5 diapasons – Quartets nos. 6, 8 and 10 “The Harp” Parker Quartet Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo (2 CD) 2019. Timing: 1hr 23min Sound: 4.5/5 Trained by the Cleveland Quartet and counselled by Rainer Schmidt (2nd violin of the Hagen Quartet), the Boston-based Parker Quartet already impressed us with its Bartok (see issue 551) and Ligeti (see issue 578). This Beethoven double album opens with “The Harp” (op. 74). The Quartet’s highly personal approach to both dynamic subtleties and rhythm betrays a fervent striving for freedom. Yet the accomplished individuality of each voice never threatens the immaculately

coordinated cohesion of ensemble (Adagio). The demonic Presto is notable for a furious tempo and violent contrasts, as are the variations of the Finale. In op. 18 no. 6, the Quartet’s virtuosity is particularly striking – deployed, as it is, to such dense effect. Once again, the players’ strong personalities and love of challenge shine through. There is maximum risk-taking in the initial Allegro, subtle coloration in the Adagio and rarely encountered vivacity in the Scherzo, while the complex “Malinconia” of the Finale evinces a true sense of mystery. The second “Rasumovsky” quartet, which occupies the entire second CD, receives the same treatment, taking tradition into account but brushing aside decorum. Passionate bowing, vivid contrasts vivid, urgent attacks and vigorous articulation force one to admire the group’s intrepidity, exceptional control and attention to detail. Despite the serenity pervading the Adagio, the four musicians grant themselves no real respite. Then their remarkably urgent and exhilarating delivery comes to the fore again in the Russian theme of the Allegretto and in its stimulating Trio, before breaking out once and for all in a concluding Presto that races madly to the finish. You will either love this frantic dash or prefer a more sedate and less ardent vision, according to taste. But it’s hats off to the Parkers for the boldness of their highly spiced reading. Jean-Michel Molkhou

MENDELSSOHN: String Quartets Nos. 3 and 5 (2016) 

“Throughout, the Parker’s reactivity makes for the most engaging music‐making, be it in the slow movement or the scherzo, where they balance drive and play. The immediacy of the Parker’s playing is matched by the immediacy of sound and altogether this is a delectable addition to the Mendelssohn quartet discography.” ‐ Gramophone 

 

 

LIGETI: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 / Andante and Allegretto (2011) GRAMMY winner: Best Chamber Music Performance  

“...the Parker Quartet has more than an ample amount of muscle, self control, and sensitivity to have mastered these highly dynamic and challenging twentieth century quartets. The Second Quartet is particularly difficult; there is a spot in the first movement Allegro nervoso where the quartet is already very busy playing rapid figures at a sub‐pianissimo level and has to switch ‐‐ at a mere bar line's notice ‐‐ to fortissimo without essentially changing what notes are being played. 

The Parker Quartet performs this audio equivalent to a cinematic jump cut on a hairpin, and throughout the music is completely well elucidated with no fuss, no muss, expert precision, and a considerable flair for drama.” ‐ allmusic.com  

“This young quartet has nothing to fear from the competition in these works, either in the Bartókian first quartet or the more radical second. The early Andante and Allegro is a balm to the ears after the quartets and a good way to conclude this bargain.” ‐ musicwebinternational “The musicians that comprise the Parker Quartet are simply amazing. They play with a commitment and level of energy rarely encountered. For a young ensemble, they play with a maturity and assured emotional control usually common to only more established groups. They expose the context of the music admirably well, and deliver a sound that grabs your immediate attention and doesn’t let go.” ‐ Classical Music Sentinel 

 

BARTÓK: String Quartets Nos. 2 & 5 (2007) 

“...the Parker Quartet eschews the rhythmic give and take that is the hallmark of legendary and autochthonous ensembles such as the Hungarian or Budapest quartets, but these young American winners of the 2005 Bordeaux competition have plenty to offer themselves.”                ‐The Strad  

“The Parkers’ Bartók spins the illusion of spontaneous improvisation, which is not to say that their performances sound unprepared: they have absorbed the language; they have the confidence to play freely 

with the music and the instinct to bring it off. The Second Quartet is similarly compelling, less tart than the Belceas, especially in the second movement where the “tipsy” trio is played up for all its worth (the cellist’s tongue‐in‐cheek hesitation at 4'31"). The prayerful finale is beautifully sustained, again with rests and pauses tellingly gauged. So, yet another top‐rated contender in a field that is already rich in superb recordings, not that Bartók’s wonderful music deserves anything less .” ‐ Gramophone 

N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 9

Parkers (Plus Borys) Splendid at Paine by JULIE INGELFINGER

By now many of us Greater Bostonians have heard Harvard University’s Blodgett Artists-in-Residence, the Parker String Quartet (Daniel Chong and Ken Hamao, violins; Jessica Bodner, viola; and Kee-Hyun Kim, cello) and have come to expect and appreciate their well-honed and oft-inspired playing, as well as their intelligent programming. On Sunday those fortunate enough to have come out in the first flakes of snow to hear the group at Paine Hall, enjoyed a magnificent concert, in which Mozart’s Hoffmeister quartet, Leon Kirchner’s first string quartet and Schubert’s “cello” quintet fit together well. And the group clearly took inspiration from the music, the venue and the audience. Mozart has often been described as a journeyman composer, writing music as needed and as he could cobble together commissions. He wrote his String Quartet in D Major K.499 in 1786. Franz Anton Hoffmeister, a performer-composer who went into business first to print his own work, but parlayed it into the house that published not only much Mozart but also others, including Haydn and Beethoven. Hyperion liner notes by Peter Holman from 1991 inform, “the ad for the initial printing state that the piece was written ‘with that fire of the imagination and that correctness which has long since won for Herr M. the reputation of one of the best composers in Germany’.” From the initial descending arpeggio opening of the Allegretto to the last of the fourth movement Allegro, the Parker quartet provided a clear and lyrical rendering. In the Menuetto, they charmed with the ease of the first statements and then the darker segment of the Trio. The Adagio as conveyed a depth of sorrow with sweet tenderness, with the plethora of complex contrapuntal statements set forth clearly but lightly. The ensemble seemed to enjoy the martial tone in the playful concluding movement.

Leon Kirchner’s String Quartet No. 1, from 1949, when he was 31, pays homage to Bartók, whose influence appears easily evident in its accessible, yet intellectually stimulating range. Kirchner acknowledged Bartók’s impact and wrote that he divided the initial Allegro ma non troppo into four sections in which the first sets out two themes, the second contrasts them “harmonically, metrically and structurally,” while the third recalls the first section and the final portion recapitulates and includes a coda. The Parkers in doing the first movement echoed both Kirchner’s early style and recalled Bartók. The Adagio wafted with fine intent, and the Scherzo entertained. The last movement recapitulated the early portion both of the movement and the entire quartet—and executed here with panache.

Thank goodness Schubert could complete his sublime “cello” quintet in C Major in 1828, just weeks before exiting this orb. The publisher to whom he sent the piece declined it, and

so it was published posthumously—and not performed publicly until 1850. The work has inspired many with its innovative addition of the sonorous heft of a second cello—this time the impressive and accomplished Canadian cellist Roman Borys, who joined the Parkers for an exquisite rendering. Daniel Chong’s incisive phrasing and emphatic delivery empowered, yet he also inspired delicate yearning at times from all his colleagues. The first movement, Allegro ma non troppo is the longest, with dense harmonies, starting from the dynamic expansion of the initial C-major chord to a diminished 7th, followed by the soul wrenching melody of the first theme. The interplay in the elegant Adagio allowed each musician to savor moments of incomparable soul. And in the Scherzo, the hunting horn calls via strings reminisced of lively events, while they acted as voices in the trio cum chorale. The final Allegretto had everyone dancing in spirit. Borys’s face mirrored each poignant phrase, and the entire group seemed transported, as did the audience. I’ve attended countless concerts in Paine Hall over many decades, and this one was the most sublime I have ever heard—creating not only a technical triumph but an emotional high.

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Review: A fine Kreutzer Sonata from the Parker Quartet

The Parker Quartet (L – R): Jessica Bodner, Daniel Chong, Ken Hamao, and Kee-Hyun Kim. (Photo courtesy of Luke Ratray) By M.L. RANTALA Classical Music Critic

The recent very cold weather did not appear to adversely affect the turnout for the University of Chicago Presents debut of the Parker Quartet at Mandel Hall last Friday night. There was a good-sized crowd on hand to hear Daniel Chong and Ken Hamao (violins), Jessica Bodner (viola), and Kee-Hyun Kim (cello).

In 1908 composer Leos Janacek wrote a piano trio inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s “The Kreutzer Sonata.” (This tragic novella was itself inspired by Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9 which is known as the Kreutzer Sonata because it was dedicated to Rodolphe Kreutzer, a French violinist, conductor, and composer.) The piano trio was never published and is believed to have been destroyed. But again in

1923 the Czech composer returned to the ideas of Tolstoy’s story with his String Quartet No. 1, known as the “Kreutzer Sonata.”

Janacek, born in 1854, was not remotely a young man at the time of its composition but he had a burst of youthful inspiration. A decade earlier the composer fell in love with a much younger woman. While Kamila Stösslová didn’t return his love, she became a friend, and Janacek found in her inspiration to write many of his late works, including the Kreutzer Sonata. He wrote to Kamila, “I was imagining a poor woman, tormented and run down, just like the one the Russian writer Tolstoy describes in his Kreutzer Sonata.”

Janacek was deeply moved by Tolstoy’s story of a married woman having an affair while the lovers — she a pianist and he a violinist — are working on Beethoven’s sonata. The husband learns of his wife’s duplicity and stabs her.

Janacek’s string quartet is intense and passionate, full of interesting harmonic ideas and unusual flourishes.

The Parker Quartet took on the Kreutzer Sonata with gusto, opening with crisply turned out phrases and rapid expression of the embellishments. They immediately created a sense of tension, nervous excitement, and foreboding.

This quartet is full of interesting fragments and fragmentary themes, and the players had a striking ability to knit those all together in performance so that the big picture was revealed. The charged mood was well established.

The third movement was characterized by a spare, haunting sound regularly interrupted by Janacek’s insistent agitation, creating a sense of menace.

By the final movement, the music was blooming, with the uncertainty of Janacek’s unusual harmonies. The cries and sighs implicit in the score finally died down and the work ended by dying away. It was a fine performance.

Richard O’Neill on viola and Edward Arron on cello (both making their UCP debuts) joined the Parker Quartet for two sextets. First was the Sextet for Strings from Richard Strauss’s opera “Capriccio.” The opera asks the question, which is more important in an opera: the words or the music? The opera opens with this sextet, which is one character’s gift to another and gets the discourse moving.

The performers emphasized the elegance of the music. The pair of violins found the lyricism, the pair of violas offered gentleness and the pair of cellos contributed heft wrapped in velvet. It was a pleasing rendition, if perhaps a bit staid.

The concert concluded with the Sextet No. 2 in G Major by Brahms. The opening was hushed and slowly unfolded until the set of six players had created a very large sound. There was palpable romance from the violins and strong authority from the cellos. The second movement had a dancing lilt and sunny disposition. The Adagio featured vigorous play as well as diminutive sweetness.

The final movement began with impish energy that gave way to an enchanting melody. The propulsive nature of the music was clear and there was a long buildup of steam and some bracing passages before it came to a grand ending.

16. Januar 2017, 20:28 Uhr Gauting

Aus einer anderen Welt Das in Boston gegründete Parker Quartet und Kim Kashkashian erweisen sich bei ihrem Gastspiel im Bosco als Musiker, die absolute Präzision und höchste Einfühlsamkeit vereinen können Von Reinhard Palmer, Gauting Man kann sich diese Bemerkung nach dem Konzert im Gautinger Bosco und den Kommentaren von Donald Trump zum Thema Flüchtlinge und Auswanderer kaum noch verkneifen: Was wären die USA ohne Migranten? Mit dem Parker Quartet und der Quintettergänzung Kim Kashkashian an der zweiten Bratsche sind hier nämlich Erzfeinde des künftigen Präsidenten der USA auf die Bühne gegangen. Musiker mit Migrationshintergrund aus China, Südkorea und Armenien. Und das Publikum ließ sich - auch das wohl wieder ein typisch deutscher Fehler - restlos von der Präzision, Intensität und Musikalität des Ensembles begeistern.

Vor allem Dvořáks Streichquintett op. 97 erreichte symphonische Dimensionen und betörende Schönheit. Es war in den USA entstanden, wohin man den tschechischen Komponisten berief, um paradoxerweise einen amerikanischen Nationalstil zu entwickeln. Dvořák verarbeitete in seinem Quintett, das er kurz nach seiner Symphonie "Aus der neuen Welt" schrieb, die Ferieneindrücke in der tschechischen Enklave Spillville in Iowa. Geplagt von Heimweh, war er mit seiner Familie per Eisenbahn dorthin gereist. Ein glücklicher Sommer, was man auch aus der klangsinnlichen Interpretation des Ensembles deutlich heraushörte. Vor allem in den Melodien sowie den gestrichenen und gezupften Rhythmen der einzigen Nichteinwanderer der USA: der Indianer, deren Kultur Dvořák in Iowa kennenlernen durfte.

Das Parker Quartet und dessen renommierte Mentorin Kashkashian, die ihr Instrument so substanzvoll-erdig, dabei aber auch agil und wenn nötig federleicht zu spielen vermag, überzeugten in diesem Fall vor allem mit einem schlüssigen inhaltlichen Bogen. Keine leichte Aufgabe, liegen doch amerikanische Pentatonik, indianische Rhythmik, hymnische Charakteristik der Spirituals und böhmische Seelentiefe nicht unbedingt auf einer Wellenlänge. Alle vier benötigen aber jeweils eine besondere Atmosphäre, zwischen deren Ausprägungen die fünf Musiker mit Leichtigkeit changierten und das jeweilige Kolorit feinsinnig und homogen aufblühen ließen.

Zweifelsohne ist die Dichte in Substanz und Klangfarbe die Stärke des Quartetts schlechthin, wie auch die extreme Präzision, mit der jeder Ton angespielt und geformt wurde, mit der die vier Musiker aber auch den Ensembleklang austarierten. Qualitäten, die bei der Gestaltung sehr klare Charakterisierungen ermöglichen. Etwa die mitreißende Heiterkeit bei Haydn, der einst gerade in England höchste Anerkennung genoss und vom ungarischen Grafen Anton Apponyi den Auftrag für sechs Streichquartette bekam. Das op. 71/2 hat eine Menge Energie, die das Ensemble mit Verve steuerte. Umso effektvoller erklang das betörend schöne, fast schon frühromantisch anmutende Adagio, vom Parker Quartet mit höchster Einfühlsamkeit zum Singen gebracht. Effektvoll auch die Entwicklung im Final-Rondo, das mezza voce beginnt und eine Steigerung zum typischen Kehraus Haydns erfährt. Das Ensemble verstand es, mit viel Fingerspitzengefühl die Intensivierung in kaum spürbarer Fortschreitung zu entwickeln, um schließlich mit mitreißendem Witz einen packenden Schluss zu kreieren.

