TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTS

THE SHANGHAI QUARTET
Weigang Li, violin
Yi-Wen Jiang, violin
Honggang Li, viola
Nicholas Tzavaras, cello
WITH HAOCHEN ZHANG, PIANO

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012, 8:00 P.M.
AT THE MCCULLOUGH THEATRE

Presented in partnership with the Butler School of Music

We are grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their support of classical music programming at Texas Performing Arts.

“If there is a string quartet currently in circulation that produces a more beautiful sound than the Shanghai Quartet, the name doesn’t immediately come to mind.” – The New York Times

“Zhang . . . demonstrated a musical maturity almost unimaginable in one so young…he impressed with depth of musical understanding and subtle expressive nuance … he was the musician I’d walk across town to hear.”
Dallas Morning News

PROGRAM:
String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 18, No. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven
Dance Capriccio for Piano and String Quartet (Texas premiere) Bright Sheng
Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81 Antonín Dvořák

Texas Performing Arts presents the Shanghai Quartet in concert with pianist Haochen Zhang, the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medal winner, September 26 at the McCullough Theatre.

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. The Quartet’s artistic breadth is reflected in their Austin program. In addition to Beethoven’s String Quartet in B flat minor, Op. 18, No. 2, the Shanghai Quartet and Mr. Zhang will perform piano quintets by Dvorak and Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng.

Sheng’s Dance Capriccio, making its Texas premiere, is inspired by the dance folk music of the Sherpa, a small ethnic group mostly living in the high mountains of the Himalayas in western Nepal. Sherpa people love to dance, and along with love songs and drinking songs, dance music is an important genre among Sherpa folk music. Dance Capriccio tries to capture the various characters of Sherpa dance, from the most tender to the most wild and raucous.

For more information on this performance, please visit http://texasperformingarts.org/season/shanghai-quartet-haochen-zhang-aus....

The Shanghai Quartet will also perform with the Miró Quartet on September 28 at the McCullough Theatre.

CALENDAR LISTING
Wednesday, September 26, 2012, 8:00 pm –Texas Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Austin presents the Shanghai Quartet with Haochen Zhang, piano at the 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.