Manhattan String Quartet

Arts in the Village Concert Series

Saturday, April 6, 7:30 p.m.

Goff Memorial Hall, 124 Bay State Road, Rehoboth, MA 02769

$15 general, $13 seniors, $6 students and children; cash and checks only; first come, first seated

508-252-5718; http://www.carpentermuseum.org/Arts.htm

Sponsored by  Lydia Costa Interiors, Rehoboth, MA

On April 6, the Arts in the Village Concert Series welcomes the Manhattan String Quartet, which is appearing for the first time in the Rehoboth series. Based in New York City, the group will be presenting a program that includes works by Mozart, Bartók, and Beethoven.

Critically acclaimed as one of America’s leading ensembles, the MSQ, comprised of Curtis Macomber and Calvin Wiersma, violinists, John Dexter, violist, and Chris Finckel, cellist, has been hailed as “a national treasure” (The Boston Globe). The MSQ has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and South America. Well-known for its performances of 20th-century classics, it has established an international reputation as today’s pre-eminent interpreter of Shostakovich’s fifteen quartets. For this performance, the ensemble will present a varied program, featuring Beethoven’s towering Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 127, one of the masterworks of the genre.

After a series of concerts in Moscow and Leningrad in the fall of 1985, the MSQ became the first American classical ensemble to give a full tour of the Soviet Union under that era’ s new cultural agreement. The first sold-out series of performances in 1986 was followed by an equally successful tour in 1989. Hailed as one of America’s leading chamber ensembles, the Manhattan String Quartet is currently marking its forty-second consecutive season with concerts throughout the United States and Europe.

The MSQ has been in residence at Colgate University for the past 21 years and has held similar posts at the Manhattan School of Music, Cornell University, Grinnell College, Connecticut State University, Greece’s Corfu Festival, Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Chamber Music Institute in Racine, Wisconsin, and Michigan’s Interlochen National Music Camp. From 1981-1988, the MSQ was the resident ensemble at Connecticut’s Music Mountain Festival, the chamber music center in Falls Village, CT, where they gave weekly concerts broadcast on the radio to a national audience, as well as administering chamber music programs. Since 2005-2006, the MSQ has been in-residence at Western Connecticut State University, an appointment that the ensemble also held for four seasons at New York City’s famed St. Bartholomew’s Church. Active as teachers, the MSQ hosts an annual summer string quartet conference at Colgate University and takes part in an ongoing European teaching conference program.

This concert, which is sponsored by Lydia Costa Interiors of Rehoboth, will take place on Saturday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m., at Goff Memorial Hall, 124 Bay State Road, in Rehoboth, MA. Admission is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, and $6 for students and children, cash and checks only. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis, and the doors open at 7:00 p.m. For information, please call 508-252-5718, or go to the AIV’s Web site: http://www.carpentermuseum.org/Arts.htm.