In Brittens Streichquartett op. 36 ging es um ganz anderen Dinge. Das einzig deutlich Verbindende blieb der satte Klang, mit dem das Parker Quartet aber weniger Harmonien und Gesänge zu exponieren, als vielmehr eine enorme Spannung aufzubauen hatte. Also auch hier wie bei Haydn und Dvořák ein symphonischer Gedanke, allerdings nun unter den Vorzeichen des 20. Jahrhunderts mit deutlichem Einfluss von Bartók. 1945 komponiert, setzte das Werk zum 250. Todestag von Henry Purcell ganz andere Maßstäbe. Der komplexen Harmonik und den sich dazwischen windenden Themen und Melodien musste schon sehr sorgsam nachgespürt werden, um die meisterhafte Klarheit und Transparenz aufrechterhalten zu können, zumal die Atmosphäre des Werkes deutlich verhangen und mehrdeutig zu bleiben hat. War die bisweilen scharf geschnittene Präzision des Ensembles bei Haydn gefährlich nah an Übersteigerung angelangt, so bot sie hier ein entschiedenes Bild. Gerade die so systemisch durchdachte Chacony im Schlusssatz bedarf eines sehr soliden Spannungsaufbaus, um die inhaltlich gruppierten 21 Variationen eines schillernd unisono vorgetragenen Themas schlüssig zu entwickeln.

Hier war die Strenge Gold wert, lud sich doch der Satz dadurch mächtig mit Energie auf, potenziert in den feinsinnig geformten, virtuosen solistischen Überleitungen. Ein Satz, der mächtig beeindruckte und dem Dvořák-Quintett im Kontrast spielfreudige Sinnenlust eröffnete. Das Programmkonzept ging mithin auf und wurde mit frenetischem Applaus belohnt. Das bezaubernde und seelentief berührende Larghetto von Dvořák musste schließlich als Zugabe wiederholt werden.

Strings MagazineSeptember 2016

On Record

Of Being Is a Bird Augusta Read Thomas, composer (Nimbus Alliance)

If somehow you've missed the work of celebrated composer Augusta Read Thomas, a new album serving as a kind of "compositional diary" of recent works can be a handy recap. It's a fresh and fascinating mix of seven works, some for string quartet, octet for percussion quartet and string quartet, solo violin, solo soprano and ensemble, and solo piano.The album, Of Being Is a Bird, takes its name from one of the works, which in turn refers to a poem by Emily Dickinson. That work, featuring solo soprano Claire Booth, is colorful and rife with evocations of bird flight and song. The overall album highlights how fascinating sources of inspiration seem to take root and bloom from Thomas' mind The album begins-

fittingly, as it's inspired by the discovery of DNA replication-with Helix Spirals, performed by the Parker Quartet. The first movement pops to life with metallic zings, citrusy sharp pizzicato, and woody taps. The tiny world the Grammy Award-winning quartet conjures with a keen sensitivity is totally absorbing throughout the three movements. The third movement opens quite beautifully with elegant lines building toward a sort of subliminal space. Knowing the work's inspiration certainly assists the ear in interpreting­ lines do split off and evolve-but even the uninformed can find a deep and gripping beauty.The three works for solo violin written in 2004, 2005, and 2015 present Thomas' knack for exposing the violin's range of colors. Nathan Giem, playing with a keen

awareness of the many textures at work in a piece, delivers a bold performance. Nathan Cole is taut and transporting in Caprice for Solo Violin. In Rush for Solo Violin, Cole makes the most of the work's range and fiery energy. Strings and percussion come together for Selene (Moon Chariot Rituals), written in 2014. It feels ethereal and vibrates with cosmic wonder in its complex lines and driving momentum. The blend of percussion by Third Coast Percussion and strings by Spektral Quartet-who are prompted to conjure percussive hips, taps, and zings themselves-is utterly cool to follow. Liner notes include one of Thomas' vibrant and detailed maps of form, offering a glimpse into her mind. -CS

The Boston Musical Intelligencera virtual journal and essential blog of the classical music scene in greater BostonLee Eiseman, publisher; Robert Levin, advisor; David Moran, assisting editor; Bettina A. Norton, emerita editor

in: ReviewsJune 5, 2016Rockport, Pressler, Parker Superbby Susan Miron

By any measure, opening night at the 35th Rockport Chamber Music Festival counted as an extraordinary affair. The superb Parker String Quartet, a favorite here, was appearing with the still-fabulous 92-year-old pianist, Menahem Pressler. Many Boston luminaries who had known the Parker four in their years as students at New England Conservatory populated the house.

Festively dressed and unusually upbeat, the crowd radiated gladness at opening of the 7th summer in the still-breathtaking Shalin Liu Performance Center. Rockport’s volunteer ushers (favorites of mine) welcomed us warmly. And a lovely post-concert reception at the Rockport Art Association topped things off. Rockport, under the direction of David Deveau, remains a must-be-there classical music destination, even if that entails battling the horrors of late Friday afternoon traffic.

Now in their thirties, the Parkers formed in their sophomore year at NEC, and have stayed together ever since, winning a Grammy for their recording of Ligeti quartets, winning several major competitions, and becoming Harvard’s Blodgett Artists-in-Residence the past year after several other prestigious residencies.

The opener, Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, Opus 71, No. 2, HOB.III:70, seems to be a specialty of this foursome, and they made it a sparkle. I was immediately struck by the poise and beautiful playing of each of its members, a matching of energy and expressive beauty. This quartet is one of three Opus 71 quartets commissioned by Count Anton Georg Apponyi (1755-1817). First performed by Haydn’s colleague Johann Peter Salomon and three other string players during the winter of 1794 in a London concert, this quartet features some terrific first violin parts, played soulfully by Parker’s Daniel Chong.

Bela Bartók completed his popular Quartet No. 1, Opus 7, Sz. 40 in 1909, an amazing year by any measure, in which which the third piano concerto of Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss’ Elektra, Mahler’s Ninth Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde, Schoenberg’s Op. 11 Klavierstücke and Erwartung, and the first string quartets of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály came into being. The premiere of the first quartet came in the debut concert of the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet in Budapest on March 19, 1910, a program that also introduced the first quartet of Kodály. Bartok’s first quartet, still retaining moments of post-romanticism; according to Kodaly, it possessed “psychological unity… an intimate drama, a kind of ‘return to life’ of one who has reached the brink of the abyss. It is program music, but does not heed a program so clearly does it explain itself.”

Bartók’s passion for a young violinist, Stefi Geyer constituted his secret program. Alas, his love was unrequited, and the violin concerto that he wrote for her was locked away in a drawer and not published until after his death. A year after their parting, Bartók apparently recovered, and married someone else. Using a theme from that long-suppressed concerto, Bartók opens this quartet with what he himself calls a “funeral dirge,” in this case a slow fugue. Some consider it a four-part dirge with the quartet as pall-bearers for the death of his passion. Full of yearning and despair, this quartet received a splendidly affecting reading from the Parkers.

Who wouldn’t love the Dvorak Piano Quintet with this quartet, especially with the wonderful Menahem Pressler, the longtime pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio, and the backdrop of the ocean at sundown? What a lovely and loving performance! Pressler played like a pianist half his age, and seemed to be having the time of his life. Throughout, he attentively kept his eye on the violist, Jessica Bodner, whose solos throughout the evening were models of sensitivity and beauty. Truly, the same must be said of the other members’ solos. Daniel Chong, the first violinist, executed many very impressive solos, and I was particularly moved by the outpourings of the second violin, Ying Xue. Cellist Kee-Hyun Kim expressed compellingly throughout. But the real hero of the evening was Dr. Virendra Patel at Massachusetts General Hospital, who, as the brochure near the hall’s entrance explained, saved Pressler’s life two years ago when he had a life-threatening aneurysm in his thoracic aorta. Patel is one of the very few doctors who use a new grafting procedure rather than open heart surgery. “For me, to be able to continue the way of life I love—to be an artist and perform—is such a gift,” Pressler says. “God gave me the gift of music, and he gave Dr. Patel the gift of healing. The world is a better place for having a man life him in it.” Certainly, the same can be said for Pressler, who continues to bless us with his sublime gift of music.

Susan Miron is a book critic, essayist, and harpist. Her last two CDs featured her transcriptions of keyboard music of Domenico Scarlatti.

http://www.classical-scene.com/2016/06/05/rockport-pressler-parker/

Chamber Choice Award

Billy Childs and Parker Quartet Bring Eclectic Jazz to Sanders

By Elizabeth C. Keto, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER January 27, 2016

Billy Childs featuring Becca Stevens, Alicia Olatuja and the Parker Quartet perform a Celebrity Series concert at Sanders Theatre Friday night. Courtesy of Robert Torres

Jazz pianist Billy Childs, vocalists Becca Stevens and Alicia Olatuja, and the Parker Quartet collaborated in a musical reinterpretation of the work of sixties singer-songwriter Laura Nyro in Sanders Theatre on Friday night. In this performance of songs from his Grammy Award-winning tribute to Nyro, Childs engaged not only with the diverse musicians on the stage but also with diverse musical traditions. Rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, and folk mingled and played off each other, while scraps of sung poetry and improvisatory solos on the piano, drums, and saxophone rose from and then subsided back into the swell of the music. The musicians traded glances and appreciative nods onstage, listening to each other and answering back with sound. The performance became a kind of conversation—but one in which most of the dialogue happened without words.

The ensemble’s sound reflected the wide musical vocabulary of Nyro herself, who began writing songs in her teens and produced her greatest hits in the late sixties with songs like “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “New York Tendaberry,” and “Save the Country.” She grew up listening not only to Smokey Robinson and Nina Simone but also to her mother’s Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy records. “I’m not interested in conventional limitations when it comes to my songwriting. For instance, I may bring a certain feminist perspective to my songwriting, because that’s how I see life. I’m interested in art, poetry, and music,” Nyro once said. “As that kind of artist, I can do anything,”. Her lyrics range from intensely personal reflections on motherhood and childhood memories to social commentary on war, poverty, and urban life.

Billy Childs featuring Becca Stevens, Alicia Olatuja and the Parker Quartet perform a Celebrity Series concert at Sanders Theatre Friday night. Courtesy of Robert Torres

Billy Childs, a jazz pianist who has so far won four Grammy Awards and who began performing publicly at the age of six, says he was introduced to Nyro’s work in his childhood by his older sister. Between his first encounter with her music at the age of eleven and the release of his 2014 tribute album, “Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro,” Childs trained as a pianist and a composer. He became prominent in the eighties as a performer in the Los Angeles jazz community and received commissions for orchestral compositions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In this performance, Childs collaborated with the Harvard Music Department’s current Blodgett Artists-in-Residence, the Parker Quartet. The string quartet’s members trained together at the New England Conservatory of Music and have been part of the teaching faculty at Harvard since the fall of 2014.

Daniel T. Chong, one of the quartet’s violinists, said that the music for Friday’s concert took the ensemble outside of its usual repertoire and performance style. “The most challenging part has been that as a string quartet we play with the same three people ninety-percent of the time, and this is quite a big collaboration. It’s a matter of fitting into someone else’s band,” he said. “And the addition of a different genre of music has been challenging and rewarding at the same time.” According to Chong, even the quartet’s instruments took on a new character on Friday. “Since we’re an acoustic ensemble, being amped and playing with electric instruments is really a different ball game,” he said. “So how we listen to our sound and how the audience is experiencing our sound is what’s different, even more than how we’re actually playing.”

Chong added that the quartet’s members, though usually performers of pieces from the classical repertoire, have long been admirers of Childs’ music. “It’s in some ways very different from what we do, but in many ways it’s very similar to what we do because in the end we’re all performers and we’re all trying to communicate the music with as much impact as possible,” he said.

Billy Childs featuring Becca Stevens, Alicia Olatuja and the Parker Quartet perform a Celebrity Series concert at Sanders Theatre Friday night. Courtesy of Robert Torres

Of the songs the ensemble performed on Friday, Chong said that the one that he feels most drawn to is “Been on a Train,” Nyro’s fiercely melancholy description of a man’s death by drug overdose. “There’s something about that song that always hits me, that always reminds me that music is incredibly powerful,” he said. For him, as for Childs, Nyro’s music remains part of an ongoing conversation about what music can express.

—Staff writer Elizabeth C. Keto can be reached at elizabeth.keto@thecrimson.com.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/1/28/billy-childs-laura-nyro/

Meet the Composer Download: The Lost Movement of Ingram Marshall's String Quartet, "Voces Resonae" Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Parker Quartet (Jamie Jung)

Today’s MTC bonus track is a WORLD PREMIERE! Or, apropos of its October release, we might call it a movement brought back from the dead. This undead movement was born back in 1981, when Ingram Marshall wrote a string quartet for the Kronos Quartet called Voces Resonae.

Living Music. Living Composers. The piece employed, among other things, very complicated choreography for a sound engineer operating delay units (big physical boxes about the size of say a DVD player), a task which, at the time, was completed by Ingram himself. However, when the third movement of this work, "Turbulent but flowing," proved too logistically complex to be performed, it was essentially put in a drawer, where it has remained for the last thirty-some years.

That’s where we come in! MTC has enlisted the fabulous Parker Quartet to help us rescue this lost movement, with the help of MTC producer Curtis Macdonald playing the role of, as Ingram put it, “the mad scientist in the middle.” Except in our contemporary take on the piece, all the delays and echoes are created with software instead of hardware.

The Parker Quartet is:Daniel Chong, violinYing Xue, violinJessica Bodner, violaKee-Hyun Kim, cello

We hope you enjoy the Lost Movement! - Nadia SirotaSpecial thanks to publisher Peermusic Classical for allowing this usage.http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/download-final-movement-ingram-marshalls-lost-string-quartet/

The Boston Musical Intelligencera virtual journal and essential blog of the classical music scene in greater BostonLee Eiseman, publisher; Robert Levin, advisor; David Moran, assisting editor; Bettina A. Norton, emerita editor

in: ReviewsApril 12, 2015Upbeat Life Forces à la Parkerby Matthew Heck

Not every premiere introduces exciting new music to the world, nor does every premiere receive a committed and musically sensitive performance that situates it in the company of other works complementary in character and spirit. That’s exactly what a packed Paine Hall at Harvard received Friday night, however, as the Blodgett Chamber Music Series at Harvard presented the fabulous young Parker Quartet performing works by Erwin Schulhoff and Felix Mendelssohn that surrounded a thrilling world premiere by Augusta Read Thomas.

Thomas’s Helix Spirals for string quartet, commissioned by scientist Jeanne Guillemin, celebrates the pioneering work of Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl, researchers responsible for discovering the nature of DNA replication, in 1958. They confirmed that DNA replicates “semi-conservatively,” or by splitting into two strands without breaking, convincing scientists beyond a close group of enthusiastic supporters that the double helix was more than fanciful speculation and quickly making the “Meselson-Stahl experiment” a classic model in the field of molecular biology.

Thomas spoke about the work before the performance while the quartet offered short excerpts of its diverse textures, explaining that the three movements entitled “Loci: memory palace”, “Interlacing: twists and threads”, and “Spirals: life force,” abstractly highlight three perspectives on the processes, which can also be seen as a series reflecting the evolution of life. “Loci” refers to gene locations, DNA sequences, or positions on a chromosome, and this movement fittingly featured “colorful sounds in a kaleidoscopic range of combinations.” The movement begins with a sharp single note that spreads in pitch to neighbors of the diatonic scale and diversifies in timbre featuring an array of pointillistic sparks, from snapped pizzicati to scampering col legno. As Helix Spirals begins it’s as though we witness the first molecular bonds among bits of carbon in the primordial soup, and as the first movement unfolds these parts become more and more complex, building into short multi-note motives that recombine and in turn build still other motives.

The strands constructed from the bits and pieces reveal themselves whole in the second movement, and the musical language for these themes is, fittingly, more complex and chromatic. “Interlacing: twists and threads” “draws a picture of DNA semi-conservative replication,” with pairs of instruments playing complementary lines that split and join the others. Episodes in this process of replication are divided by moments of suspension, where the quartet plays a held note, creating a “moment of calm that serves as an aural guidepost”, leading the audience through this programmatic form. However, color remains a key component of the texture even in this more thematic second movement, and the quartet members who are not engaged with unraveling one of the strands at any given time add swelling bowed notes and other effects to the lines, catching particular genes and chromosomes to spotlight.

