Kaufman Center Press Releases
Merkin Concert Hall Presents Tuesday Matinees: Jasper String Quartet (Nov. 4, 2008)
Kaufman Center presents its longest-running series, Tuesday Matinees, with the Jasper String Quartet. Fresh from winning four of chamber music’s most prestigious prizes — the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the Silver Medal at the 2008 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, the First Prize at Chamber Music Yellow Springs 2008, and the Grand Prize at the 2008 Coleman competition — the Jasper String Quartet is currently the graduate quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music, where they study with the Tokyo String Quartet.
Named for Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, the quartet Formed at Oberlin Conservatory in 2003 and recently graduated from Rice University’s graduate quartet program, where they studied with James Dunham, Norman Fischer and Kenneth Goldsmith. Career highlights include appearances at the Kennedy Center, Paul Hall, Aspen’s Harris Hall, the Vigeland Museum (Oslo, Norway), the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music and Santa Fe Pro Musica Series. They are dedicated to presenting contemporary music and standard repertoire to a broad audience and have collaborated with pianists, vocalists, dancers and visual artists.
The Jaspers attended the Aspen Music Festival’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies, the Emerson Quartet International Chamber Music Workshop, the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. As representatives of the 9th Banff International Quartet Competition, they embarked on “guerilla chamber music,” performing concerts in unusual settings around Alberta. J Freivogel, violin, is from St. Louis, Missouri. The youngest in a family of musicians, he began playing violin at the age of two. In 05-06 J was the winner of the Oberlin concerto competition, performing Bela Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Oberlin Orchestra. He also performed the world premiere of Lewis Nielson's Violin Concerto and Alban Berg's Kammerkonzert at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. He was named Northern Ohio Live's "best and brightest" in 2004 and won the Hurlbutt prize for most outstanding violinist at Oberlin in 2006. His principal teachers have been Marilyn McDonald, Sylvia Rosenberg, and, currently, Cho-Liang Lin.
Sae Niwa, violin, was born in Ibaragi, Japan and began playing violin at age three. She attended the prestigious Toho Gakuen School of Music in Japan from the age of 15, where she completed her studies with Koichiro Harada, a founding member of the Tokyo String Quartet. In 2001, Sae came to the United States to study with Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music. As a full scholarship student, she continued her studies with Mr. Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory, where she received undergraduate and graduate diplomas. Last year she won third prize in the Swedish Duo International Competition with pianist So Oyama. At Rice University she is a student of Cho-Liang Lin. Sam Quintal, viola, was born and raised in Fairbanks Alaska. He began playing the violin at age six and viola at the age of 11. He earned his B.M. in violin performance studying with Marilyn McDonald at Oberlin. He currently studies viola with James Dunham at Rice, pursuing a Master's degree.
Rachel Henderson, cello, holds a B.M. in cello performance and a M.M. in baroque cello and viola da gamba from Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with Darrett Adkins and Catharina Meints. She began her musical training with her mother, also a cellist, in her hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. In addition to the quartet, she performs regularly as a baroque cellist with Apollo's Fire, Cleveland's baroque orchestra. Currently in her second year of graduate work at Rice University's Shepherd School, Rachel is a student of Norman Fischer.
Tuesday Matinees, Kaufman Center’s longest-running series, showcases tomorrow’s stars today, presenting young classical artists in the early stages of what are sure to be long and successful careers. With pianists, violinists, string quartets, cellists and everyone in between, these afternoon concerts highlight the best new talents throughout the classical music world. The 2008-09 season continues with Alturas Duo on December 16th; iO Quartet on February 10th, 2009; Amstel Quartet on March 24th, 2009 and Sasha Cooke on May 12th, 2009.
Listings Information:
Kaufman Center presents
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center presents
Tuesday Matinees
Jasper String Quartet
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 2:00pm
129 West 67th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam)
Tickets at 212 501 3330 or http://www.kaufman-center.org
7-concert subscription (+ bonus concert): $84
Single tickets: $15
Students: half-price
EDITORS: Please refer to the series by its name, Tuesday Matinees,
and its location, Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Press Only: Hi-res photos for download at http://kaufman-center.org/press/image-library
About Merkin Concert Hall
Renowned for its acoustics, accessibility and innovative programming, Merkin Concert Hall is the
recipient of multiple awards for adventurous programming, most recently from ASCAP/Chamber
Music America in 2002–03. The hall is a division of Kaufman Center, which also includes Lucy
Moses School (a community arts school) and Special Music School (a New York City public school
for musically gifted children). A not-for-profit organization founded in 1952, Kaufman Center
occupies its own facility, the award-winning Goodman House, located in Manhattan’s Lincoln
Square arts district. The Center is an unsurpassed cultural resource where people of all ages can
experience the joy of artistic creation, expression and appreciation.
Kaufman Center’s Tuesday Matinees presentations are made possible in part with support from The Starr Foundation, with additional support from the Edward T. Cone Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency.
Merkin Concert Hall receives support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation and Herman Goldman Foundation.