The multi-faceted string quartet Brooklyn Rider will perform on Saturday, April 18, 8 p.m., at Westport Arts Center’s Gallery, 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport. Tickets are $25; student tickets (under 18) are $5. The concert is the second in WAC’s spring chamber music series under the dual leadership of Chamber Music Director Russell Platt, a composer and a Senior Music Editor for The New Yorker, and Artistic Advisor Alexander Platt, a conductor and Music Director for Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, NY.
Brooklyn Rider is becoming increasingly known for its creative programming and exciting collaborations, which serve to illuminate music in new ways. Audience engagement and outreach is an essential part of the quartet’s creative mission, and patrons will have a unique experience in WAC’s intimate venue among the art in the current exhibition, Home: The Architecture of Perception, Imagination & Memory.
These four veterans of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble offer a diverse and inviting program of works by Haydn, Boccherini, and Philip Glass, along with some selections of world music. Brooklyn Rider features Johnny Gandelsman, violin; Colin Jacobsen, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; and Eric Jacobsen, cello. The ensemble is devoted both to the interpretation of existing quartet literature and to the creation of new works.
Brooklyn Rider has performed throughout the world, recorded three albums for Sony Classical, and reached audiences through a series of educational initiatives, family concerts and media broadcasts.
The quartet’s name is inspired in part by the creations, interests and cross disciplinary visions of the Blue Rider group, an artistic association comprised of Vassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander Scriabin, to name a few. The quartet also draws additional inspiration from the exploding array of cultures and artistic energy found in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, a place they also call home.
The concert is sponsored in part by Joe and Marion Wertheim.
A special pre-concert, three-course prix fixe dinner at $33 per person (tax and tip excluded) is available at DaPietro’s, 36 Riverside Avenue, Westport, across the street from WAC on April 18 only. Call the restaurant at 203-454-1213 for reservations.
The final concert in WAC’s 2009 spring chamber music series will be the Shanghai Quartet on Saturday, June 6, 8 p.m. at Saugatuck Congregational Church, 245 Post Road East, Westport. Prior to the performance, Russell Platt will lead a pre-concert talk with the musicians at 7:30 p.m. The centerpiece of the spring chamber music series, the performance will celebrate the musical legacy of Heida Hermanns and her pivotal role in the life of the Westport Arts Center.
The Westport Arts Center is a visual and performing arts organization dedicated to creating arts experiences that contribute to individual growth and enrich the community. The Westport Arts Center is supported with funds from The Artur and Heida Hermanns Holde Foundation, Inc., Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, Connecticut Light & Power, Fairfield County Bank, Gault, Inc., Main Street Resources, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, Westport Resources, Westport Sunrise Rotary Young Voices Program, and Xerox Foundation.
For tickets and information, contact Westport Arts Center at 203-222-7070, go to the website at www.westportartscenter.org, or visit the gallery, M-F, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. from 12 noon to 4 p.m., at 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport.