Only in the final movement, “Spirals: life force”, does the music telescope out from the molecular level, or from an evolutionary perspective move millions of years into the future, to reflect the beauty and diversity of life that DNA sustains. With “Spirals”, the emotional, almost metaphysical or spiritual connotations of this incredible, delicate process bloom in a way that nevertheless reflects back on and connects intimately with the microscopic components that make it possible. Individual pitches emerge from each musician to collect in groups and play with our tonal ears, suggesting, from one fleeting moment to the next, rich chords and sonorities in an ever shifting harmonic landscape. Thomas declared this movement “optimistic and life-affirming”, and those qualities saturate the atmosphere. Major chords mingle with their relative minor, amassing rich combinations of semi-dissonant washes, with individual pitches introduced by each quartet member, moment by moment connected by common tones and differentiated by the process of replacing those tones one by one. Evolution is omnipresent, but the overall sense is peaceful and meditative despite the quick, surging crescendos that mark off episodes from one another. In the midst of this beautiful, detailed final movement, we realize that its pan-diatonic character recalls the same type of pitch collection that defined the vastly different, far more disjointed “Loci” at the beginning.

The Parker Quartet gave a committed, detailed, and virtuosic reading, and announced that they would enter the studio the following day to record this vital new piece for Nimbus Records. Thomas’s Helix Spirals combines explosive energy, technical virtuosity, and vivid colors and textures with an intellectual rigor of conception that lends it formal continuity and cohesion. This exciting work deserves a place in the repertoire, and hopefully the Parker Quartet will perform it widely and persuade other ensembles to follow their lead.

Erwin Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet opened the program, giving the Parker Quartet the chance to show off their technical virtuosity, flawless ensemble, and propulsive rhythmic energy. Whatever expressive depth this young quartet has not yet mined (and it’s not much, considering the intensity of their Grammy-winning Ligeti recordings for Naxos), they make up for in sheer exuberance and bounce. Even though Schulhoff’s life ended in tragedy (having committed to communism in the 1930s, this Jewish composer was doubly vulnerable as the Nazis spread through Europe, and in June 1941 he was arrested, sent to a concentration camp, and died of tuberculosis in 1942, age 48), in the ’20s he was immersing himself in the dance halls and jazz clubs of Germany and Prague. His “Five Pieces” offers refractions of five dance styles, hovering somewhere near “Les Six” (Schulhoff dedicated a piece to Darius Milhaud), and the vigorous romps betray a composer living large: a perfect curtain-raiser.

The concert ended with another energetic and life-affirming work, this one established: Mendelssohn’s Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 44 no. 3. From the rustic, good-natured opening to the rousing finale, it leapt from the stage. Violinist Daniel Chong dug into the first violin part with verve and commitment, second violinist Ying Xue matching him and at every turn and cellist Kee-Hyun Kim providing rhythmic bounce from below. Violist Jessica Bodner completed the sound, playing with both pathos and charm.

http://www.classical-scene.com/2015/04/12/parker-harard-upbeat/

Timesunion.com I Tuesday, February 4, 2014 I NAMED NEwYoRK's BEST MIDSIZED NEWSPAPER I ALBANY, NEW YORK

Parker Quartet wows and shines By Joseph Dalton

Troy

A shining silver line runs through everything the Parker String Quartet plays. On Satur­day night in Kiggins Hall, their program was wide-ranging but ever-glowing. The recital, pre­sented by the Friends of Cham­ber Music, was a welcome return by a quartet whose memorable all-Haydn program stunned audiences in 2010.

Mendelssohn's Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 44 No. l, started things off. It shouldn't be too hard to make Mendelssohn shine, especially when he's writ­ing in the bright key of D Major. The Parker took to the writing with expected ease, applying a light and lovely touch from the start. Yet each movement also took on a bit more weight and substance. A dab of individual­ity and personality was obvious in the third movement's solo by first violinist Daniel Chong, which ended with a gentle sliding pitch.

It seems to be the season of Thomas Ades around here lately, as music by the British master -still in his 40s - keeps turning up on programs here and there. Every work of Ades shows copi­ous amount of invention, but this one, at least, wasn't quite so hyperactive.

Despite the idyllic title, "Arcadia" is rather gritty and unmoored. Actually, land and sea are the alternating themes of its seven short movements. Yet all of it seems to float.

The instruments operated in their own orbits of quirky but interconnected lines before set­tling into an extremely hushed hymn-like finale. The Parker

Review

Parker String Quartet

• When: 7 p.m. Saturday

• Where: Emma Willard School,Troy

• Length: Two hours with oneintermission

showed great accuracy and maintained its luminous sound despite the demands of the writ­ing.

Shostakovich's Quartet No. 9 occupied the concert's second half. The final effect of its five interconnected movements wasn't as grim as usual, but the Parker didn't flinch at letting the shadows of Soviet-era darkness settle in. The opening movement has a kind of fate motif, and the players each dug in their bows for a certain steeliness.

There were extended passages in the Ades and the Shostakovich that had surprising similarities. They consisted of several mea­sures of dissonant chords played by the full quartet pizzicato in suspended, kind of staggering rhythms.

The Parker Quartet gave a totally different sound to each. That speaks to the ensemble's ability to apply thoughtful at­tention to the character of each work, while still maintaining its strong emphasis of strict ac­curacy combined with beautiful tone color.

A dark dance by Ervin Schul­hoff was the encore, offering yet another flavor to a most satisfy­ing evening.

� Joseph Dalton is afreelance writer in Troy. Dalton@ HudsonSounds.org

10/8/13: For Immediate Release Lesley Bannatyne 617-495-2791 bannatyn@fas.harvard.edu

Internationally Acclaimed Parker Quartet Named Blodgett Quartet-in-Residence at Harvard University Music Department

The Harvard University Department of Music is delighted to announce that the Parker Quartet will join the music department teaching faculty at Harvard University beginning in the fall of 2014.

“Thanks to the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence Program, we have been fortunate to have had a Quartet-in-Residence for four weeks a year since 1985,” said Music Department chair Alexander Rehding. “However, the role of performance in the music department and the University has changed significantly, and this is the right time to bring professional musicians to campus as full-time residents. We are confident that the extended exposure to the string quartet will be highly beneficial to our students, especially our many talented undergraduate performers, allowing them to engage in the practice of chamber music on an unprecedented scale. We welcome the Parker Quartet to Harvard with immense pleasure.”

The renowned Parker Quartet (Daniel Chong, Ying Xue, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; Kee-Hyun Kim, cello) will, as part of the expanded Blodgett residency, present free concerts each year for the general public and recitals as part of the Dean’s Noontime concert series. They will teach, participate in class demonstrations, read and perform student compositions, and coach Harvard undergraduate chamber ensembles in weekly master classes for Harvard credit. The Parker Quartet’s full time presence in the program will allow for the expansion of the chamber music and performance study opportunities for students in the Harvard University Music Department.

“With our relocation back to Boston and the invitation to join the faculty of Harvard University’s Department of Music, this is truly a special time for the quartet. The Blodgett Artists-in-Residence Program has a wonderful history of hosting established quartets and with its new expansion into a full-time position, we are honored to have the opportunity to share our artistry with the Harvard community. We look forward to our appointment with great excitement.”

Formed in 2002, the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation. The New York Times hailed the quartet as “something extraordinary,” and the Boston Globe acclaims their “pinpoint precision and spectacular sense of urgency.” The quartet began touring on the international circuit after winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition as well as the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France. Chamber Music America awarded the quartet the prestigious biennial Cleveland Quartet Award for the 2009-2011 seasons.

Performance highlights from recent seasons include appearances at Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Library of Congress, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, Musikverein in Vienna, Monte Carlo Spring Festival,

Seoul Arts Center, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele in Germany, and San Miguel de Allende Festival in Mexico. The quartet recently collaborated with artists including Kim Kashkashian, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Anne-Marie McDermott, Shai Wosner, Jörg Widmann, and Claron McFaddon. In 2012 the Parker Quartet was the recipient of a Chamber Music America commissioning grant, enabling the ensemble to commission and premiere Capriccio, an hour-length work by American composer Jeremy Gill. This upcoming season includes return engagements to Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, and Monte Carlo Spring Festival, performances of the Beethoven quartets on the Slee Series in Buffalo, and collaborations with Kikuei Ikeda of the now retired Tokyo String Quartet.

Successful early concert touring in Europe helped the quartet forge a relationship with Zig-Zag Territoires, which released their debut commercial recording of Bartók’s String Quartets Nos. 2 and 5 in July 2007. The disc earned high praise from numerous critics, including Gramophone: “The Parkers’ Bartók spins the illusion of spontaneous improvisation… they have absorbed the language; they have the confidence to play freely with the music and the instinct to bring it off.” The quartet’s second recording, of György Ligeti’s complete works for string quartet was released on Naxos in December 2009 to critical acclaim. This recording won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.

Currently based in Boston, the Parker Quartet holds teaching and performance residencies at the University of South Carolina and the University of St. Thomas. From 2008 to 2013, the quartet spent much of its time in St. Paul, MN, where they served as Quartet-in-Residence with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (2008-2010), were the first-ever Artists-in-Residence with Minnesota Public Radio (2009-2010), and visiting artists at the University of Minnesota (2011-2012).

The Parker Quartet’s members hold graduate degrees in performance and chamber music from the New England Conservatory of Music and were part of the New England Conservatory’s prestigious Professional String Quartet Training Program from 2006-2008. Some of their most influential mentors include the Cleveland Quartet, Kim Kashkashian, György Kurtág, and Rainer Schmidt.

The Parker Quartet will begin their residency at Harvard in the fall of 2014 through the Blodgett Artist-in-Residence program, made possible through a gift from Mr. and Mrs. John W. Blodgett, Jr. The program is now in its 29th year.www.parkerquartet.com

PARKER QUARTET

Quartetville blog October 12, 2012

Interview with the Parker Quartet BY SAM BERGMAN

We caught up recently with three members of the Parker Quartet: violinist Daniel Chong, violist Jessica Bodner, and

cellist Kee-Hyun Kim. You can read more about the Parker Quartet here.

: What is the personal dynamic of working so closely together with three other people?

Dan: Playing in a string quartet is probably one of the most intimate forms of making music. You don‟t have somebody

to guide you, somebody who serves as the ultimate say. You have four people coming into a room as equals. That

environment promotes a lot of passion, a lot of discussion, a lot of compromising. But, ultimately, when you reach

something together as equals, it‟s incredibly rewarding.

: How important has mentorship been in your career, both in terms of the teachers who you‟ve had and the work you‟ve

done in passing your knowledge to other musicians and to students?

Jess: Mentorship has been incredibly important in all ways. Our whole schooling, we were so fortunate to work

with people who not only were great teachers but also were great performers. It was so amazing to see how

they communicated their thoughts. It‟s something to aspire to in our own teaching. We love to work with different

people, different levels of players—not only the technical side but also on the joy of working together.

: Let‟s go back to childhood. When did each of you start playing? Was it on the instrument you play now, or did you

switch at some point, and what made you gravitate to music?

Jess: I started on violin when I was two, after seeing Itzhak Perlman on Sesame Street. I played violin until I was 11 or

12. I remember very vividly that I loved practicing in the lower register of the violin. My teacher recognized this and

also something about my personality and she suggested that I try the viola. I practiced both for about a year, and then I

thought, “There‟s no reason for me to practice violin anymore, because I love the viola so much.”

Dan: My mother studied piano and composition and she got me to begin on violin. I think she chose it mainly because

my older brother played violin and she thought consolidating us to one instrument was easier.

Kee: I started when I was six, on the cello. I was always exposed to a lot of music. My mom was a piano

and composition teacher; my sister played piano. I was always attracted to the cello, maybe because I saw that

they sat down all the time. I played clarinet for band in middle school. I played trombone for a year, but cello is the

one that stuck.

: Did any of you go to summer music programs when you were kids? Where did you go and what impact did that have?

Dan: A big place for me during the summers was Encore School for Strings, which doesn‟t exist anymore,

unfortunately. More recently, Yellow Barn and Marlboro have been huge inspirations for me. I love those

summer music festivals because you‟re in it together with a small group of people who are so passionate about the same

thing. Being in an environment where all you have to do is concentrate on making music and having fun is wonderful.

Parker Quartet

Quartetville blog October 12, 2012

page 2 of 2

Jess: For me, the first one was the Disney Youth Orchestra. I don‟t know if it‟s still going on. I did that when I was 11.

It was so fun. After that I went to Interlochen for a few summers and then Musicorda, which also doesn‟t exist any

more.

Kee: When I was 14, I went to Aspen. I don‟t think that was a good fit for a 14 year-old. The summers after that were

all geared towards chamber music. I went to the Perlman Music Program and to Kneisel Hall and Music Academy of

the West, which was where I met Dan for the first time.

: Talk a little about practicing, not rehearsing together, but the individual practice that you have to put in. Did you always like practicing? What were your strategies for powering through on the days when nothing was going right?

Jess: When I was younger, I would go in and out of practicing and my parents would have to tell me to practice. But

when I got into middle school and high school, at a certain point I really felt, “This is my responsibility.”

Around that time, one of my teachers said, “You have to practice three hours a day. That is an absolute.” And so, I

would say, “Okay. Well, I have scales to practice, I have an etude, I have this piece and this piece… How am I going to

fill three hours?” And just the matter of scheduling how much time I was going to spend on each thing was very helpful. If I‟d decided to practice scales for half an hour, I would get to 20 minutes, and then I‟d say, “I‟m supposed to

practice this for ten more minutes.” If you set that schedule for yourself, then you make yourself find more things to do.

You get better and figure out how to practice on our own.

Now, I think practicing is really special. It‟s your own alone time to craft and explore what you‟re doing outside of rehearsals, to formulate your own ideas about things before you meet together.

Dan: I certainly have a love/hate relationship with practicing. It was more hate in the early days. But now, I enter a

practice session and think of it as an opportunity not only to learn the music that I need to learn but to hone my craft. I get in this mindset of not feeling pressured to accomplish set things, but using the time to explore and build and be

constantly inspired to be a better player. It‟s not just about learning a particular piece.

Kee: I was thinking about this today, actually. How practicing is like running, really, whether you love it or hate it.

„Cause there‟s days when it can be either. The most important thing is consistency. You have to keep doing it and the more you do it, the more you‟ll enjoy it. I never used to enjoy practicing. I always just practiced enough to get by. But,

I don‟t know, I love playing. If you don‟t think of it as practice and work, but as a way to—like Dan and Jess have just

said—have it be your own time, where you can just fool around with the instrument and play and produce whatever sounds and be creative and just enjoy it. It‟s all about the joy of creation and getting better. Why wouldn‟t you want to

do that?

PARKER QUARTET

Boston Globe June 18, 2012

Parker String Quartet delivers at Rockport BY MATTHEW GUERRIER

ROCKPORT — The string quartet is not as old a technological advance as some — gunpowder, movable type,

and double-entry bookkeeping all predate it — but it is old enough to be taken for granted. That is probably why the

sound of the string quartet, paradoxically, does not sound as dated as the electronic sounds it is paired with in Leon

Kirchner’s String Quartet No. 3, the centerpiece of the Parker String Quartet’s concert on Friday at the Rockport

Chamber Music Festival.

In Kirchner’s defense, those electronic sounds are vintage 1966, epochs ago by computer science standards.

