TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTS

MIRÓ QUARTET
Daniel Ching, violin
William Fedkenheuer, violin
John Largess, viola
Joshua Gindele, cello
&
SHANGHAI QUARTET
Weigang Li, violin
Yi-Wen Jiang, violin
Honggang Li, viola
Nicholas Tzavaras, cello

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2012, 8:00 P.M. AT MCCULLOUGH THEATRE

WORLD PREMIERE BY DAN WELCHER

POST-PERFORMANCE CONVERSATION IN THE HALL IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE PERFORMANCE

Made possible by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the Dean of the College of Fine Arts and the Executive Vice President and Provost of The University of Texas at Austin

Presented in partnership with the Butler School of Music
and Austin Classical Guitar Society

“The Miró Quartet are the shining symbol of classical music greatness in Austin. I see them any time I can, and I’m always looking for ways to bring their inspiring brilliance into creative programming. To see them with masters like the Shanghai will be unforgettable.” Dr. Matthew Hinsley, Executive Director, Austin Classical Guitar Society

“Dan Welcher is a bright voice to listen to amid America’s compositional landscape. He has something to say, and he says it directly and in a way very much his own.” – John Ardoin, Dallas Morning News

PROGRAM:

Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11 Dmitri Shostakovich

Museon Polemos (world premiere) Dan Welcher

Octet in E flat major, Op. 20 Felix Mendelssohn

Texas Performing Arts presents both the Miró and Shanghai quartets in an all string octet program featuring the world premiere of a double quartet by UT faculty composer Dan Welcher with works by Shostakovich and Mendelssohn, September 28 at McCullough Theatre.

Hailed by The New York Times as possessing “explosive vigor and technical finesse,” the dynamic Miró Quartet, one of America’s highest-profile chamber groups, enjoys its place at the top of the international chamber music scene. Now in its second decade, the Miró Quartet is the Faculty String Quartet-in-Residence at the Butler School of Music. Their honors include a 2005 Cleveland Quartet Award, and were the first ensemble to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Renowned for its passionate musicality, impressive technique, and multicultural innovations, the Shanghai Quartet is one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles. Their elegant style melds the delicacy of Eastern music with the emotional breadth of Western repertoire, allowing them to traverse musical genres from traditional Chinese folk music and masterpieces of Western music to cutting-edge contemporary works.

Dan Welcher is one of most prolific composers working today, with a body of compositions in almost every imaginable genre including opera, concerto, orchestra, piano, and chamber music. With over a hundred works to his credit, Welcher is one of the most-played composers of his generation. Welcher was recently recognized as a 2012 winner in Music from the Academy of Arts and Letters, which honors outstanding artistic achievement and acknowledges the composer’s arrival at their own unique voice.

Welcher’s double quartet, commissioned by Texas Performing Arts with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is conceived as an homage to the Stravinsky/Balanchine ballets of the 30’s and 40’s. “Museon Polemos is about tribal behavior, and what is needed to overcome it,” says Welcher. “I pit two string quartets against each other, each with its own musical language and moods and behavior patterns, and then force them to interact. The result is in dispute, right up to the end.”

Campus & Community Engagement Event:

Post-Performance talkback with Miró Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, and Composer Dan Welcher in the hall immediately following the performance.

For more information on this performance, please visit http://texasperformingarts.org/season/shanghai-miro-quartet-austin.

The Shanghai Quartet will also perform with pianist Haochen Zhang on September 26 at the McCullough Theatre.

CALENDAR LISTING
Friday, September 28, 2012, 8:00 pm –Texas Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Austin presents the Miró Quartet & Shanghai Quartet at McCullough Theatre (2375 Robert Dedman Dr.) A map of the campus: texasperformingarts.org/visit/maps_directions. Tickets ($32 / Limited $10 student tickets / discounted tickets available for UT faculty & staff, seniors and Military) are on sale now at authorized ticket outlets, which include the Bass Concert Hall Box Office, most H-E-B stores and all Texas Box Office outlets, online at www.TexasPerformingArts.org, or by calling (512) 477-6060 or (800) 982-BEVO.