My Backyard

On Saturday, March 14, Arts in the Village is pleased to present a concert featuring the Chiara String Quartet, with violinists Rebecca Fischer and Julie Yoon, violist Jonah Sirota, and cellist Gregory Beaver. The quartet will present two epic works of dramatic and romantic music: Alban Berg’s String Quartet, Op. 3, and Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, Op. 51.” The quartet by Berg, an Austrian composer of the early twentieth century, uses the twelve-tone technique of Arnold Schoenberg in a way that is technically intricate yet expressive. The piece by Haydn was commissioned in the late 1800s for a Good Friday service in southern Spain. Originally composed for orchestra, Haydn later made this moving arrangement for string quartet.

The Chiara Quartet has forged a new path for the string quartet medium, presenting exhilarating contemporary works while exploring more established repertoire from a fresh perspective. Described by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as “vastly talented, vastly resourceful, and vastly committed to the music of their time,” the quartet was named the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University, a post they began in the fall of 2008.

Recently awarded the Guarneri Quartet Residency Award for artistic excellence by Chamber Music America, the Chiara’s other honors include a top prize at the Paolo Borciani International Competition, winning the Astral Artistic Services National Audition, and winning First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

In addition to performing in concert halls, including the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and Harris Hall in Aspen, Colorado, and in cities around the country, the Chiara Quartet has performed abroad. They appeared at the American Academy in Rome and recently completed a critically acclaimed eight-city tour of Sweden with clarinetist Håkan Rosengren. In May 2009 they will make their debut in Munich at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität as part of “Crosscurrents: American and European Music in Interaction, 1900-2000.”

The Chiara’s discography includes the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets with Håkan Rosengren for SMS Classical, and the world premiere recordings of Robert Sirota’s Triptych and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout for the ensemble’s own New Voice Singles label. In 2007 the Chiara recorded Jefferson Friedman’s Second and Third Quartets, and they are currently at work recording the complete string quartets of Brahms for SMS Classical.

The Chiara Quartet has been artists-in-residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln since 2005. In the summer, the quartet is in residence at Greenwood Music Camp, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Chamber Music Institute, and the Red River Chamber Music Festival, a summer study and performance festival founded by the Chiara in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Chiara trained and taught at the Juilliard School, mentoring for two years with the Juilliard Quartet, as recipients of the Lisa Arnhold Quartet Residency from 2003-2005.

This concert is sponsored by Lydia Costa Interiors of Seekonk, MA (http://www.lydiacosta.com/). it will take place on Saturday, March 14, at 7:30 p.m., at Goff Memorial Hall, 124 Bay State Road, in Rehoboth, MA. Admission is $14 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $5 for students and children. Cash and checks only. For information, please call 508-252-5718.