And, really, no matter: The quartet is a great piece, a generous dose of the sort of muscular, pragmatically

emotive modernism that Kirchner, who died in 2009, at 90, could do better than almost anyone.

There are places in the quartet where Kirchner plays with congruent special effects on tape and on string: a Sputnik-

like beep morphing into glassy harmonics from violinist Daniel Chong and violist Jessica Bodner, avian electronic

burbles sparking a fizz of passagework from Chong and fellow violinist Karen Kim, cellist Kee-Hyun Kim laying

down a thumping, drum-like pizzicato met by similarly hollow resonance from the speakers. But mostly, the

electronics exist to goad the quartet into streetwise expressionism, lean and tough, eerie then explosive,

something between a noir detective and a space-age Dante. The Parker’s performance was intense, virtuosic, utterly

assured.

Indeed, the group thrives on combinations of intricacy and power. Their touchstones are precision and an assiduously

cultivated blend of sound — focused and wiry at its core and, whatever the style, so well-matched that it can

be difficult to tell where one instrument leaves off and another begins. It can also produce a kind of hermetic quality, as

in the opener, Mozart’s F major Quartet, K. 590: all taut, short-bowed control and tightly coiled phrases, pinning

the music’s eccentric pauses and sudden accents with aggressive propriety.

If the Mozart felt like it was in macro-lens close-up, the Parker’s playing in Robert Schumann’s A major Quartet, Op.

41, No. 3, was more wide-angle, more full-blooded, with more depth of field in the byplay between instruments,

and more range of color, jumping headlong into every one of Schumann’s quick-changing moods. Both refined and

rustic, flipping the discourse from inward to outward on a dime, the Parker made the technology of the string quartet so

user-friendly as to be invisible.

PARKER QUARTET

The Boston Musical Intelligencer June 17, 2012

Parker Quartet Gives Rockport Something Big BY LYLE DAVIDSON

Parking was hard to find. The hall was filled. Something big was about to happen at Rockport’s Shalin

Liu Performance Center last Friday night. Area concert goers gathered to hear some of the best quartet playing

imaginable, playing that The New York Times referred to as ―something extraordinary.‖ The Grammy Award-

winning Parker Quartet was in town performing Mozart’s last string quartet, K. 590 in F Major, Leon Kirchner’s 1967

Pulitzer Prize-winning Quartet No. 3 for String Quartet and Electronic Tape, and the quartet Robert Schumann wrote

in four days, his Op 41, No. 3 in A Major. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that, as an NEC faculty

member, I have known these players since their student days not so many years ago.

For those unfamiliar with the Shalin Liu Performance Center, the wall behind the stage is made of glass, providing

a sweeping view of the ocean. Beautiful as the backdrop was on this cool, clear evening, all attention was soon

focused exclusively on Kee-Hyun Kim, cello, Jessica Bodner, viola, Karen Kim, second violin, and Daniel Chong,

first violin. The Parker Quartet has been participating in the Rockport Chamber Music Festival since 2005, so it was

like greeting old friends.

Quartet playing is supposed to be hard: these four players made it seem easy. They made the audience smile and nod in

response to their obvious delight in the music and in performing. Constantly in touch with each other, they moved and

breathed as one beautifully musical organism. Imbued with their strong rhythmic sense, the music of every

piece flowed and ebbed with grace. There were four individual players on stage, each one a strong personality, but as

in all great chamber groups, they created the effect of being one.

The hushed mood of the first two long notes of the opening measure of Mozart’s last quartet was startlingly interrupted

by the accented third note and then thrown down with a vigorous descending scale. By the end of the first phrase, it

was clear that we were going to hear some truly extraordinary playing. Mozart’s K. 590, written in June of 1790, was

one of three string quartets he finished for King Frederick William II. The King played cello, and it is clear from the

part that he was a good player. So is Kee-Hyun Kim; he brought great presence to every aspect of the part, even

in the long pedal notes. The evident fun of the viola part suggests that Mozart, himself, may have played it. Jessica

Bodner carried the part with wit and musicality that the composer surely would have appreciated.

First violinist Daniel Chong introduced Kirchner’s third quartet with a brief story that placed the odd pairing

of electronic sounds with string sounds in historical context. The opening dialogues between tape and string quartet set

up various relationships, sometimes mutually supportive, sometimes protesting what had just been heard. The

tutti scrambles were delightful. There were stunning moments in which the quartet blended its sounds with the

tape so smoothly that it was difficult to identify which sound source one was hearing. The ending was stunning: The

recorded tape texture introduced the last moments, and then the slow ascending chords of the quartet emerged and

wiped the recording away.

The opening phrases of Schumann’s Quartet Op. 41 No. 3 convincingly conveyed the search for the right key;

the offbeats of the higher strings that accompany the beautiful cello line (which gets passed to violin I) were easy and

solid without being pedantic. (One sometimes hears the effect of counting during this passage.) The opening phrases

of the agitato second movement that features third-beat beginnings were like sighs. The cello’s explosive power that

brought

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The Boston Musical Intelligencer June 17, 2012

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in the ―almost fugue‖ built to enormous power as each instrument entered in succession from bottom to top. Then, as

one, the ensemble turned sweet as the first violin and viola traded phrases of delight that the second violin and cello

could not resist. In long and soft octave pedal points, the first violin and cello framed the second violin and viola, who wandered in murmuring sixths until the cello finally persuaded everyone to pick up the ascending fourths that ever so

delicately brought the movement to a close.

The slow movement is a jewel. While the other parts play with another ascending fourth motive, the dum – pa dum – pa

dum of the dotted eighths and sixteenths that are so much a part of Schumann’s vocabulary were articulated with such subtlety by Karen Kim’s quiet energy that the music was moved forward without effort. Throughout the movement and

indeed, the entire evening, Daniel Chong, always sure and ―right on,‖ led the group with rich nuances and through

many breathtaking ritards with total security.

The opening of the final movement is a refrain that one often comes to dread, because the insistent rhythm of dotted

eighths and sixteenth (again) is so overplayed. The Parker Quartet turns this into a burst of energy that brings the

listener willingly back to the beginning from any one of the diverse paths the piece has taken — the best performance I have ever heard of this movement, of this piece.

The Parker Quartet has two CDs out, one containing Bartok’s String Quartets Nos. 2 and 5, and the Grammy Award-

winning recording of Ligeti’s First and Second Quartets. The Quartet plans to release a recording of Haydn quartets

within the year.

PARKER QUARTET

The New York Times May 6, 2012

Romantics Heated Up and Served BY STEVE SMITH

Jörg Widmann at Zankel Hall

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, the philosopher George Santayana wrote in a piquant

turn of phrase often misappropriated or mangled. Confronted with a program of works by the young German composer

Jörg Widmann, like the one presented at Zankel Hall on Thursday evening as part of Carnegie Hall’s Making

Music series, you could elaborate on the concept: Those who can remember the past are welcome to make merry with

it.

Mr. Widmann, who is 38 and could easily pass for younger, is one of Europe’s most celebrated clarinetists

and composers, with a remarkable canon of significant works to support that reputation. Prefacing an onstage

conversation with Mr. Widmann during the concert, Jeremy Geffen, Carnegie Hall’s director of artistic planning,

reeled off a partial list of Mr. Widmann’s major pieces: among them, two operas, with a third in progress, and

numerous orchestral works, including one, “Teufel Amor,” recently introduced and toured by the Vienna Philharmonic.

Also cited was “Zirkustänze” (“Circus Dances”), performed by the pianist Andras Schiff during a Zankel Hall

recital on Wednesday evening. Mr. Widmann’s Making Music concert was linked to Mr. Schiff’s Carnegie

Perspectives series, and midway through this program Mr. Schiff played Mr. Widmann’s “Intermezzi.”

Conveyed with Mr. Schiff’s customary authority and grace, “Intermezzi” showed Mr. Widmann’s affection for

past composers, German Romantics especially. Cast in the ruminative manner of Brahms’s late piano cycles

(Opp. 116 through 119), the work exaggerated Brahmsian characteristics. Contemplation became morbid near-

stasis; leapt intervals expanded into gaping chasms; ambiguity morphed into inscrutability.

Similar if less literal backward glances appeared throughout the program. “Fieberphantasie” (“Fever

Fantasy”) exploded Schumann’s anxious lyricism into a buzzing, rattling sequence for clarinet and bass clarinet,

string quartet and piano. Mr. Widmann’s prowess as a performer was amply demonstrated in a live-wire account

with the Parker Quartet and the pianist Shai Wosner.

“Fünf Bruchstücke” (“Five Fragments”), played by Mr. Widmann and Mr. Wosner, lived up to their title not only with

aphoristic economy but also with a shattered syntax that imaginatively incorporated unconventional noises:

clicking keypads, airy hisses, piano notes made to buzz by laying CD cases on the strings.

Fleeting intimations of Bach, Beethoven and more bubbled to the surface during “Versuch Über die Fuge” (“Attempt

at the Fugue”), the final installment in a linked cycle of five string quartets, as the Parker members tried, through force

or stealth, to form a fugue.

Sly wit was always evident. Even when the string players whipped their bows in the air, an effect borrowed from Mr.

Widmann’s earlier “Jagdquartett” (“Hunting Quartet”), they did so in canon. Throughout the work the brilliant soprano

Claron McFadden piously intoned phrases from Ecclesiastes, as if admonishing the quartet for its vain attempts:

no small joke, given the group’s precise, lively exertions.

PARKER QUARTET

Pioneer Press April 16, 2012

Dance review: Beethoven, ballet blend beautifully in Sewell

production BY ROB HUBBARD

You don't usually get much ballet at a James Sewell Ballet performance. The Minneapolis-based company tends more

toward the modern dance mode, with the pointes and plies of the ballet tradition seeming like ancestors a

few generations removed.

But choreographer Sewell's classical roots are showing in "Opus 131," an involving and imaginative

contemporary ballet that features the Grammy-winning Parker Quartet performing one of Beethoven's last and most

innovative string quartets at each performance during the company's spring fortnight at the Cowles Center.

A string quartet is a complex organism, with subtle fluctuations in mood and tempo communicated between the

four musicians through their eyes and bodies. That means that the dancers won't find things precisely in the same

place every night, so must use their ears as deftly as they do their limbs and torsos. And that's part of what

made the afternoon performance Sunday, April 15, so exciting. With the quartet performing in front of the stage

(practically in the laps of front-row patrons), it's a performance with rewards as rich in music as in movement.

Sewell's choreography finds fugues everywhere within Beethoven's Opus 131 quartet, with the first four

dancers onstage rising at the entrance of their corresponding instrument, gestures and spins executed in tandem

with the snippets of theme being passed from one musician to another. What begins with minuet-like pairings

grows more modern by the movement, tutus

Would that the second number, "A Sound Embrace," had such a finished feel. Built upon a tango foundation, this

collaboration between Sewell, Sabine Ines and the company is way too choppy and fragmented to develop any kind of

momentum, only intermittently making an argument for the appeal of that steamy style. In fact, much sexier

sections can be found in "Opus 131" than in this tribute to a dance born in a Buenos Aires brothel. There's some

imagination afoot, but the ideas don't coalesce into anything cogent or satisfying. Then again, the Beethoven's a tough

act to follow. tossed over the women's heads, a jungle gym fashioned from flesh, the Presto a playful game of musical

chairs.

PARKER QUARTET

Star Tribune April 16, 2012

Beethoven propels Sewell's dancers BY CAROLINE PALMER

REVIEW: The evening includes a world premiere inspired by tango.

As is often the case, music is very much on choreographer James Sewell's mind. Beethoven's "Opus 131" is a piece

he's studied over the years since first setting movement to it in 1995 -- and he remains captivated by its complexity.

The work leads off James Sewell Ballet's spring season at the Cowles Center, with a sparkling live performance

by the Grammy award-winning Parker Quartet (presented in partnership with the Schubert Club). The dance readily

responds to the composition's shifting moods.

With "Opus 131" Sewell explores several recurring movement ideas. Partnering is not bound by gender, the

dancers' movements imitate the rounds in the music, and circles serve as gathering points throughout the work.

There are elements of Sewell's trademark playfulness -- such as a nifty ballet equivalent of musical chairs where

someone is always left out. But at times the gamesmanship is too much, as if the dancers are naughty kids

mugging behind the backs of musicians Daniel Chong (violin), Karen Kim (violin), Jessica Bodner (viola) and

Kee-Hyun Kim (cello) seated below the stage.

Sewell's choreography connects when dancers Nicky Coelho, Leah Gallas, Cory Goei, Chris Hannon, Nic

Lincoln, Sally Rousse and Eve Schulte locate counterpoints within the music. Illusions of floating successfully

contrast with a composition that might demand more sharpness. Rousse and Lincoln extend their arms and flex

their backs as if to stretch out the movement with the notes, realizing the dramatic possibilities within the music's

intricacies.

The evening includes the world premiere of "A Sound Embrace," choreographed by Sewell, Sabine Ibes and

the dancers. It's an interesting experiment in deconstructing the tango that works best when we see how the

parts can combine into something new that still retains the fiery essence of its source -- the elegant stance, the

seductive spirit, the elaborate rules of engagement. Sewell and Ibes are particularly smooth partners, gliding across the

floor as one.

Yet the work feels as if it's still coming together; the scenes don't have a seamless flow yet. A corny theme riffing off

the evolution of tango feels forced especially since there is really much more to be said about the piece's

ultimate question -- "Does it really take two to tango?" For Sewell and crew the answer is a resounding no -- and

hopefully they will keep trying to prove it.

PARKER QUARTET

Pioneer Press February 9, 2012

Review: Yes, the Parker Quartet really is that good BY ROB HUBBARD

What's so special about the Parker Quartet?

How is it that a string quartet fresh out of the conservatory could become such a sensation so quickly, snaring

the Cleveland Quartet Award - which is something like the Nobel Prize for string quartets - and last year's

Grammy for "Best Chamber Music Performance"? Are these kids really that good?

Well, based upon the group's performance Wednesday night at Minneapolis' Ted Mann Concert Hall, the answer is

yes. It's a group with four distinct personalities that makes some marvelous musical conversation, each contributing

their own set of ideas and emotions.

And Wednesday's program had plenty of emotional terrain to explore. Felix Mendelssohn's sixth and final string

quartet is a dark night of the soul that may have been the last work he completed. Mourning the loss of his sister and

months from his own death, he created a work in which ghosts roam. As performed by the Parker Quartet, frantic

anxiety gave way to despair, then resignation and, finally, a whispered farewell.

Also laden with emotion was the Third String Quartet of American composer Leon Kirchner. Written in 1966,

this Pulitzer-winning piece employs a tape of electronic blips, bloops and beeps that often sound like the soundtrack

to a vintage video game such as "Pac-Man" or "Space Invaders." Entrusted with representing humanity in a debate

with a machine, the Parker Quartet emphasized sorrow and brought urgency to a work that could have sounded

archaic and quaint.

If it sounds like the group was intent upon dwelling in darkness, know that its members concluded the evening with

one of the sunniest works in the string quartet repertoire, Antonin Dvorak's "American" Quartet. Written in 1893 while

the composer was vacationing in Spillville, Iowa, it opened up evocative musical vistas that would inspire Aaron

Copland and others.

More than anything on the program, this demonstrated how individualistic yet well-blended the Parker Quartet can be,

with first violinist Daniel Chong singing lead lines like a lyric soprano, cellist Kee-Hyun Kim exuding strength

and depth, and the middle voices assertive and exciting in the hands of second violinist Karen Kim and violist

Jessica Bodner.

