BRYANT PARK QUARTET | CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES
FEBURARY 17, 2011 | 7:30 PM
In February 2011 the fourth installment of the ACFNY Chamber Music Series featured a performance by New York's cutting edge ensemble, The Bryant Park Quartet, with a program of works by John Adams, György Kurtág, Schubert, and Beethoven.
Joel Krosnick, of the Juilliard String Quartet, has called the Bryant Park Quartet "brilliant players of their instruments, as well as serious and exciting musicians ... they display the highest level of musicianship, in any serious musical circumstance."
Based in New York City, the Bryant Park Quartet (Anna Elashvili and Ben Russell, violins; Adam Meyer, viola; Tomoko Fujita, cello) performs the whole spectrum of the string quartet repertoire with captivating elegance and unique energetic style. The Quartet is the recipient of a 2008 Chamber Music America Residency Partnership Program grant and a prizewinner in the 2010 Hugo Kauder International Music Competition. In recent seasons, the group has performed as soloists with the Cornell Chamber Orchestra, in recitals at Lincoln Center’s Paul Recital Hall, the Des Moines Art Center’s Levitt Auditorium, and the Staller Center Recital Hall at Stony Brook University.
As the first Ensemble-In-Residence at the Stony Brook University Community Music Program, the Bryant Park Quartet have spearheaded a new initiative to bring a high level of chamber music to Stony Brook's students and community. The Bryant Park Quartet has been invited as teaching artists to give master classes, seminars, and workshops at Azusa Pacific, Biola, and Cornell Universities, as well as for the Greater Des Moines (IA) and Santa Barbara (CA) Youth Symphonies. The quartet is engaged in generating excitement for music in schools and communities across the country.
The special guest at this performance was tenor Patrick Romano. Mr. Romano received his B.M. and M.M. in voice and conducting at West Chester University, PA, and has performed with many organizations and chamber ensembles as tenor soloist. He was heard with the Rifkin Bach Ensemble, The American Bach Soloists, The Amor Artis Orchestra and Choir, The Dessoff Choirs, The Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Paul Hill Chorale in Washington D.C. Mr. Romano can be heard on recordings of Mozart’s Requiem with the Amor Artis Orchestra, Bach’s B Minor Mass with The American Bach Soloists and Bach’s St. John Passion with The Smithsonian Chamber Players.
Photographs by Katja Moritz (click to enlarge):
