April 8: Telegraph Quartet Return to California for Performance at San Francisco Conservatory of Music
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Telegraph Quartet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Performing the Music of
Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Joseph Suk
Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 7:30pm
Barbro Osher Recital Hall
200 Van Ness Avenue | San Francisco, CA
Tickets and More Information
“soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail ... an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape.”
– San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco, CA – On Tuesday, April 8, 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 in concert by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in Barbro Osher Recital Hall (200 Van Ness Avenue). The award-winning ensemble will give its first performance at SFCM since departing their post as Quartet-in-Residence at the end of the 2023-2024 season. For this special return concert, the Telegraph Quartet will collaborate in performance with some of SFCM’s current students. The program will feature Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 2 “Concussion Theory,” with cellist Alex Kim; Ludwig van Beethoven’s Op. 74 “Harp” and Josef Suk’s Piano Quintet with SFCM students violinist Mathea Goh and pianist Jon Lee.
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 aptitude and appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet bring their innate musical chemistry and acuity to a program of works that express a wide range of emotions in response to people and events that were deeply meaningful, impactful, or inspiring to each of the composers.
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.
Much of Joseph Suk’s Piano Quintet exudes an energized and frenetic quality –– often calling for a balance of expressive performances and concentrated precision. Though fresh and invigorating, the music tends to reflect compositional qualities of Johannes Brahms, to whom the piece is dedicated, as well as echoing influence from his teacher, fellow Czech composer, (and eventual father-in-law!) Antonin Dvořák.
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.”
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, “In 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.
For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet with SFCM students cellist Alex Kim, violinist Mathea Goh, and pianist Jon Lee.
Presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
What: Music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Joseph Suk
When: Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: Barbro Osher Recital Hall, 200 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102
Tickets and information: https://sfcm.edu/experience/performances/chamber-music-tuesday-6-telegraph-quartet/20250408
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 San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The concert will feature Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 “Harp,” Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 2 “Concussion Theory,” with SFCM cellist Alex Kim; and and Josef Suk’s Piano Quintet with SFCM violinist Mathea Goh and SFCM pianist Jon Lee. Through this performance, the Telegraph Quartet presents music that showcases a wide range of emotions in response to people and events that were deeply meaningful, impactful, or inspiring to each of the composers.