PARKER QUARTET

Denver Post October 9, 2011

Parker Quartet show vigor, energy in Fort Collins concert BY SABINE KORTALS

FORT COLLINS — Newly minted Grammy Award winners, the Parker Quartet kicked off a trio of

Colorado performances on Saturday at the University Center for the Arts in Fort Collins.

Its members - Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, violinists; Jessica Bodner, violist; and cellist Kee-Hyun Kim — all

in their late-20s — performed three demanding works with the vigor and artistic veracity of more seasoned ensembles.

In Claude Debussy?'s novel String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10, the foursome delivered technical exactitude

without compromising the French composer's bent toward colors, sensations and a looser form than that of his

influential Germanic predecessors.

Throughout the four-movement quartet, Chong's sure and lucid cues led the ensemble in an animated,

remarkably cohesive interpretation of Debussy's sometimes delicate, sometimes grandiose tonal textures and effects.

The quartet then deftly executed Leos Janacek?'s singular sound world - comprising short musical ideas that pack

an emotional punch - in his String Quartet No. 29 ("Intimate Letters"). Here, Bodner set the ever-quickening pace of

the Czech composer's passionate portrait of unrequited love.

Arguably saving the best for last, the extraordinarily gifted group elegantly navigated the magnificent heights

and depths of Johannes Brahms?' String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51. Recalling both Beethoven and Bach, the

work is replete with intricate musical ideas and technical tricks ... but the quartet tackled them all with fervor and

aplomb.

In the Andante movement, especially, Chong shone in his introduction of the warm, soulful melody that overlay

a tightly calibrated accompaniment by Bodner and Kim. Likewise, in the third movement that features a double

canon, the cellist and second violinist held together beautifully in their variation on the minuetto theme, while

Chong and Bodner played a different theme.

The brilliant, bursting Finale further demonstrated the palpable connection and close communication among the quartet

members.

Their polished presence and fresh approach make them a formidable force already, and pave the way for even richer musical interpretations as they continue to mature as individuals and artists.

The Parker Quartet performs the same program on the Takács Series at Grusin Music Hall in Boulder on Monday. Call

303-492-8008 for information or visit www.cupresents.org

—more—

For Immediate Release Contact: Kelly Belich 651.292.3239

SPCO and Parker Quartet announce new concert series

Three programs to be presented at SPCO Center and MacPhail Center for Music’s Antonello Hall during 2011-12 season

Saint Paul, MN, September 26, 2011 – The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Parker

Quartet announce today the launch of a new concert series. The series, entitled “All Hearts

Listen,” will feature the Parker Quartet in three distinct programs. Each program will be

performed once at the SPCO Center and once at MacPhail Center for Music’s Antonello Hall for

a total of six concerts during the 2011-12 performance season. The series name, “All Hearts

Listen,” is based on a poem by Joseph Eichendorff set to music by Robert Schumann in his

Liederkreis song cycle.

About the collaboration, Karen Kim of the Parker Quartet commented, “We're incredibly excited

to be starting a concert series in the Twin Cities in collaboration with the SPCO. Over the past

three years, the Twin Cities have really become home to us, and we're thrilled to be able to

share our passion for chamber music and the string quartet repertoire with our own community.

The SPCO is the very organization that brought us to the Twin Cities, and we hope to reach out

to the community and enrich the cultural scene through this unique collaboration.”

“We are thrilled to be able be part of ensuring that the Parker Quartet performs regularly here in

the Twin Cities and excited that they will be building new audiences for classical music,“ said

Sarah Lutman, President and Managing Director of the SPCO.

Hailed by The New York Times as “something extraordinary,” the Grammy Award-winning

Parker Quartet (Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, violins, Jessica Bodner, viola, and Kee-Hyun

Kim, cello) has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation.

The ensemble maintains a prestigious national and international touring schedule, and is based

in the Twin Cities where it participates in the local classical music scene in myriad ways.

2

During the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, Parker Quartet was the first-ever Quartet-in-

Residence at the SPCO, a role which involved individual instrument performances with the

orchestra, chamber music presentations, and a robust educational program with public schools

through the SPCO’s CONNECT program. Parker Quartet is also well known in the Twin Cities

for being the first-ever Artist-in-Residence with Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and American

Public Media (APM) during the 2009-10 season.

Tickets to the series at SPCO Center and Antonello Hall are available for $30 per 3-concert

package. Series packages are now on sale through the SPCO website at

www.thespco.org/parkerquartet, as well as through the SPCO ticket office at 651.291.1144.

Tickets to individual concerts will be available beginning on October 1.

Concert Information:

Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011, 7:30 p.m. – MacPhail Center for Music

Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011, 2:00 p.m. – SPCO Center

Impressions

String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10 Claude Debussy

Quartet No. 3 for String Quartet and Electronic Tape Leon Kirchner

String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135 Ludwig van Beethoven

Thursday, March 22, 2012, 7:30 p.m. – MacPhail Center for Music

Sunday, April 1, 2012, 2:00 p.m. - SPCO Center

Illuminations

String Quartet in F Major, K. 590 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ainsi la Nuit Henri Dutilleux

String Quartet in A Major, Op. 41, No. 3 Robert Schumann

Saturday, May 12, 2012, 7:30 p.m. – MacPhail Center for Music

Sunday, May 20, 2012, 2:00 p.m. – SPCO Center

Intimate Letters

String Quartet in G Major, K. 156 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

String Quartet No. 2 "Intimate Letters" Leos Janáček

String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 Ludwig van Beethoven

The series name “All Hearts Listen” is based on the following poem, which was set to music by

Robert Schumann in his Liederkreis song cycle.

:

Wehmut (Melancholy)

By Joseph Eichendorff

3

Translation by Emily Ezust

Sometimes I can sing

as if I were happy,

but secretly tears well up

and free my heart.

The nightingales,

when spring breezes play, let

their songs of yearning resound

from the depths of their dungeons.

Then all hearts listen

and everyone rejoices;

yet no one truly feels the anguish

of the song's deep sorrow.

ABOUT PARKER QUARTET

Hailed by The New York Times as “something extraordinary,” the Grammy Award-winning

Parker Quartet has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its

generation. The quartet began its professional touring career in 2002 and garnered international

acclaim in 2005, winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition as well as the Grand Prix and

Mozart Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France. In 2009,

Chamber Music America awarded the quartet the prestigious biennial Cleveland Quartet Award

for the 2009-2011 seasons.

Performance highlights of the quartet's 2011-12 season include a European tour, with

appearances at Wigmore Hall in London, Stadthalle Marburg, Kultur im Oberäu, and Concerts

Classiques d'Épinal; appearances with pianist Shai Wosner at Amherst College and Carnegie

Hall; and visits to many of the leading colleges and universities of the United States, including

the Eastman School of Music, San Francisco State University, and UCLA. This season, the

quartet is partnering with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra to launch All Hearts Listen, a

concert series in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. This series will feature the quartet in six

performances throughout the Twin Cities.

Successful early concert touring in Europe helped the quartet forge a relationship with Zig-Zag

Territoires, which released their debut commercial recording of Bartók’s String Quartets Nos. 2

and 5 in July 2007. The disc received high praise by numerous critics, including Gramophone:

“The Parkers’ Bartók spins the illusion of spontaneous improvisation… they have absorbed the

language; they have the confidence to play freely with the music and the instinct to bring it off.”

4

The quartet’s second recording, of György Ligeti’s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 and Andante &

Allegretto, was released on Naxos in December 2009 to critical acclaim. The Ligeti recording

won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance. The quartet's next disc

will be a selection of Haydn string quartets, produced by Grammy Award-winner Judith

Sherman.

The Parker Quartet has been profiled in Time Out NY, The Boston Globe, Chamber Music

Magazine, and on Musical America.com for their pioneering performances for audiences in

non-traditional venues. In addition to concerts in bars and clubs nationwide, the ensemble was

the first String Quartet-in-Residence at Barbès Bar and Performance Space in Brooklyn, New

York, in 2007. The residency embraced a series of collaborative concerts with artists of various

genres including jazz, folk, and world music. This season, the quartet also collaborated with

slam poets through the organization With Our Words. Their collaboration included pianist Seth

Knopp and baritone William Sharp in a program that interwove poetry and music to illuminate

both mediums.

The Parker Quartet served as Quartet-in-Residence with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

from 2008 through 2010 and were the first-ever Artists-in-Residence with Minnesota Public

Radio for the 2009-2010 season. This year, they will be in residence at the University of

Minnesota, working throughout the year with chamber music students. They will also be

teaching instrumental lessons at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN.

The Parker Quartet’s members hold graduate degrees in performance and chamber music from

the New England Conservatory of Music and were part of the New England Conservatory’s

prestigious Professional String Quartet Training Program. Their mentors include the Cleveland

Quartet, Kim Kashkashian, György Kurtág, and Rainer Schmidt.

ABOUT THE SAINT PAUL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, now in its 53rd season, is the nation’s only full-time

professional chamber orchestra and is widely regarded as one of the finest chamber orchestras

in the world. In collaboration with five artistic partners – Roberto Abbado, Edo de Waart, Dawn

Upshaw, Christian Zacharias and Thomas Zehetmair – the 34 virtuoso musicians present more

than 130 concerts and educational programs each year, and are regularly heard on public

radio’s Performance Today which reaches 1.3 million listeners each week on 256 stations, and

SymphonyCast reaching 335,000 listeners each week on 126 stations nationwide. The SPCO

has released 67 recordings, commissioned 127 new works, and performed the world premiere

of 49 additional compositions. The SPCO has earned the distinction of 15 ASCAP awards for

adventurous programming. Renowned for its artistic excellence and remarkable versatility of

musical styles, the SPCO tours nationally and internationally, including performances in premier

venues in Europe, Asia and South America. Launched in 1995, the SPCO’s award-CONNECT education program reaches nearly 6,000 students and teachers annually in 16 Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools. For more information, visit www.thespco.org.

# # #

PARKER QUARTET

ariama August 3, 2011

The Parker Quartet's Top 5 Works BY DANIEL ENO

"Hailed by The New York Times as “something extraordinary,” the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet

has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation." - www.parkerquartet.com

The quartet gave us a list of their Top 5 favorite works, as well as a few restaurant recommendations from the

Twin Cities, where the members currently reside.

The Parker Quartet's Top 5 Works

Dvorak: Cypresses - Hagen Quartet

Dvorak: String Quartets Op. 96 (DG) Fauré: Requiem -

Boston Symphony

Fauré: Requiem (RCA Red Seal) Ligeti: Piano Etudes -

Aimard

Parker Quartet

ariama August 3, 2011

page 2 of 2

Ligeti: Works for Piano (Sony)

Brahms: Symphony No. 4

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 (Soli Deo Gloria) Leon Kirchner: String

Quartets Nos. 1-4

Leon Kirchner: String Quartets Nos. 1-4 (Albany)

Visit The Parker Quartet's Website (http://www.parkerquartet.com)

"Immediately following our graduation from the New England Conservatory we were offered a post as one of the first

quartets in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Quartet-in-Residence program. We’ve been living in the Twin Cities ever

since (3 years!) and wanted to share some of our favorite picks for great food in the area." - The Parker Quartet

PARKER QUARTET

Korea Times June 22, 2011

Ditto evolves with new talent and repertoire BY KWAAK JE-YUP

Some of the best-looking classical musicians are in town to perform at the third Ditto Festival to be held at various

venues around Seoul, starting today.

But the real treat at this year’s festival for music aficionados is the new talent and repertoire.

The festival marks its third year of a nauseating mix of in-your-face commercialism and classical music,

arbitrarily promoted as offering a strictly Romantic French repertoire, with little in evidence.

The ensemble that shares the festival’s name and has the central role is actually the only group completely dedicated to

19th-century French composers such as Ravel, Debussy, and Faure.

Popularly known for playing to a sold-out audience full of Korean female fans in their 20s with little knowledge

of classical music, Ensemble Ditto brings together four young, promising — and good-looking — male artists, Stephan

Pi Jackiw, Richard Yongjae O’Neill, Ji-yong, and Michael Nicolas.

They are to perform next weekend to close out a week and half of chamber music.

Discount the illogical theme and heavy marketing focused on young pretty faces; let the gut resistance recede and look closely; the programs actually are not only varied but occasionally daring — worth a careful listen.

Former Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) harpist Xavier de Maistre and the Grammy-winning Parker Quartet

are the salient first-timers to the festival.

“I would like the audience to discover a wide range of colors with the harp,” said Maistre, at a press conference held in

the Hoam Art Hall in central Seoul, Wednesday. “I want to make the people feel that the whole orchestra is on

stage when I play.”

Maistre is a pioneer in the harp world, playing the instrument solo on stage, interpreting re-arranged pieces

often written for an orchestra. He is the most famous for joining the VPO, consistently regarded by critiques as the

world’s best, at the age of 25.

Tonight he is scheduled to play Debussy, Smetana, and works by a group of Spanish composers.

Meanwhile, cellist Kim Kee-hyun of the string quartet promised the performers’ own “special point of view” over

a varied repertoire that ranges from Haydn to Shostakovich.

“Chamber music groups tend to be pigeonholed into a certain period,” said Kim, arguing that their recent focus and fame for Hungarian music interpretations have little to do with the group’s tone. “We want to play everything.”

While the harpist has broken new grounds as a soloist, the Parker Quartet members said they preferred playing as

an ensemble.

“I value the connection we make with each other and to the audience,” said Karen Kim, one of the group’s violinists.

“That’s why we decided to dedicate ourselves to the medium.”

Parker Quartet

Korea Times June 22, 2011

page 2 of 2

At the festival, the Parker Quartet plays on Saturday with the festival staple Ensemble Ditto and then on Sunday on

their own.

O’Neill, returning violist with the Ensemble Ditto and the festival’s musical director this year, said he was “fortunate and humbled to have colleagues” of such caliber join him.

“It is the easiest opportunity to get to know the artists in this intimate setting,” said O’Neill.

Dubbed “the most challenging and daring program tried at the Ditto Festival” by the violist is the Michael Nicolas cello

recital with Chinese pianist and child prodigy Helen Huang on Monday.

While the selection of Debussy, Piazzolla, and Rachmaninoff may not rightfully reflect the claims of audacity, the

20th-century great Elliott Carter Cello Sonata should provide something to think about for the audience.

Other notable offerings during the one-and-a-half week festival include former participants who make their return as

soloists. L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra violinist Johnny Lee plays Dvorak, Poulence, Franc, and Sarasate on Tuesday,

and local piano sensation Lim Dong-hyek plays Chopin, Sarasate, Prokofiev, Brahms, and Ravel on Sunday.

PARKER QUARTET

Korea Herald June 22, 2011

2011 Ditto Festival to showcase French works Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet to join ensemble Ditto in Seoul BY KIM YOON-MI

Now in its fifth season, the 2011 Ditto Festival’s theme will be French classical music including Debussy, Ravel

and Faure. The audience will be able to enjoy a special duo recital by ensemble Ditto and another ensemble Parker

Quartet, the festival’s artistic director said on Wednesday.

All-male chamber ensemble Ditto, led by violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill, has been holding the annual summer event since 2007 to bring classical chamber music to the public.

The week-and-a-half week festival, starting with harpist Xavier de Maistre’s first solo recital in Korea on

Thursday evening at the Hoam Art Hall, will run through July 3, bringing in young classical artists from overseas.

O’Neil, the artistic director, said the summer festival will continue to be fun and friendly, under the French theme.

“It was the motto with the beginning, offering fun and friendly classical music and specifically chamber music, which

was not a popular genre at all. Ditto’s mission has been to present new faces and reach out to the public,”

Yongjae O’Neil told reporters in Seoul.

