more information, visit AshevilleChamberMusic.org

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