Chester String Quartet in Residency at School of Music

ANN ARBOR, Mch. - The Chester String Quartet will be in residence at the University of Michigan School of Music now through December 2005.  The Quartet will present two recitals and two master classes as part of their residency.  The first concert is October 15, 2005 at 8:00PM in the Britton Recital Hall, and will feature Dvorak’s Quartet in E flat Major, Op. 51 and Quartet in G Major, Op. 106.  The second recital will be December 8, 2005 at 8:00PM in the Britton Recital Hall, repertoire to be announced at a later date.  The master classes will be for University of Michigan students, but open to the public for observation on October 12 and December 7 at 2:30PM in the Cady Room of the Stearns Building.

Comprised of Aaron Berofsky (violin), Kathryn Votapek (violin), Dov Scheindlin (viola) and Jim Wilson (cello), has been called "one of the best and brightest of the country's young string quartets" by the Boston Globe.  Their engaging style and deep sense of musical commitment have brought them rave reviews from audiences and critics throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America and Europe.  They have performed at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Kennedy Center, the Corcoran Gallery, the Doelen in Rotterdam, Holland, L'Octogone in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Museo de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.  The Chester's interpretations have also led to top prizes at international quartet competitions in Munich, Germany, Portsmouth, England, and Chicago's Discovery Competition. 

The Chester Quartet regularly performs from coast to coast in the United States and Canada.  This season included a series of concerts  devoted to the chamber music of Dvorak at Trinity Church in New York, and also in New York,  four concerts at Bargemusic.  Highlights of recent seasons include the New York premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis' 100 Greatest Dance Hits at the 92nd Street Y, a performance of the entire Beethoven Quartet cycle in a ten day period in Oklahoma City, and live broadcasts on both WNYC and WQXR radio in New York City. The Chesters recently added a recording of the Haydn opus 74 quartets for Audio Ideas to their two-decade history of prizes, recordings and rave reviews. The Quartet also made a compact disc recording of Elias Tanenbaum's Shadows for string quartet and guitar and commissioned a new work for string quartet entitled, Poems From Tang, by Chinese composer Zhou Long.  Other recordings include The Complete Mozart Quartets for Flute and Strings on the Chesky label and 100 Greatest Dance Hits by Aaron J. Kernis on the New Albion label. The Chester Quartet's acclaimed earlier recording on the Koch label consists of quartets by Barber, Piston and Porter.