April 17: Telegraph Quartet Perform at Carnegie Hall as Part of Naumburg Looks Back – Presented by The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
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The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
Presents Naumburg Looks Back
Featuring the Telegraph Quartet at Carnegie Hall
Performing the Music of
Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Mieczysław Weinberg
Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 7:30pm
Carnegie Hall | Weill Recital Hall | 57th St. and 7th Ave. | NYC
Tickets: www.carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212.247.7800, or the Carnegie Hall Box Office
“full of elegance and pinpoint control” – The New York Times
New York, NY – On Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 7:30pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The San Francisco Chronicle as having "tonal warmth and communicative urgency,” will be presented by The Walter Naumburg Foundation in the Foundation’s celebrated series Naumburg Looks Back, which brings back past winners in concert. The program takes place at Carnegie Hall in Weill Recital Hall (57th St. and 7th Ave.)
For this concert, the Telegraph Quartet will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 “Harp,” Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 2 “Concussion Theory,” and Mieczysław Weinberg's String Quartet No. 6 in E minor, Op. 35. 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.
Known for their technical skill and appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet brings innate musical chemistry and acuity to music that evokes a wide range of emotions in response to events – from highly individual, to national, and even global in scope – that were deeply meaningful, impactful, or inspiring to each of the composers, directly shaping the character of each piece.
Beethoven composed his “Harp” quartet during a time of great external trauma for the world, during a French attack on Vienna, and internal trauma for himself over an 11-year-long struggle with hearing loss, which inevitably kept him from fully experiencing the finished piece. In spite of these harrowing circumstances, the “Harp” Quartet is one of Beethoven’s most melodious compositions.
Kenji Bunch explains that his String Quartet No. 2, Concussion Theory, “explores many aspects of the historically unprecedented plight of the 1930s Dustbowl and the highly unorthodox experiments the nation tried in order to address it. The first movement, No Man's Land, presents a dire scene of the parched, barren earth of the Great Plains, with a scorching sun and only a rustling of tumbleweed to interrupt the desolate stillness. Black Sunday recalls a battered, downtrodden community church gathering in 1935 on the day of one of the worst dust storm of that era blacked out an area spanning five states. The third movement, Concussion Theory, depicts the blazing fireworks of explosives fired into the heavens above, followed by A Gentle Rain, a fantasy of cathartic rainfall; a bittersweet, would-be outcome of this experiment that, alas, in reality never actually occurred.”
During World War II Mieczysław Weinberg fled his homeland of Poland and having failed to convince his family to come with him, almost all of them were murdered in the concentration camps. His String Quartet No. 6 contains an innocent mundanity that erupts throughout the work into desperation, sorrow, and tragic indignation as he dealt with the ramifications of his exile and learned to live warily in his newfound home of the Soviet Union. The work, which was banned in Stalin’s USSR and was never performed in Weinberg’s lifetime, is now being championed by the Telegraph Quartet.
The Telegraph Quartet’s latest album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, was released in 2023 on 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 Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including 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. The Quartet is currently the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Michigan.
Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the St. Lawrence Quartet and Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.
In August 2023, the Telegraph Quartet released its latest album Divergent Paths, the first in a series of recordings titled 20th Century Vantage Points, on Azica Records. This first volume features two works that (to the best of the Quartet’s knowledge) have never been recorded on the same album before: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7. Through this series, the Telegraph Quartet intends to explore string quartets of the 20th century – an era of music that the group has felt especially called to perform since its formation. The New York Times praised the Telegraph’s performance as “…full of elegance and pinpoint control…” Divergent Paths follows Into The Light (Centaur, 2018), an album highlighting a gripping set of works by Leon Kirchner, Anton Webern, and Benjamin Britten.
Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music 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. 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. In the summers of 2022 and 2024, the Telegraph Quartet traveled to Vienna to work with Schoenberg expert Henk Guittart in conjunction with the Arnold Schoenberg Center, researching all of Schoenberg's string quartets.
About The Walter W, Naumburg Foundation
The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, founded in 1926 by Walter W. Naumburg, next year embarks on its centenary year holding the distinction of being the world’s longest running classical music competition. Today it continues in the pursuit of ideals set out by Mr. Naumburg. His desire to assist gifted young musicians in America has made possible a long-standing program of competitions and awards in solo, chamber music performance and commissions. It was Mr. Naumburg’s firm belief that such competitions were not only for the benefit of new stars but would also be for those talented young musicians who would become the prime movers in the development of the highest standards of musical excellence in America, and throughout the world today. Visit www.naumburg.org
For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by The Walter Naumburg Foundation
What: Music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Mieczysław Weinberg
When: Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: Weill Recital Hall, 57th St. and 7th Ave., New York, NY 10019
Tickets and information: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2025/04/17/The-Telegraph-Quartet-0730PM
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, which the San Francisco Chronicle describes as having “soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail” and being “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape,” is presented by The Walter Naumburg Foundation in a special performance at Carnegie Hall as part of Naumburg Looks Back. The ensemble will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 “Harp,” Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 2 “Concussion Theory,” and Mieczysław Weinberg's String Quartet No. 6 in E minor, Op. 35. Through this performance, the Telegraph Quartet presents music that showcases a wide range of emotions in response to events –– from highly individual, to national, and global in scope –– that were deeply meaningful, impactful, or inspiring to each of the composers.