“Every season with Ditto Festival, we’ve had a focal point. My first trip overseas was France and Debussy, Ravel and

Faure have left wonderful pieces of chamber music.There was this common thread both for recitals and

concerts highlighting French composers,” he said.

One of the major highlights will be the duo recital by Ditto and ensemble Parker Quartet on June 25 at the Seoul

Arts Center’s Concert Hall at 2 p.m.

Parker Quartet is a rapidly-rising ensemble, winning the Grammy Award Best Chamber Music Performance

in February for Ligeti’s String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2.

Parker Quartet, consisting of violinist Daniel Chong, violinist Karen Kim, violist Jessica Bodner and cellist Kim Kee-

hyun, will begin the duo recital with Debussy String Quartet in G minor Op. 10. The program will intensify

with Brahms String Sextet in G major which violinist Johnny Lee and violist Yongjae O’Neil, cellist Michael Nicolas

will join. The two ensembles will last stage Mendelssohn String Octet in E flat.

Another highlight will be the duo recital of Pianist Lim Dong-hyek and violinist Shin Hyun-su, the only two Koreans

to have won the prestigious Long-Thibaud International Competition.

Lim and Shin’s concert is scheduled on July 3 at 2 p.m. at the SAC, and the two artists said their duo will

be “flamboyant.” The program includes Sarasate’s “Faust Fantasy,” a Brahms scherzo and a Ravel violin sonata.

On July 2, Pianist Kim Tae-hyung, violinist Hahn-bin, ensemble TIMF with conductor Adriel Kim will stage

their Ravel compilation at the SAC, under the title “This is RAVEL!”

PARKER QUARTET

The Boston Globe April 6, 2011

New England Conservatory spotlights two alumni quartets BY JEREMY EICHLER

New England Conservatory these days takes deserved pride in its string faculty, with performers of

international prominence like violist Kim Kashkashian teaching alongside, for instance, three former members of

the Cleveland String Quartet.

One of the former Clevelanders, cellist Paul Katz, took the stage of Jordan Hall Monday night to describe

NEC’s Professional String Quartet Training Program to a large crowd that had gathered for this month’s installment of

the free First Monday concert series. Over the last decade, Katz explained, NEC has opened its doors to one

early-career ensemble every two years. The group is given a residency at the school, coaching and

mentorship, and most importantly, the time and space to rehearse.

That the quartet program — and the string faculty more generally — have succeeded at attracting excellent

young ensembles and helping them develop was clearly demonstrated by Monday’s performance by two alumni

groups: the Parker Quartet and the Jupiter Quartet. Both foursomes are now out there climbing the ranks of young

American string quartets, and making significant strides.

The Parker snapped up a Grammy this year for its Naxos recording of Ligeti’s String Quartets, and the group is

now turning its attention to Haydn. Monday’s concert featured the Quartet Op. 74, No. 1. In evidence from the opening

bars were the Parker’s warm and smoothly blended tone and its meticulous attention to details in balance and phrasing.

The playing was lively and sleekly contoured, though it was not until the fourth movement that this performance

caught fire and fully cast aside the veil of decorousness that can sometimes obscure the remarkable qualities —

invention and wit, charm and fantasy — of Haydn’s quartet writing.

The Jupiter, whose most recent recording on the Marquis label surveys works by Mendelssohn and Beethoven,

then took the stage with Beethoven’s magisterial late Quartet Op. 131, a work whose complexities and profundities

make it daunting for ensembles of any age. Yet in a display of thoughtful and sensitive musicianship, the Jupiter

delivered a performance that captured many of the work’s searching qualities and found a tender pathos in its

lyricism. It was a reading that grew progressively stronger, overcoming moments of initial tentativeness to embrace

the extremes of the later movements.

Of course it’s not a two-quartet party until someone breaks out the Mendelssohn Octet. And somebody did

after intermission. Mendelssohn’s dazzler can be even more fun to play than it is to listen to — a kind of dessert for the

hard-working quartet musician — and you could feel both the exuberance and the adrenaline fueling this performance.

The Parker’s Daniel Chong laid into the demanding first violin part with pointed precision and at times explosive

energy.

PARKER QUARTET

Kansas City Star January 23, 2011

Parker Quartet closes Music Alliance’s first season in lushly

romantic fashion BY ROBERT FOLSOM

The Parker Quartet wrapped up the inaugural season of the Music Alliance — a partnership between the University of

Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance and the Friends of Chamber Music — Saturday night

at White Recital Hall with a concert of romantic expressions and modern tensions.

The Romantic era was represented by Antonin Dvorak’s “Cypresses for String Quartet, B. 152,” which opened

the concert, and Felix Mendelssohn’s “Quartet No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 44, No. 2,” which closed the concert.

“Cypresses” is a series of 12 short pieces. The program listed three — I. “I know that on my love” (Moderato);

II. “Death reigns” (Allegro ma non troppo); and IX. “Thou only dear one” (Moderato). But a fourth piece was

announced from the stage: XI. “Nature lies peaceful.”

From the beginning, the Parker Quartet (Daniel Chong, violin; Karen Kim, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; and Kee-

Hyun Kim, cello) produced a lush chordal sonority. The decision to include “Nature lies peaceful” was a good one;

it was more contrapuntal than the three previous pieces and made a fine conclusion to Dvoøák’s Romantic gestures.

Violinist Kim introduced György Kurtág’s modern “Hommage à Mihály András: Twelve Microludes for

String Quartet, Op. 13,” by having the quartet play the first notes of the first three pieces. The third note was a loud

pizzicato with a grand sweep of bows. The effect was comical, but the execution of the chromatic Kurtág showed

that this is a serious quartet that can navigate the exigencies of atonal gestures with comfortable expertise.

Before intermission, the Parker Quartet performed Paul Hindemith’s five-movement “String Quartet No. 4, Op.

22.” The first two movements and the last two movements were played without pause, leaving the third movement to

stand alone with a pulse from the cello beneath Hungarian hints of Bartók melodicism.

The quartet played Hindemith’s complex textural score with a conviction that excited the air. How else to

clearly communicate to the 70 or so people in the audience the composer’s neoclassical melodies, counterpoint and

rhythms?

When the quartet closed with Mendelssohn’s “Quartet No. 4, “its most striking feature was the aural equivalent of the

sum being greater than its parts: Four-part chords produced a large sound as string overtones reinforced

string overtones.

Otherwise, the Mendelssohn was too light following the Hindemith. The final movement, Presto agitato, had a

lulling effect, in spite of its rhythmic motion.

A better programming choice would have been to end with the Hindemith, with its dramatic, declarative conclusion.

PARKER QUARTET

Buffalo News December 8, 2010

Parker Quartet justifies Grammy nomination BY HERMAN TROTTER

The Parker Quartet arrived in Buffalo for its Tuesday evening concert on the Buffalo Chamber Music Society

series proudly toting a brand new Grammy nomination for its Naxos recording of Ligeti’s complete string

quartets. And happily, his Quartet No. 1 (“Metamorphoses Nocturnes”) had been planned months ago for

performance during this visit to Kleinhans’ Mary Seaton Room.

It was the centerpiece of three works from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, each of which was transitional for its composer and/or for the quartet art form.

His 1954 Quartet No. 1 came at the time when Ligeti (1923-2006) was breaking free from conservatism and finding his

own, more progressive voice. Somewhat reminiscent of Bartok, the quartet is in one continuous movement

but establishes a unique form with short, strident ideas passing in quick and varied succession. They do not, however,

leave a feeling of disorganization or randomness in their wake. The Parker musicians gave such a compelling

performance that it is easy to understand their Grammy nomination.

The concert had opened with Haydn’s 1772 Quartet in C, Op. 20, No. 2. The six Opus 20 quartets were landmarks in

the development and formalizing of the quartet form. No. 2, for example, demonstrated how Haydn established

equal value for the four instruments, opening with the cello intoning a melody actually above its companions, while the

viola and each violin later had its turn in the spotlight.

In the rather heavy, dark Adagio, covering a wide dynamic range, the cello is again entrusted with the main

theme, while the Menuetto is quite chromatic, and the Finale is a joyously bubbling fugue, again with striking dynamic

leaps a prominent feature. The ensembles negotiated all this with fine transparency and clarity of articulation.

Last up was Beethoven’s 1826 Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131, from the group of five late quartets that established

new, elevated levels of vision and profundity that still stand apart 184 years later. In seven movements played without

pause, Beethoven’s creativity seems propelled by a restlessness, as though he just couldn’t wait to get his next startling

idea onto the score and out into the air.

The artists were technically right on top of everything and were especially expressive in the turbulent

second movement, the exciting thrust and energy of the fifth and seventh movements, and provided the gently lilting

Andante variations with superb pacing and phrasing. The opening fugue was a bit too deliberate, and the artists were

also prone to occasional overstatement of accented attacks. Some ensembles never get a grip on the towering Op.

131, but the young Parker Quartet seems well on its way to finding an individual and enduring conception of this

masterwork.

PARKER QUARTET

Times Union November 22, 2010

Parker Quartet does Haydn justiceBY JOSEPH DALTON

A world of style, color and sentiment came from the Parker Quartet during its Saturday concert presented by the Friends of Chamber Music at the Emma Willard School.

That's really not so unusual an occurrence. It seems like dynamic fresh-faced quartets are a dime a dozen these days and the Parker, which easily fits that category, already made a fine local debut at Union College back in 2006. What

made Saturday's program surprising and special is that the breadth of expression was wrought from music by just one

composer, and that it was Haydn at that.

Though he completed 67 quartets and 104 symphonies, it's easy to think of Haydn's music, with its neat classical strains, as all the same. That's partly due to how it's doled out in single servings, usually as concert openers, warm-ups

really, before musicians move onto meatier material of the romantic and modern eras.

By delivering a succession of three Haydn quartets and keeping it all rather fresh, the Parker showed both

thoughtfulness and imagination. Add in the fact that they played everything from memory and this concert was a stunning accomplishment. It's a good thing they're recording the program later this week in Boston.

The opener was the best, the Quartet in C Major, Op. 20, No. 2. In the first movement, the violins had a glassy smoothness and the cello added a warmth depth. The many unison passages of the Adagio sounded as if one big

instrument was playing. And then came the Menuetto. Played in a sotto voce hush and at quite a clip, it brought to mind

an old tape deck set on fast forward. The notes were all there but fast and shadowy.

Next up was the Quartet in G Major, Op. 74 No. 3 "The Rider." First violinist Daniel Chong had a few pitch problems early on, but so much was happening all the time one hardly had space to ponder the small errors. A cool detail came in

the spinning texture all the players put on the first note of the bouncing main them in that same opening Allegro. It was

like a baseball pitcher throwing a fast curve ball with a fancy wind up. The finale galloped right along and explained the piece's subtitle.

There were no moments in the final Quartet in F Major, Op. 77 No. 2 to match what came before intermission. But the same warm loving embrace of the music was still there. As an encore, the lively scherzo from Op. 77, No. 1 brought

the evening to a close.

Parker Quartet La Crosse Tribune • April 11, 2010

Parker Quartet dazzles Viterbo crowd

BY TERRY RINDFLEISCH

La Crosse native and violinist Karen Kim frequently mentioned her quartet’s striking chemistry during the ensemble’s residency in La Crosse schools the past few days.

On Sunday, the Parker Quartet displayed that chemistry and showed why it is one of the world’s best young string quartets, dazzling a Bright Star Season audience at Viterbo University.

The St.-Paul based quartet, made up of graduates of New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in their 20s, sparkles like a diamond with its magnificent sound and clear, concise tone. The Parker Quartet opened with a fantastic performance of Hadyn’s first quartet. The ensemble played the Haydn piece with a lightness and brilliance.

The three pieces for string quartet and concertino by Igor Stravinsky showed off the delicate intricacies and complexities of ensemble playing. The Parker Quartet painted a wonderful abstract picture with fluidity and exuberance. The Parker Quartet finished with the glorious second quartet by Robert Schumann. The ensemble brought a freshness and charm to this masterpiece. The Parker Quartet is an extraordinary well-balanced, fine-tuned foursome with impeccable technique and intonation and phenomenal phrasing.

This quartet plays with maturity and wisdom beyond their years. This concert was pure joy.

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Contact: Christina Schmitt cschmitt@mpr.org 651-290-1449www.mpr.org

CLASSICAL MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO TO HOST THE PARKER QUARTET

DURING A FIRST-EVER ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCY

The Parker Quartet to perform concerts throughout the region, including The Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on April 15

(St. Paul, Minn.)—December 15, 2009—Classical Minnesota Public Radio announced

today its first-ever artists-in-residency, the Parker Quartet. The group will embark on a multi-tiered program throughout 2010—which includes appearances on Performance Today broadcasts, concerts throughout the region and at a non-traditional venue, The

Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. The group will also teach masters classes, and will host a national string quartet competition for aspiring classical musicians.

“We have long hoped to host an up-and-coming classical music group,” says Brian Newhouse, senior producer, Classical Minnesota Public Radio. “When we met the Parker Quartet, we said, „Yes—bingo!‟ They are so wonderful and generous with their performances and their can-do spirit about working together.”

The Parker Quartet features rising stars in the classical music world. The New York Times calls the Parker Quartet “something extraordinary.” The Boston Globe hails their “fiercely committed performances.” The Washington Post declares them “a quartet that

deserves close attention.” Just three months after winning the 2005 Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Quartet captured First Prize and the Mozart Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, sparking international acclaim. In 2009, the Parker Quartet was awarded the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award.

“The most exciting thing about this residency is the feeling of possibility,” said Karen Kim, violinist for the Parker Quartet. “There is a great desire to support the arts in this community, and we can‟t wait to see how far we can take this.”

As a significant community and cultural Minnesota institution, MPR works closely with organizations such as the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and others to bring fine musicians to larger audiences. MPR believes that accessibility is key to the future of classical music, and thus will provide low ticket prices for all of The Parker Quartet regional concerts.

The Parker Quartet‟s residency with Classical Minnesota Public Radio is sponsored in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, created by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment. State funding is used only for residency activities that take place in Minnesota.

More about the Parker Quartet The Parker Quartet has distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation. The Parker Quartet began its professional touring career in 2002, and in 2005 sparked international acclaim by winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition as well as the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at the 2005 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France. Most recently, the Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2009-2011 Cleveland Quartet Award.

The Parker Quartet are Daniel Chong (violin), Karen Kim (violin), Jessica Bodner (viola) and Kee-Hyun Kim (cello). Equally at home in a concert hall or a downtown club, the Parker Quartet has been profiled in Time Out NY, The Boston Globe, Chamber Music Magazine, and on Musical America.com for their pioneering performances in non-

traditional venues. Each member holds graduate degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music.

The Parker Quartet is currently is in its second season as Quartet-in-Residence with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Quartet members are the first-ever Artists-in-Residence with Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media. In addition to the Quartet‟s extensive international tours, recent U.S. appearances include performances at the Library of Congress, the Caramoor Center, Market Square Concerts and the Detroit Chamber Music Society.

The Parker Quartet‟s 2007 debut commercial recording (released by Zig-Zag Territoires), which featured Bartok‟s String Quartets Nos. 2 and 5, received high praise from industry critics including Gramophone. Their latest recording, of György Ligeti‟s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 and Andante & Allegretto, was released on the Naxos label in 2009 and will be available in stores this month.

For more information about the Parker Quartet, go to www.parkerquartet.com/. Exclusive North American management for the Parker Quartet is provided by Opus 3 Artists, www.opus3artists.com/.

Copies of the Parker Quartet‟s most recent CD are available upon request.

