“Robust energy and enthusiasm” is how the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word vim – which also happens to be the name of an Eastman School of Music student saxophone quartet that has won awards and acclaim for its outstanding musicianship.
Next month, the ViM Saxophone Quartet will bring its rapidly growing artistry to the stage of Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center. To celebrate, the group will give a “send-off” performance on Monday, April 30 as part of an Eastman Chamber Music Honors Concert that begins at 6:30 p.m. in Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall. They will perform an arrangement of Dvořák’s “American” String Quartet. Admission to the concert is free.
The ViM Saxophone Quartet consists of Dimitrios Kostaras, Michael Matlock, Richard Miserendino, and Kristin Rarick, all of whom are seniors at Eastman and students of Assistant Professor of Saxophone Chien-Kwan Lin. “ViM consists of not just four talented individuals, but four team players that are selfless and completely devoted to one another,” says Professor Lin. “This is a special quality, and we need this in chamber music.”
In 2006, the ViM Quartet won first place honors in two of the most prestigious music competitions in America: the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the Music Teachers National Association Competition.
ViM’s Kennedy Center performance will take place May 25, 2007 at the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. The Kennedy Center Conservatory Project 2007 is a semi-annual event designed to present the best young musical artists in classical music, jazz, musical theater, and opera from our nation’s leading conservatories and schools of music.
The Chamber Music Honors Concert is part of a pair of Honors Chamber Music Recitals, both free and open to the public, set for April 29 and 30 featuring the following student performers:
Sunday, April 29, 2007
6:30 p.m., Kilbourn Hall
Piano Quartet in A Major, Op. 30—Ernest Chausson
The Zephyr Quartet
Leila Nassar-Fredell, violin
Molly O’Brien, viola
Andrew Barnhart, cello
Aysedeniz Gokcin, piano
Kleine Kammermusik für fünf Bläser, Op. 24, No. 2—Paul Hindemith
Arabesque Winds
Elizabeth Spector, oboe
Gina Leija, flute
Isabel Kim, clarinet
Eryn Bauer, bassoon
Sophia Goluses, horn
Piano Quartet in G minor — Johannes Brahms
Brahms Piano Quartet
Jonathan Ong, violin
Adam Mathes, viola
David Sedlins, cello
Zhang Zuo, piano
Monday, April 30, 2007
6:30 p.m., Kilbourn Hall
String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80 — Felix Mendelssohn
Oxbow Quartet
Vivek Jayaraman, Eugene Feygelson, violins
Jonathan Larson, viola
Andrew Larson, cello
Wind Quintet in Ab –Gustav Holst
A441 Wind Quintet
Helen Kong, flute
Oliver Hagen, clarinet
Shane Helfner, oboe
Dan Nebel, horn
Richard Chen, bassoon
Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 — Johannes Brahms
Brahms Piano Quintet
Nadya Meykson, Alex Tatarinov, violins
Stanley Beckwith, viola
Beiliang Zhu, cello
Olga Krayterman, piano
Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, “American” — Antonín Dvořák
ViM Quartet
Kristin Rarick, soprano saxophone
Michael Matlock, alto saxophone
Dimitrios Kostaras, tenor saxophone
Richard Miserendino, baritone saxophone
Photo by Walter Colley
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