This one hour concert is the premiere of composer W.A. Mathieu's Second String Quartet. Born in 1937 pianist, composer, author, and teacher, Mathieu is one of the most influential musicians of his generation. He began recording solo piano albums in 1980. He has composed a large variety of chamber pieces, choral works, and song cycles, and has written four books on music. He now devotes himself to practice, performance, recording, composition, teaching, and writing from his home near Sebastopol, California.
The Telegraph Quartet was formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber repertoire and for 20th and 21st century chamber music. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept . . . with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” Telegraph was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Past prizes include the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The quartet has gone on to perform in concert halls, music festivals and academic institutions from Los Angeles and New York to Italy and Taiwan, including Carnegie Hall, San Francisco’s Herbst Recital Hall and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall, and the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy. The Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as their Quartet-in-Residence.
Telegraph Quartet at the Maybeck
Saturday, December 14, 2019 at 3:00pm
This concert is $20 General Admission
The quartet’s notable musical collaborators have included cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton, pianist Simone Dinnerstein, violinist Ian Swensen and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of contemporary and 20th century repertoire, Telegraph has co- commissioned John Harbison’s String Quartet No. 6, and given its West Coast premiere in the fall of 2017 on San Francisco State University’s Morrison Artists Series. The quartet also gave the premiere of Robert Sirota’s String Quartet No. 3 Wave upon Wave at Weill Recital Hall for their Carnegie Hall debut in 2018, sponsored by the Naumburg Foundation. The Telegraph Quartet also premiered Richard Festinger’s third string quartet Icarus in Flight. Working in collaboration with UC Berkeley scientists, Mr. Festinger uses serial techniques to musically represent climate change data from the year 1880 to projected simulations of 2080 in order to express the arc of this data emotionally. The quartet will also release its debut album “Into the Light” in 2018, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner.
Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. In the fall of 2017, the quartet traveled to schools and communities in Mid-Coast Maine with Yellow Barn’s Music Haul, a mobile performance stage that brings music outside the concert hall to communities across the U.S. The quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts and National Taiwan Normal University.
While the Telegraph Quartet is indebted to numerous mentors and teachers, their primary musical guidance and support has come from Mark Sokol, Bonnie Hampton and Ian Swensen of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The Telegraph Quartet is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
While the Telegraph Quartet is indebted to numerous mentors and teachers, their primary musical guidance and support has come from Mark Sokol, Bonnie Hampton and Ian Swensen of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The Telegraph Quartet is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.