The Parker Quartet to be heard on Performance Today broadcasts Every first Thursday of the month, starting January 7, 2010 from 11 am.-1 p.m. CST, the Parker Quartet will join host Fred Child for a performance and chat on Performance Today. The broadcasts will go through summer 2010.

Tune in: Performance Today is heard weekdays 11 a.m.-1 p.m. CST on all Classical Minnesota Public Radio stations and on classical public stations nationwide, and online at performancetoday.publicradio.org/.

Schedule of The Parker Quartet’s regional concerts:

Bemidji: Thursday, January 21

7:30 p.m. Bemidji State University, Thompson Recital Hall in the Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex, Bemidji, MN Tickets: $20 adults / $5 students. MPR members receive a discount. For tickets, call 218-755-2915.

Sioux Falls: Saturday, January 23

2 p.m. Augustana College, Kresge Recital Hall, Sioux Falls, SD Tickets: $12 adults / $8 for seniors and students. MPR members receive a discount. For tickets, call 605-274-5320 or go online at augietickets.com

Duluth: Tuesday, February 2

7:30 p.m. St Scholastica, Mitchell Auditorium, Duluth, MN Tickets: $17 adults / $5 students. MPR members receive a discount. For tickets, call 218-723-7000 or go online at www.css.edu/mitchell.xml.

Decorah: Thursday, March 4 7:30 p.m. Luther College, Jenson Nobel Recital Hall, Decorah, Iowa. Tickets: $15 adults / $10 seniors and students. Free to Luther College students. MPR members receive a discount. For tickets, call 563-387-1357 or go online at http://boxoffice.luther.edu.

Minneapolis: Thursday, April 15 7 p.m. The Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN Tickets: $12/$10 for Minnesota Public Radio members. For tickets, go to varsitytheater.org.

Parker Quartet

The Boston Globe January 22, 2010

Four’s a charm for Parker Quartet BY DAVID WEININGER

Pictured, from left: Karen Kim, Kee-Hyun Kim, Jessica Bodner, and Daniel Chong of the Parker Quartet. (Janette Beckman)

The Parker Quartet is one of four ensembles to have come out of New England Conservatory’s prestigious Professional

String Quartet Training Program. Like the other three, the Parker - which graduated from the program in 2008 and whose members were also undergraduates at NEC - The quartet recently released its second CD: the two string quartets of Hungarian composer György Ligeti, along with an early Andante and Allegretto (Naxos). If these recordings are

anything to go by, the Parker’s future is bright indeed. Both quartets consist of knotty, difficult music. The first, written in the mid-1950s, takes off from Bartok and is full of the older master’s angular melodies, jarring rhythms, and crunchy dissonances; the second - one of Ligeti’s best-known chamber pieces - unveils a kaleidoscope of unusual textures.

The Parkers tear through this music with both pinpoint precision and a spectacular sense of urgency. Whether the music floats or pounds, they play with a confidence of those speaking a native language.

The quartet’s website features two videos made at the recording sessions, and for all the music’s nervous intensity, the Parker Quartet’s members seem to radiate an air of calm mastery over it. For years, the preferred recording of these two

works has been that by the Arditti String Quartet in Sony’s Ligeti Edition; this is the first real competition to come along, as the Parkers match them at virtually every turn.

Hopefully the quartet, currently in its second season in residence with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, will soon make a visit to its old stomping ground. Until then, this excellent CD will serve as proof positive of its potential.

www.parkerquartet.com

Parker Quartet

The Washington Post December 21, 2009

Parker String Quartet at Library of Congress BY JOE BANNO

Beethoven's late quartets are still, after nearly 200 years, among the best barometers for assessing a string quartet's

interpretive profile. These complex, emotionally restive works from the end of the composer's life open themselves to a

wide variety of responses. They prove alternately nostalgic and daringly forward-looking in terms of style.

The Parker String Quartet -- a youthful ensemble of New England Conservatory grads -- brought freshness and light to

the first of the late quartets, the E-flat Quartet, Op. 127, at the Library of Congress on Friday. There was a notable ardor

and tenderness to the first movement, a rapt reflectiveness in the second, and subtly inflected, quicksilver engagement

with Beethoven's intricate writing in the Scherzando and Finale. Nothing was offhand or superficial in the Parker's

emotionally mature reading, but the players found the breath of youth under the composer's autumnal ruminations.

Haydn's Quartet in C, Op. 20, No. 2, drew a performance that was so light on its feet it was practically airborne, though

the ensemble also made compelling work of the plunge into darkness at the opening of the slow movement. And in

Henri Dutilleux's moody and mysterious first string quartet, "Ainsi la Nuit," the Parker distilled a potently unsettling

atmosphere from coloristic devices like sudden bursts of pizzicato, a series of eerie upper-string harmonics and the

evocatively slow decay of released notes. Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri instruments from the library's collection,

loaned to the musicians for this recital, contributed silver-toned elegance to everything they played.

Parker Quartet

The Tallahassee Democrat January 26, 2009

Parker String Quartet shines with electric concert performance BY STEVE HICKEN

We don't get to hear a great many of the superstars of the concert music world here in Tallahassee. But because

Tallahassee is a music center we do get to hear quite a few up-and-comers. Among the best of the many young string

quartets that have appeared in the United States in the last few years is the Parker String Quartet, who played a program

of quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn, Béla Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven as part of the Artist Series at Florida

A&M University's Lee Hall Auditorium on Sunday afternoon.

Haydn was the first to develop the string quartet as a genre (as opposed to a piece that happens to be written for two

violins, viola, and cello), and his Quartet in G Major (Op. 76, No.1) is one of the genre's first masterpieces. The Parkers

(violinists Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, violist Jessica Bodner, and cellist Kee-Hyun Kim) brought the piece's

elegance and humor, playing with a light touch in the first three movements, with the second, slow movement marked

by beautifully realized ensemble phrasing.

The furious pace and aggression of the last movement revealed an overall arc to the piece in which the first three

movements were foils for the last-in most music of Haydn's era much of the expressive content is front-loaded in the

first movement. This interpretation was convincingly delivered, as the Parkers pushed the finale to the breaking point,

but never beyond.

Along with Dmitri Shostakovich and Elliott Carter, Bartók was one of the great quartet composers of the 20th century.

His Fourth Quartet (he wrote six) contains many of the hallmarks of the composer's mature style-the folk-like melodies,

dissonant tonal harmonies, driving rhythms, arch forms (where pieces have an odd number of movements and the

central movement is in some ways the most important), and nocturnal slow movements.

Sunday's performance was electrifying, with the playing distinguished by a rhythmic expressiveness and intensity that

was now violent, now playful, and always right together. The third movement of the Quartet is a series of expressive

solos over quietly shifting chords, and it gave each of the Parkers a chance to shine.

The concert closed with an expansive performance of Beethoven's Quartet in Eb Major (Op. 127), one of the series of

deeply searching and introspective quartets the composer wrote near the end of his life. The reading emphasized how

the rhythmic details work with the work's large-scale structure to create the overall effect, and the Parker Quartet pulled

it off beautifully.

The Parker String Quartet is another reason to feel optimistic about concert music performance in the years to come.

Parker Quartet

The Tallahassee Democrat January 23, 2009

The Parker Quartet is busy making Beethoven hip BY MARK HINSON

More than 70 teenage music students sat quietly on the floor of the band room at Florida High on Wednesday afternoon

while members of the visiting Parker Quartet blazed their way through a Beethoven scherzo.

The players were met with enthusiastic applause when they finally scampered to a halt during the informal in-school

recital.

"The Beethoven piece was off the chain," senior and alto-sax player Desmond Thomas, 18, said after the music was

over. "It sounded perfect. It was real cool."

The Parker Quartet is hoping for a similar reaction when the foursome performs a public concert at FAMU on Sunday

afternoon as part of the Artist Series season. The program features Beethoven's Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 127, Bela

Bartok's String Quartet No. 4 and Joseph Haydn's String Quartet in G Major, Opus 76.

Haydn was also on the menu and the minds of Parker Quartet musicians during the Florida High stopover - one of

many school visits the group made this week as part of an artist-in-residence program for the Artist Series.

"You've probably heard of Mozart and Beethoven, but Haydn was Mozart and Beethoven's teacher," violinist Karen

Kim told the students. "There are over 80 string quartets Haydn wrote. If you only remember one name from today,

remember Haydn."

The Parker Quartet formed seven years ago when Kim, violist Jessica Bodner, violinist Daniel Chong and cellist Kee-

Hyun Kim met as students at the New England Conservatory in Boston. They took their name from Beantown's

landmark Parker House Hotel.

"That's where Parker rolls, Boston baked beans and Boston cream pies came from," Kee-Hyun Kim told the Florida

High students, and that seemed to impress them almost as much as the Beethoven piece.

During a question-and-answer session, students peppered the Parkers with queries that ranged from what modern

groups were on quartet members' iPods (lots of Radiohead, by the way) to why Chong's 400-year-old violin has a

transparent chin rest.

"Oh, I got this in Paris because I thought it looked cool," Chong said. "It's really comfortable. It's made of the material

they use to reconstruct bone."

That, of course, brought an immediate chorus of "coooooollllll" from the kids.

Speaking of kids . . .

The Tallahassee Community Chorus is inviting the Swift Creek Middle School Chorus to add fresh vocal flavor to a

performance of English composer John Rutter's Mass of the Children during this weekend's Unity Concert.

Mass of the Children was first performed at Carnegie Hall in 2003 and dedicated to Rutter's young son, who was struck

by a car and killed in 2001.

Don't worry, the mass - which also incorporates a poem by William Blake -- is more inspirational than funereal.

Parker Quartet

Tallahassee Democrat January 23, 2009

page 2 of 2

The Unity Concert has been dubbed as "Our Tribute to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" because Joanne Rogers, the

widow of Public Television's beloved "Mister" Fred Rogers, will be a special guest at the show. Rogers also graduated

from Florida State College of Music, where she studied with the renowned composer and professor Ernst von

Dohnanyi.

The music starts at 8 p.m. Saturday at Bradfordville First Baptist Church, 6494 Thomasville Road. FSU choral king

Andre Thomas will conduct the Community Chorus and Mary Biddlecombe will direct the middle-schoolers. Soprano

Nichole Nordschow and baritone Alexander Elliot will be the featured soloists.

November 12, 2008 Chamber Music America (CMA) announced today that the Parker Quartet has been selected to receive the Cleve-land Quartet Award.

Established in 1995, the biennial award honors and promotes a ris-ing young string quartet whose artistry demon-strates that it is in the process of es-tablishing a major career. “Among the many talent-ed string quartets performing today, the Parker Quartet has shown extraor-dinary skill and artistic maturity,” said Margaret M. Lioi, Chamber Mu-sic America’s chief executive officer. “It is our great pleasure to recog-nize them with the Cleveland Quartet Award for their past achievements as well as for the exciting career that lies ahead.”

History of the Award: The cre-ation of a lasting legacy for young musicians was envisioned by the Cleveland Quartet in 1995, as a culmination of its remarkable twenty-six-year history. The quartet joined forces with Chamber Mu-sic America and eight prominent chamber music presenters to fund

the Cleveland Quartet Award and to raise funds for the establishment of the Cleveland Quartet Endow-ment Fund. The first recipient was the Brentano String Quartet, and subsequent recipients were the Borromeo, Miami, Pacifica, Miró and Jupiter quartets.

The award is not a competition. Nominations are submitted confi-dentially to Chamber Music Amer-ica (CMA) by a national roster of chamber musicians, presenters, and educators. The winning string quartet’s presentations and per-formances are funded by income from the Cleveland Quartet Award

Endowment Fund, which is man-aged by CMA. To learn more about Chamber Music America visit www.chamber-music.org.

The Cleveland Quartet Award will be presented on January 18, 2009, at Chamber Music America’s Na-tional Conference in New York City.

The eight-venue performance tour associated with the award will take place during the 2009-10 and 2010-2011 sea-sons. The present-ers are: Buffalo Chamber Music Society (Buffalo, NY); Carnegie Hall (New York, NY); Chamber Music Society of De-troit (Detroit, MI); Freer Gallery of Art at the Smith-sonian, (Wash-ington, D.C.); Friends of Cham-ber Music (Kansas City, MO); Market Square Concerts (Harrisburg, PA); Krannert Center at

the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Urbana, IL); and the University of Texas at Austin (Aus-tin, TX).

The Parker Quartet has launched a new website! The website includes audio and video, a Flickr photo stream,

press information, a blog and full touring schedule.

http://www.parkerquartet.com

PARKER QUARTETRECEIVES THE CLEVELAND QUARTET AWARD, LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE

ARTISTS

Parker Quartet

Sydney Morning Herald September 4, 2008

Selby and friends BY PETER McCALLUM

For those worried that the glorious heritage of European chamber music might have been starting to resemble

the crumbling palaces of a bygone empire, the quality and number of new, young string quartets suggest it is premature

to grieve (as Wordsworth put it) that even the shade of that which once was great has passed away.

Joining Kathryn Selby in her Friends series, the Parker Quartet from the United States is a welcome manifestation

of this phenomenon. The players, in their mid-20s, play not only with the precision of intonation and ensemble which

has become sine qua non for young groups (not always, alas, for older ones), but, more importantly, showed warmth

and a sincere musical commitment and reverence.

To start, most in the audience listened to John Field’s Piano Quintet in A flat, H 34, with pleasure but

without astonishment: the sound was warm but why shouldn’t it be in such a homely sentimental tune? The balance

between this and the Chopinesque piano figuration from Selby was charming and quaint.

The performance of Gyorgy Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 2 (1968) reversed this for some, apparently

bringing astonishment without pleasure, though on the whole the reception was strong. It was interesting to hear how

well this high point of post-war avant-gardism had aged when played with this level of care. Far from sounding

like dated experimentalism, the work kept tension alive through its textural inventiveness, and its tense

dichotomy of still, sparsely spaced sounds, punctuated by explosive harshness which then decayed into scurrying

murmurs.

Finishing the first half was a beautiful and tender performance of the slow movement of Samuel Barber’s

String Quartet No.1, better known in its justly admired orchestral arrangement as the Adagio for Strings.

It was in Dvorak’s Piano Quintet, Opus 81, in the second half, however, that one started to know the

individuals. Jessica Bodner on viola played the haunting second movement melody with beguiling simplicity and a

glorious sound, while cellist Kee-Hyun Kim had a capacity to give the bass line direction, interest and tension,

against which leader Daniel Chong and Karen Kim created a violin sound of incisive but coloured clarity.

Selby has chosen her friends well.

Parker String Quartet

Washington Post May 19, 2008

Borromeo Quartet's Whirlwind Weekend BY DANIEL GINSBERG

To attend the Borromeo String Quartet concerts at the Library of Congress over the weekend was to catch glimpses of

chamber music's future. Dissolved was the image of churchly presentation of God-touched masterworks; one felt

inserted into an airy, sunlit studio where artists struggle -- through skill, experimentation and work -- to define some

deeply held yet amorphous vision.

The idea was to squeeze into less than 24 hours an artistic residency that usually evolves over weeks. In concerts on

Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, vivid readings of edgy contemporary pieces were paired with white-hot

performances of tried-and-true warhorses. A Saturday morning workshop dealt with the mysteries of quartet playing;

the session was filmed for the Web, one of the visit's several smart uses of technology.

To underscore its teaching role at the New England Conservatory, the Borromeo shared the stage on Friday with the

Parker Quartet, an exciting graduate-level ensemble at the Boston school. Playing with a delicacy and precision that

belied the members' youthful looks, the Parker gave full form to Gyorgy Kurtag's "Six Moments Musicaux," Op. 44,

each miniature arising like a bountiful universe. Two of the Parker members joined the Borromeo for an explosive

reading of Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence," in which madly driving tempos and strongly drawn details sacrificed

nothing in narrative flow.

