The internationally renowned, award-winning Ying Quartet kicks off the 2009-2010 Eastman-Ranlet Series on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 3 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music. This concert marks an exciting new era for the Ying Quartet with the Eastman debut of their new violinist, Frank Huang, and the start of a two-season-long series of concerts devoted to the playing of the complete cycle of Beethoven Quartets. Although Huang’s first scheduled appearance with the Quartet occurred during the summer at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, this concert marks the Eastman debut for Huang.
Huang, who started playing violin at the age of three in his native China, has been an in-demand soloist and chamber musician since winning the 2003 Naumburg Violin Competition and the 2000 Hannover International Violin Competition. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied with Donald Weilerstein, the founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet. The Yings also studied with members of the Cleveland Quartet at the Eastman School when the Cleveland Quartet was in residence, and this common musical heritage is one of many factors that contributes to an exciting chemistry.
The Oct. 11 concert, the first of six recitals devoted to the complete cycle of Beethoven Quartets, includes one each from the composer’s early (Op. 18, no. 3), middle (Op. 59, no. 3), and late (Op. 131) periods. Seasoned veterans to performing complete Beethoven cycles, the Yings have participated in several other festivals devoted to the works, including Buffalo’s annual Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle as well as the Seattle Symphony’s performance of the complete quartets. This will be the first time the Ying Quartet has performed the cycle at Eastman.
The opportunity to present a Beethoven cycle is a special privilege for any string quartet. “Beethoven is one of the very best examples of how many composers have turned to the string quartet to express some of their deepest, most personal feelings,” says violist Phil Ying. “Beethoven, in the last years of his life when he was battling illness and physical hardship, wrote within his late quartets some of the most probing, spiritual, sublime, and glorious music in all of music history.”
This love for the personal and emotional fits the playing style of the Quartet. Regarding his new appointment with the Grammy-winning Quartet, Huang says, “Joining the Ying Quartet at this time in my career is a wonderful opportunity. I’m excited and feel that we’ll have a marvelous collaboration.”
Tickets for the Ying Quartet’s performance are $10 to $20 (reduced tickets with UR ID) and can be purchased at the Rochester Philharmonic Box Office, 108 East Ave.; by phone (585) 454-2100; or online at esm.rochester.edu/concerts.
The Ying Quartet will continue their Beethoven Cycle on Nov. 15 and on March 28, 2010. This year’s Eastman-Ranlet Series also includes the Ying Quartet’s annual LifeMusic concert on Feb. 21, 2010, as well as the 2009 Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet on Oct. 25 and the Orion String Quartet with Peter Serkin, piano, on April 11, 2010.
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Calendar Listing:
Sunday, Oct. 11
3 p.m.
Eastman-Ranlet Series: The Ying Quartet. Beethoven Quartet Cycle I.
Kilbourn Hall, 26 Gibbs Street
Tickets: $10 to $20 (discount with UR ID); can be purchased at the Rochester Philharmonic Box Office, 108 East Ave.; by phone (585) 454-2100; or online at esm.rochester.edu/concerts