Award-Winning Dover Quartet Crowns Banner Season with Full Summer of Festivals, in Countdown to Fall Album Debut
To crown a banner season highlighted by the group’s Carnegie Hall debut and Cleveland Quartet Award win, the Dover Quartet looks forward an intensive summer on the U.S. festival circuit. Besides making debuts at the Toronto Summer Music Festival and Madeline Island Music Camp, where they coach young chamber musicians alongside the Arianna and Pacifica Quartets, the Dovers return to Bravo! Vail, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Ottawa Chamberfest, Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music, and Chamber Music Northwest, where, during a weeklong residency, they join clarinet virtuoso David Shifrin for the world premiere of a new quintet by Richard Danielpour. For the Mark di Suvero Commemorative Concert at Montana’s Tippet Rise Art Center, they play Schubert’s transcendent String Quintet in C for their first collaboration with Trailblazer Award-winning cellist Matt Haimovitz. And, on a summer lineup that also includes Beethoven’s complete Razumovsky Quartets and works by composers ranging from Haydn and Mozart to Smetana, Dohnányi, Shostakovich, and Britten, they continue to champion a recent commission by David Ludwig, named one of NPR’s “Top 100 Composers Under 40.” Click here to see the Dover Quartet play Shostakovich.
Dover Quartet cellist Camden Shaw explains:
“We’re thrilled to be performing at so many beautiful locations around the country this summer. We’re really excited about playing with musicians like David Shifrin and Matt Haimovitz – both legends – and working with incredible Artistic Directors like Bravo! Vail’s Anne-Marie McDermott and Santa Fe’s Marc Neikrug. We always enjoy working with younger students, too, so coaching and teaching at Madeline Island Music Camp should be a blast.”
All-Mozart album debut (Cedille Records, Oct 15) pays tribute to Guarneri Quartet
The New Yorker recently observed, “This outstanding quartet, which is already carving out an individual style, stands as the inheritor of the Curtis Institute’s proud neo-Romantic tradition.” It was while still at Curtis that the Dover Quartet first formed eight years ago, and at Curtis that they studied and took coaching from members of the legendary Guarneri Quartet. As Shaw explains in an insightful liner note,
“All four of us grew up listening to, and falling in love with the Guarneri’s recordings; there is a grittiness, an emotional potency, and a constantly shifting balance between individuality and blend that makes their playing transcendent. It’s no overstatement to say that even before we met and studied with members of the Guarneri, they had already shaped the way we felt about chamber music.”
Because of this profound and formative influence, the Dovers determined to pay tribute to the older ensemble on their first disc. Recorded at Curtis last December, and due for release by Cedille Records on October 15, their upcoming album debut is an all-Mozart recording that pairs the composer’s two final string quartets – in B-flat, K.589 and F, K. 590 – with his Quintet in C minor. This program recalls the Guarneri’s own first recording, made for RCA Red Seal 50 years ago this year, so it is fitting that Michael Tree – the Guarneri’s founding violist and one of the Dovers’ most valued mentors – joins them on their recording of the quintet. The new album thus represents a symbolic passing of the mantle from the older group to the younger one; as the Chicago Tribune tellingly observed, shortly before the recording sessions,
“The Dover Quartet players have it in them to become the next Guarneri String Quartet – they’re that good. Expert musicianship, razor-sharp ensemble, deep musical feeling and a palpable commitment to communication made their performances satisfying on many levels.”
Click here to download high-resolution photos.
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Dover Quartet: summer engagements
June 26–July 3
La Pointe, WI
Madeline Island Music Camp
HAYDN: String Quartet Fragment in D minor, Op. 103
BRITTEN: String Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in F, Op. 59, No. 1
July 11
Portland, OR
Chamber Music Northwest
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in F, Op. 59, No. 1
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3
July 14
Portland, OR
Chamber Music Northwest
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in E-flat, Op. 74
RICHARD DANIELPOUR: Clarinet Quintet (world premiere; with David Shifrin, clarinet)
WEBER: Clarinet Quintet in B-flat, Op. 34 (with David Shifrin, clarinet)
July 16
Fishtail, MT
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
SCHUBERT: String Quintet in C, D. 956 (with Matt Haimovitz, cello)
July 20
Vail, CO
Bravo! Vail Music Festival
HAYDN: String Quartet Fragment in D minor, Op. 103
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2
July 21
Vail, Colorado
Bravo! Vail Music Festival
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in E-flat, Op.74 (“Harp”)
DOHNÁNYI: Piano Quintet in C minor, Op. 1 (with Steven Lin, piano)
July 23
Ottawa, ON
Ottawa Chamber Music Society (TBC)
Smetana: String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, “From My Life”
DAVID LUDWIG: Pale Blue Dot
Beethoven: String Quartet in B-flat, Op. 130 & Grosse Fuge, Op. 133
July 29
Toronto, ON
Toronto Summer Music Festival
Beethoven: String Quartet in B-flat, Op. 18, No. 6
Beethoven: String Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3
Beethoven: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
Aug 2
Northeast Harbor, ME
Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music
DAVID LUDWIG: Pale Blue Dot
DOHNÁNYI: Piano Quintet in C minor, Op. 1 (with Todd Crow, piano)
Aug 17
Santa Fe, NM
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Dvořák: String Sextet in A, Op. 48 (with Steven Tenenbom, viola, and Eric Kim, cello)
Aug 18
Santa Fe, NM
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Smetana: String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, “From My Life”
Aug 21
Santa Fe, NM
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Schubert: String Quintet in C, D. 956 (with Eric Kim, cello)
Aug 22
Santa Fe, NM
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
DVOřÁK: Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81 (with Peter Serkin, piano)
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© 21C Media Group, June 2016
