FINE ARTS QUARTET SEASON CONTINUES FEBRUARY 22 WITH WORKS BY HAYDN, JANaC(EK, AND GRIEG The Fine Arts Quartet, artists-in-residence at UWM’s Peck School of the Arts, continues its 2003-2004 season with a concert on Sunday, February 22, 2004 at 3 PM in the Helen Bader Concert Hall of the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts, 2419 East Kenwood Boulevard. Tickets are available from the Peck School of the Arts Box Office, 414-229-4308. The Fine Arts Quartet, Ralph Evans (violin), Efim Boico (violin), Yuri Gandelsman (viola), and Wolfgang Laufer (cello), will perform three works: Haydn’s Quartet in D Major, Op.64, No.5; Quartet No.1 (1923) by Leoa Janac(ek; and Grieg’s Quartet in G Minor, Op.27. The concert will be preceded by an informal talk by Gillian Rodger, assistant professor in the UWM Department of Music, and will be followed by an informal reception. Rodger, who teaches music history and the music of world cultures, will look at the changing context for music performance from the time of Haydn to that of Janac(ek. The current season has been a particularly busy and successful one for the Fine Arts Quartet. Last month, it was announced that the Fine Arts Quartet had been selected as one of the recipients of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming. Presented annually to ensembles, presenters, and festivals that demonstrate a commitment to contemporary chamber music programming, especially works written after 1980, the CMA/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming are given jointly by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. The Quartet’s last recordings on the Lyrinx label, the complete Mozart Quintets, were voted onto the 2003 Grammy entry list. This summer, the Quartet will record the early Beethoven quartets in France for Lyrinx. The Quartet’s program begins with a work known as the “Lark, the fifth in a group of six quartets by Haydn (1732-1809) that comprise Op. 64. The set was published in 1791, shortly after the collapse of the court where Haydn had spent thirty years in the employ of Count Esterhazy, and it was dedicated to the violinist Johann Tost, a member of Haydn’s orchestra there. Haydn came to define the Classical period through his more than 80 string quartets, and the Lark exemplifies the energy and sophistication he brought to his later work. The Quartet will play the first quartet of Leos Janac(ek, written in 1923. Also known as the Kreutzer Sonata, the expressionist work refers to Tolstoy’s novella of failed marriage, infidelity and murder and reflects Janac(ek’s profound interest in psychological drama. Closing the program will be Edvard Grieg’s G Minor Quartet, which was written at a point when he was turning away from the large-scale programmatic and nationalistic works that had made him famous. Exploring new forms of musical expression, Grieg used this, his only completed string quartet, to strive toward breadth, soaring flight and above all resonance for the instruments for which it is written. Founded in Chicago in 1946, the Fine Arts Quartet is one of the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success, an extensive recording legacy, and an astonishing durability. The Quartet, whose members are artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is among the elite few to have toured internationally since the end of World War II, passing the milestone of a half-century of uninterrupted existence with remarkably few changes in personnel. Beginning in the 1970s, the original Quartet members were gradually succeeded upon their retirement by brilliant new artists: Ralph Evans, a prize winner in the International Tchaikovsky Competition; Efim Boico, former concertmaster of the Orchestre de Paris and member of the Tel Aviv Quartet; Wolfgang Laufer, former principal cellist of the Hamburg Philharmonic and Jerusalem Radio Orchestra; and newest member of the quartet, Yuri Gandelsman, former principal violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights of 2003-2004 tours include concerts in New York, London, Berlin, Brussels, Rome, Bucharest, and a Baltic cruise featuring the Quartet. The Fine Arts Quartet is one of the most recorded quartets in history, with an immense variety of chamber music to its credit. Due for release in 2004 are the complete Dohnanyi quartets and quintets, a CD of 20th Century American works, and the complete Bruckner chamber music, all on Hanssler Classic; and Shostakovich Quartets No.1/4/8 on Lyrinx. The Quartet was invited to be jury members in the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2005. Electronic files of photographs are available. Please contact Ellen Ash at 414-229-5714 or ash@uwm.edu to arrange an email transfer. Please see attached Fact Sheet. FINE ARTS QUARTET 2003-2004 SEASON FACT SHEET All concerts take place on Sunday afternoons at 3 PM in the Helen Bader Concert Hall in the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts, 2419 East Kenwood Boulevard. Tickets: Four-concert subscription: $54. Single tickets: $16 general admission/$9 students & seniors. Please call (414) 229-4308 or stop by the Box Office now located in the Zelazo Center. Box office hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 AM-5 PM and one hour prior to performances. Short-term parking spaces are available on the south side of the Zelazo Center for those purchasing tickets. Parking: Ample free parking is available on Sundays in the Zelazo Center lot (to the south of the building) and in the UWM Union Parking Garage, 2200 East Kenwood Boulevard. Programs February 22, 2004 Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op.64, No.5 Janacek: Quartet No.1 (1923) “Kreutzer Sonata” Grieg: Quartet in G Minor, Op.27 April 18, 2004 Glinka: Quartet No. 2 in F Major (1830) Bartok: Quartet No.3 (1927) Beethoven: Quartet in C# Minor, Op.131 PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE