Robert Sirota: The String Quartets Presented by the Kaufman Music Center Featuring the American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer
Photo by Ryuhei Shindo available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/robert-sirota
Robert Sirota: The String Quartets
Presented by the Kaufman Music Center
Featuring the American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer
Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 7:30pm
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | 129 W 67th St. | New York, NY
“Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.” – Allan Kozinn, The Portland Press Herald
New York, NY – On Sunday, April 11, 2024 at 7:30pm, Kaufman Music Center will present Robert Sirota: The String Quartets, featuring the American String Quartet and the Telegraph Quartet with soprano Abigail Fischer, performing Sirota’s complete works for string quartet thus far. For the first time ever, Sirota's four string quartets –– each of which he describes as “in essence a long journal entry reflecting a response to our times" –– will be heard together in one concert program: Triptych (2002), American Pilgrimage (2016) Wave Upon Wave (2017) and the New York premiere of Contrapassos for soprano and string quartet (2019) with text by Stevan Cavalier.
Over five decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.
Robert Sirota's impressive catalog of composed work evokes a wide range of emotion that touches on several aspects of the human experience. He says of this collaborative performance and the highlighting of his string quartets:
“I am so looking forward to hearing this significant body of work performed in a single evening by great musicians I have worked with for many years.” .
In response to the calamitous events of September 11, 2001, Sirota wrote Triptych –– the first of what would become a trilogy of string quartets. The work is meant as a commemorative tribute to all those lost on the day of the attacks. The composition was written in conjunction with a painting of the same name by artist Deborah Patterson. Following the premiere of Triptych in September of 2002 at Trinity Church Wall Street, Lucid Culture called the performance "viscerally harrowing,” "impactful," and "riveting."
American Pilgrimage was written by Sirota for the American String Quartet. Though initially reluctant to write another string quartet following Triptych, Sirota found his inner vision for the new piece, calling American Pilgrimage “a true companion” to Triptych. The raw material of the work is derived from four sources: Protestant hymnody, Gospel music, Native American songs, and jazz. The Arts Fuse describes the American String Quartet's premiere recording of American Pilgrimage as “compelling and invigorating.”
Wave Upon Wave is the final piece in the trilogy of quartets that Sirota began with Triptych in 2002. Sirota explains that the quartet is about human hopes, and fears, as well as “prayers that we will triumph over the forces of darkness which threaten to overwhelm us.” Fittingly, The New York Music Daily describes the work as “a search for hope within the human soul.”
After several postponements of its 2020 premiere due to the pandemic, Contrapassos' long awaited debut was presented in July 2022 by the Sierra Chamber Society. With text by librettist Stevan Cavalier and vocals by soprano Abigail Fischer –– a dear, long-time friend of Sirota's –– the 24-minute work for string quartet and soprano reflects a seamless collaboration between poetry, vocal, and instrumental music, inspired by the imagery of Dante. This concert will mark its New York premiere.
More about Robert Sirota: Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; Concerts on the Slope; the Chiara, American, Ethel, Elmyr, Blair and Telegraph String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Recent commissions include Jeffrey Kahane and the Sarasota Music Festival, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Palladium Musicum, American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, and yMusic, Thomas Pellaton, Carol Wincenc, Linda Chesis, Trinity Episcopal Church (Indianapolis), and Sierra Chamber Society, as well as arrangements for Paul Simon.
Since 2021, Sirota has presented Muzzy Ridge Concerts, an annual series featuring performances by world-class musicians, in his home studio in Searsmont, Maine. Robert Sirota has received grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, NEA, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center. His music is recorded on Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels, and is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore. For complete information, visit www.robertsirota.com.
About Telegraph Quartet
About American String Quartet
About Soprano Abigail Fischer
For Calendar Editors:
Description: On April 11, 2024, The Kaufman Music Center will present Robert Sirota: The String Quartets, a performance featuring four of the composer’s works as performed by the American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer: Triptych (2002), American Pilgrimage (2016), Wave Upon Wave (2017) and the New York premiere of Contrapassos for soprano and string quartet (2019), with text by Stevan Cavalier. The Portland Press Herald describes Sirota’s works, which encompass an array of emotions and experiences, as “personal and undogmatic.”
Short description: On April 11, 2024, The Kaufman Music Center will present Robert Sirota: The String Quartets. The American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and soprano Abigail Fischer will perform a program of Robert Sirota’s “personal and undogmatic” (Portland Press Herald) four string quartets: Triptych (2002), American Pilgrimage (2016) Wave Upon Wave (2017) and the New York Premiere of Contrapassos for soprano and string quartet (2019).
Concert details:
What: Robert Sirota: The String Quartets
Who: Telegraph Quartet, American String Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer
Presented by Kaufman Music Center
When: Thursday, April 11, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 W 67th St, New York, NY 10023
Tickets and Information: www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/robert-sirota-the-string-quartets