April 8: The Jupiter Quartet Presented by the Buffalo Chamber Music Society
Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/jupiter-string
The Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by the Buffalo Chamber Music Society
Performing Music by
Franz Joseph Haydn, Caroline Shaw, and Johannes Brahms
Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 7:30pm
Mary Seaton Room, Kleinhans Music Hall
3 Symphony Circle | Buffalo, NY
Tickets and Information
“technical finesse and rare expressive maturity” – The New Yorker
Buffalo, NY – On Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 7:30pm, the Jupiter String Quartet – internationally acclaimed winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) – will be presented in concert by the Buffalo Chamber Music Society in the Mary Seaton Room of the Kleinhans Music Hall (3 Symphony Circle.). There will be a pre-concert talk at 6:45pm.
Based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and performing all across the nation, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Brought together by ties both familial and musical, the Jupiter Quartet has been performing together since 2001. Exuding an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous, the Quartet celebrates every opportunity to bring their close-knit and lively style to audiences. Their connections to each other and the length of time they’ve shared the stage always shine through in their intuitive performances.
The Jupiter Quartet brings its well-honed, gracefully intertwined musical chemistry to three works composed from the turn of the 19th century to the present day. Each work embraces the unique attributes of its respective compositional form to create clever juxtapositions between texture and emotion, heightening the intensity of the performance. The program includes String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2, Hob.III: 82 by Franz Joseph Haydn; Entr’acte by Caroline Shaw; and String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 51 No. 1 by Johannes Brahms. The Jupiter Quartet’s lively and expressive playing style will showcase the dramatic tensions and strong emotions driving the music of this program.
“We are so pleased to return to play again for the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, one of our favorite venues.” says the Jupiter Quartet. “We have prepared a lively and engaging program that mixes a wonderful late Haydn quartet, full of clever interplay; a lovely contemporary work by the brilliant Caroline Shaw; and Brahms’s classically dramatic Quartet in C Minor. We hope the audience will enjoy the variety of moods and styles showcased in these three great works.”
Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2 is the last of his many works in this genre. Considered by many to be the “grandfather of the string quartet,” Haydn developed the form over many years, experimenting with more dramatic structures and particularly with a more equal treatment of the four voices, instead of the first-violin dominated texture often heard earlier.
Caroline Shaw says of Entr’acte: “Entr’acte is structured like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further. I love the way some music (like the minuets of [Haydn’s] Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.”
Brahms’s first string quartet was composed in a painstaking process over the course of several years. The work’s four movements are presented in the form of two outer movements fueled by torment and anxiety, and two inner movements framed by a more delicate and calm musical aesthetic.
More About Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The Jupiter String Quartet feels a strong connection to the core string quartet repertoire; they have presented the complete Bartok and Beethoven string quartets on numerous occasions. Also deeply committed to new music, they have commissioned string quartets from Nathan Shields, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Michi Wiancko, Syd Hodkinson, Hannah Lash, Dan Visconti, and Kati Agócs; a quintet with baritone voice by Mark Adamo; and a piano quintet by Pierre Jalbert.
The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by GRAMMY-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The Arts Fuse acclaimed, “This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.” The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In fall 2024, the Jupiter Quartet will record their next album with Judith Sherman, featuring the world premiere recordings of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Stephen Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth, and Kati Agócs's Imprimatur, which were all composed for the Jupiters.
The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as an ensemble with “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented in concert by the Buffalo Chamber Music Society. The ensemble will perform a concert program featuring music that embraces the unique attributes of its respective compositional form to create clever juxtapositions between texture and emotion, heightening the intensity of the performance. Featured works on the concert program will include: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2, Hob.III: 82 by Franz Joseph Haydn; Entr’acte by Caroline Shaw; and String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 51 No. 1 by Johannes Brahms. There will be a pre-concert talk at 6:45pm.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by the Buffalo Chamber Music Society
What: Music by Franz Joseph Haydn, Caroline Shaw, and Johannes Brahms
When: Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 7:30pm, Pre-concert talk at 6:45pm
Where: Mary Seaton Room, Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo, NY 14201
Tickets and information: www.bflochambermusic.org/index.php/season#jupiter