May 4 & 7: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Berkeley Chamber Performances in Two Concerts
Photo of the Telegraph Quartet by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet
Telegraph Quartet Presented by
Berkeley Chamber Performances on May 4 and 7
Performing the Music of
Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:30pm
Lafayette Library | 3491 Mount Diablo Blvd. | Lafayette, CA
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 7:30pm
Berkeley City Club | 2315 Durant Ave. 2nd floor | Berkeley, CA
New Album: Divergent Paths (Azica Records)
Available Now
“The programming … bespeaks a wonderful boldness of spirit, and the [Quartet’s] performances, which are vibrant and full of exploratory fervor, follow through beautifully.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Berkeley, CA – The San Francisco-based Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” will be presented in concert by Berkeley Chamber Performances on Saturday, May 4 at Lafayette Library (3491 Mount Diablo Blvd.) and Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the Berkeley City Club (2315 Durant Ave. 2nd floor), performing the music of Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák.
The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as, “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. For these two concerts, the award-winning quartet will perform an array of works shaped by a mix of personal relationships, cultural experiences, and stylistic adventurousness.
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel wrote her String Quartet in the shadow of her highly praised brother Felix, taking a bold step and ultimately choosing to embrace her own musical voice rather than defer to a style or form that would have been more accepted by her sibling and long-time musical confidant. American composer Kenji Bunch’s third string quartet, Apocryphal Dances, is inspired by 17th century French dance music but the 12 minute work is not written with ardent fixation on the style. Bunch’s intent is for a light and lively experience between the performance of the quartet and the listening audience. Shifts in the melody, chord progressions, and rhythmic structure lead the work to reflect qualities of various musical styles. Dvořák crafted his String Quartet No. 14 in A flat-major –– his final chamber piece –– in two stages: starting around March 1895 when he was scheduled to depart the United States to return to his homeland and then revisiting the work in December 1895, after writing his Quartet in G Major. He finished the A flat-major in just under three weeks and the music largely reflects Dvořák’s spiritual temperament during this time, which was one of uplifting positivity and joy
The Telegraph Quartet’s latest album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, was released on August 25 via Azica Records. The first in the Telegraph’s three-album series focused on string quartets of the first half of the 20th century, Divergent Paths explores the bewildering and unbridled creativity of the period through the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. The album has been met with critical acclaim, with The New York Times reporting, “[I]n the Schoenberg, they achieve something truly special, meticulously guiding its often wayward progress. At times Schoenberg makes the four strings sound almost orchestral, but the Telegraph players can also make his contrapuntal tangles radiantly clear. Every minute of their account sounds gripping and purposeful, which is one of the highest compliments you can pay the piece.”
More about Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet has performed in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger. In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The Telegraph Quartet released its new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths––which features Ravel’s renowned quartet and Schoenberg’s first quartet––on August 25 via Azica Records.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence and has given master classes at the SFCM Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan and in fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet.
For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in two performances by Berkeley Chamber Performances on Saturday, May 4 and Tuesday May 7, 2024, at 7:30pm. The Bay Area ensemble performs music heavily shaped by the composers’ personal experiences and relationships, written in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries: Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet (1834), Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 3 (2017), and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895).
Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, an ensemble “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented in two concerts by Berkeley Chamber Performances on Saturday May 4 and Tuesday May 7, 2024, at 7:30pm. For each concert, the ensemble will perform the music of Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák.
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Berkeley Chamber Performances
What: Music by Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
When & Where:
Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:30pm
Lafayette Library, 3491 Mount Diablo Blvd., Lafayette, CA 94549
Tuesday May 7, 2024 at 7:30pm
Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave 2nd floor, Berkeley, CA 94704
Tickets and information: www.berkeleychamberperform.org/telegraph-quartet