At the workshop, discussions centered on the myriad issues of articulation, balance and phrasing that arise in working

up any masterpiece. The New England Conservatory Quartet -- a college-level ensemble working with the Borromeo --

performed in a nicely turned account of Haydn's Quartet Op. 76, No. 4 ("Sunrise"). The Parker read again through a

few of the "Moments," and the Borromeo brought out the dancing ecstasy of Beethoven's "Holy Song of

Thanksgiving," from Op. 132.

The final concert was about string color and tone, as the Borromeo played the first movement of Beethoven's Quartet

Op. 18, No. 3, on the library's priceless collection of Guarneri and Stradivarius instruments. Returning to its own

instruments, the ensemble gave a blended, ruby-throated account of the complete work. The Parker closed out with

Dvorak's flowing Quartet in E-flat, Op. 51; it went down like a well-deserved dessert after an intense, illuminating and

ultimately enjoyable weekend.

Parker Quartet Boston Globe ∙ April 13, 2008

Kurtag for Kids? Young listeners are ready for a challenge, says this quartet

BY JEREMY EICHLER

Because the Parker Quartet routinely

plays for children, its members have

learned a couple of important things.

First, little kids never get the memo

that says that classical music is for

adults only. Second, they have

wonderfully open ears and can

respond to a vast range of music

without prejudice.

Take for example the family concert

that the quartet will play at Concord

Chamber Music Society on April 20.

It includes a few movements of Haydn, but it will also feature a series of "Moments Musicaux" by

Gyorgy Kurtag, a contemporary Hungarian composer whose tense, volatile music may well give some

parents pause when it appears on one of their own subscription concerts. Could this really be a good idea

for kids?

"Definitely," says Karen Kim, one of the Parker violinists. "Kids have such a different perspective

on music. They're so open to contemporary music and love being exposed to the different sounds that

come about. And they have no problem whatsoever saying whatever they think."

At the heart of the Parker's program in Concord is a piece called "Aaponi's Destiny," written for

them by composer Erik Jorgensen and described as a "Choose Your Own Adventure Musical Odyssey."

The piece is about a mayfly given just one day to live, and the kids decide whether she should stay in the

country or go to New York City to maybe catch an opera, drop by Central Park, or go to a ballgame, with

the music of course tailored to their choices.

This sort of creative approach to children's programming seems typical of the Parker Quartet, a

locally based ensemble whose members will soon be completing a graduate program at New England

Parker Quartet The Boston Globe ∙ April 13, 2008

page 2 of 2

Conservatory and, armed with new management, will probably be leaving Boston to hazard its fortunes in

the competitive world of professional string quartets. While still a graduate ensemble at NEC, the Parker

has been making a name for itself both through traditional recitals but also with gigs in casual spaces like

the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge and a Brooklyn bar called Barbes. The quartet gives its graduation

recital in Jordan Hall on April 29.

While still in town, the group has recently been working with the German avant-garde composer

Helmut Lachenmann, whose music is full of rasps, whispers, and nontraditional noise effects, but

according to Kim, even this formidable fare goes down well on children's programs.

"When we play Lachenmann on a normal concert, we know there are going to be some unhappy

audience members." she said. "But we just played it for some kids in Rockport. They loved it. They told

us that it sounded like UFOs."

Parker Quartet New York Times ∙ September 18, 2007

Classical Works in a Bar’s Back Room

BY ALLAN KOZINN

It seemed simple enough to the naked eye: the Parker String Quartet was spending Sunday

evening giving high-energy performances of Bartok and Ligeti works in the back room at Barbès, a bar in

Park Slope, and a few dozen drink-nursing listeners — as many as the room could hold — packed in to

hear them.

But other agendas were also at play. Concert Artists Guild, which runs the annual competition

that this quartet won in 2005, and has traditionally managed its winners, is now retooling its approach. It

is teaching its musicians to manage their own careers and is presenting them not only in standard

programs but also at spaces like Barbès.

And the Parker Quartet, formed in 2002, when its members were students, is intent on reaching

new audiences as it builds its career. The group has its own series at Barbès.

The Sunday concert, which opened its series, gave the players a chance to work through the

thorny Ligeti scores they are recording next month for Naxos. But they opened the program with the first

movement of the Bartok Third Quartet, as an overture of sorts, a glimpse of Ligeti’s roots in Hungarian

modernism. The points of contact are chromatic density and a penchant for sudden shifts between eerie,

harmonically vague atmospherics and explosive bursts of solid, sharp-edged chords.

The Parker Quartet is equally persuasive at both extremes: in the Bartok movement and in

Ligeti’s two full-fledged quartets, these musicians brought considerable warmth and richness of tone to

sweetly accented themes and gentle chordal writing, and unbridled textural brashness to the more volatile

passages.

By including the early Andante and Allegretto (1950), they gave a sense of Ligeti’s

compositional journey — or at least as much of it as the quartets represent. With their regular rhythms

and thematic charm, the Andante and Allegretto are rooted in Viennese Classicism. The First Quartet

(1954) breaks away, taking Bartok’s acerbic harmonic language as a starting point, and magnifying it.

And the Second Quartet (1968), with its fleet, swirling, harmonically ambiguous pianissimo figures and

pizzicato polyrhythms, evokes the Ligeti of “Lux Aeterna” and “Atmosphères.

The informality of the concert apparently demanded a chattiness that didn’t always serve the

music. Stopping the Ligeti Second Quartet after each movement for a meandering introduction, for

example, seemed needless. And asserting that Ligeti performances have been plentiful only since his

death last year left the impression that these players haven’t paid attention to concert programs other

than their own.

Still, there was a lot to be said for the friendly, even jovial give-and-take between musicians and audience. And for the listeners, no doubt the visceral thrill of hearing such intense music making in such a tiny space is part of the draw. This is as close as you’re going to get to a quartet in full flight without playing in one.

Parker Quartet Time Out New York ∙ January 4, 2007

A Holiday for Strings

BY BRIAN WISE

A string quartet walks into a bar.… It might sound like the setup for a bad joke, but it’s a reality for a pair of young quartets taking the stage in New York this month. The Chiara String Quartet, after

more than five years of playing at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, will be devoting a significant part of

its 2007 schedule performing in bars and clubs that normally feature folk, bluegrass and experimental music. And the Parker String Quartet—whose members are graduate students at Boston’s New England

Conservatory—recently rented a van and toured nightclubs up and down the East Coast. This summer it

will begin a residency at Park Slope club Barbès.

Most quartets measure success one plush concert hall at a time; a club is a one-off novelty at best.

But both the Chiara and the Parker contend that permitting listeners to relax with a beer or cocktail can

attract people in their twenties and thirties, who might find traditional venues alienating. “This gives us a chance to reach audiences our age who might like classical music, but find the experience of going to hear

it unfamiliar,” says Karen Kim, a violinist in the Parker Quartet, which will play a more conventional

booking at the Walter Reade Theater January 28. “Many people our age aren’t used Photo: Janette Beckmann to the formality of the concert hall, and they can’t always afford the ticket prices.

Although members of both quartets report that the crowds at bars are on average half the age of

traditional concertgoers, such venues are also foreign territory for classical music. Acoustics in even the most music-friendly clubs aren’t always accommodating, forcing the groups to use amplification. Few

bars pay as well as traditional concert halls, and luxuries such as a dressing room are often nonexistent.

But both the Chiara and Parker are eager to adapt to the atmosphere, and typically adjust their programming to suit the space.

Both groups are surprised by what pieces work in a bar. Quiet, delicate works are generally avoided, but modernist fare can do well. The Parker often plays the third of Webern’s Five Movements, a

short, bristling 12-tone work, while the Chiara has found success with the middle movement of Bartok’s

thorny String Quartet No. 2. The quartets will also craft set lists on the day of a performance—a practice

unheard of in traditional halls, which send out brochures advertising their programs months in advance.

The idea of breaking through to alternative audiences has even affected the way these quartets

market themselves. The Chiara recently launched a page on MySpace.com featuring audio clips and tour updates, and now mans a merchandise table at concerts. Meanwhile, the Parker regularly shares double

bills with pop acts to divide costs and maximize exposure. Last fall, the quartet toured with Wynn Walent,

a local singer-songwriter; this winter it has appeared with the Boston Afrobeat Society.

Both ensembles acknowledge that even in the most flexible nightspot, things can go awry. Parker

Quartet violinist Daniel Chong recalls the time a tipsy patron knocked over his music stand during a

Mozart quartet. Still, he notes, club audiences are surprisingly attentive. “Even if the bar’s really rowdy when we first walk in,” he says, “it is amazing how quiet it can get, and how intently people are

listening.”

Parker Quartet Boston Globe ∙ December 7, 2006

Change of Venue is Music to their Ears

BY JEREMY EICHLER

On Tuesday night, I attended two richly satisfying concerts without stepping foot in a concert

hall. The first was a new music program presented by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project at the

Moonshine Room of the popular Club Cafe in the South End; the second was a performance by the up-

and-coming Parker String Quartet in the Lizard Lounge, a low-slung basement club space in Cambridge.

Next month, the Firebird Ensemble will perform in a local barbecue joint.

What is classical music doing in these spaces? It may sound quirky or even perverse, but it is in

fact an excellent idea and a growing trend. Of course Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall are in no risk of

losing their core constituencies, but they may well stand to gain some listeners if this practice continues.

At 10 p.m., about an hour after the BMOP program ended, I was being handed a wristband at the

Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, and the Parker Quartet, an ensemble of graduate students at New England

Conservatory who have already gained impressive notice, were setting up beneath a pink disco ball

suspended from the ceiling. First violinist Daniel Chong grabbed a mike and welcomed the crowd,

admitting this was the largest young audience they had ever had at a concert.

Indeed, the players in this impressively talented quartet are in their early to mid-20s. It is a sad

fact that students choosing a career in classical music today by and large do not get to perform for

members of their own generation. Friends might show up to support you at a concert, but they are

generally more likely to be found at places, well, like the Lizard Lounge.

It was refreshing to see the Parkers play through some of their repertoire -- movements of works

by Schumann, Mozart, Ligeti, Shostakovich, Ravel -- in this setting. After the quartet blazed through a

Scherzo from Schumann's A-minor quartet, a guy in the corner with a beer offered a spontaneous shout of

"Awesome!" The cellist Kee-Hyun Kim later drew some laughs from the crowd when he introduced the

final Haydn work by announcing they were going to "kick it old school."

But beyond the alternative space and the banter with the audience, what distinguished the Parkers'

set was their fiercely committed performances. They conveyed an appealing sense of urgency in Ravel's

Quartet, and brought out the rugged extraterrestrial beauty of Ligeti's First Quartet. These qualities come

through all the more strongly in such an intimate venue. If you had closed your eyes during many parts of

the set, the biggest difference from what you might hear in a concert hall was the rapt silence. There

were no coughs, no cellphones.

Alternative spaces are not a panacea -- there can be obvious logistical problems, bad PA systems, obnoxious or indifferent crowds, and myriad other challenges -- but they are spicing up the scene while allowing, at times, for a rare directness of connection with both new audiences and traditional ones. Ultimately, the battle for the next generation of listeners should be won or lost based on the quality of the music being offered and the persuasiveness of the performances. Sometimes this requires slicing through the traditional packaging that, when viewed from the outside, can too often be mistaken for the concert experience itself.

Parker Quartet The News-Times ∙ October 27, 2006

Young audience warms up to quartet

BY JAN STRIBULA

NEWTOWN – Scores of eighth grade students were immersed in chamber music at the Edmond Town

Hall on Sunday afternoon, attentively listening to the Parker String Quartet. Newtown Friends of Music

helped them get ready for a school outreach program to be held on Monday at Newtown Middle School.

By the end of the performance, I think every one had an ear-stretching lesson in music appreciation.

Students themselves, the members of the Parker String Quartet attend The New England Conservatory,

where they are their critically acclaimed graduate quartet in residence. The young masters are violinists

Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, violist Jessica Bodner, and cellist Kee-Hyun Kim. Each of them, in their

own right, is an accomplished musician, and they combine to form a vibrant expressive ensemble.

Still celebrating his 250th birthday, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) gave us his “String Quartet

in G Major, K.387” when he was 26 years old. Kim’s cello sounded quite cheerful in the light hearted

Allegro Vivace assai movement. Clear contrapuntal accents marked the Menuetto, with lots of body

language, especially from violinist Kim. The members of the quartet were paying close attention as they

accompanied each other, reacting in unison to what was going on.

The adventurous contemporary composer Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006) may be best known for pieces used

in soundtracks for Stanley Kubrick movies, like “2001, A Space Odyssey.” His unusual “String Quartet

No.1: Metamorphoses nocturnes” used sudden changes in rhythmic patterns, converging and diverging

tonalities. A host of eerie audio emanations with flashes of brightness created a sense of intensity in the

night.

Certainly not standard listening material familiar to the mind’s ear. I’m not quite sure what to make of

the music. But the Parker String Quartet performed the piece with the sense that they’ve taken this

voyage with Ligeti before and knew just where they were going. Chong’s violin acrobatics were out of

this world. Similar to Kubrick’s “2001”, there seems to be quite a story to be told, once it’s understood,

but it’s by no means transparent on first exposure.

Parker Quartet Times Union ∙ November 4, 2006

Young players bring a classical repertoire

BY JOSEPH DALTON

SCHENECTADY … The Parker String Quartet, a young, award-winning ensemble from New

York, showed itself in a variety of guises during its Friday evening performance at Union College’s

Memorial Chapel. They gave a come-hither daintiness to Mozart, and let loose some giddy-up-let’s-go

revelry in Schumann.

And then there was the encore … one movement from Webern’s Five Pieces for String Quartet.

Taut, shrill and creepy, it was no more than 30 seconds long. Perhaps it was offered as a delayed

Halloween treat.

There was also a grander foray into modernism, Gyorgy Ligeti’s Quartet No. 1 “Metamorphosis

Nocturnes,” which began with a hair-raising, almost violent intensity. A 20-minute stream of

uninterrupted character pieces, it included a ghoulish secretive dialogue, a rollicking chase scene, a

pungent hesitation waltz, and much more. No wonder that choreographer Christopher Wheeldon chose it

for his 2002 dance for New York City Ballet titled “Morphoses.”

The 1954 piece felt very right for the young players. It may not be actual music of their time, but

it’s music of their age … Ligeti wrote it while in his late 20s. What’s more is that the Parker conveyed it

convincingly enough to win over the sometimes-squeamish audience. When people stand to applaud

before intermission you know something worked.

The vibrancy of the Ligeti came as a welcome departure from the quartet’s rather tentative touch

with Mozart’s String Quartet in G major, K.387, which opened the program. The sound was remote,

though there was nuance in every phrase. Also, the dominant tempos were lively, allowing for some

playful personality to come through, especially from the soulful cello of Kee-Hyun Kim. It was like

realizing that being served tea and cookies on fine china and lace doilies didn’t preclude also having a

mirthful conversation.

The program concluded with something mainstream and full voiced, Schumann’s String Quartet

in A minor, Op. 41, No. 1. The themes of the opening movement were not just pastoral but country, as if,

for just a moment, the piece might go off into fiddle playing. One brief phrase in the finale actually

sounded like an Irish reel.

Best of all was the Scherzo. It had a gallop, in both melody and tempo, and was over far too quickly.

Parker Quartet New York Times ∙ November 17, 2005

High Drama via Beethoven and Bartok

BY ALLAN KOZINN

Superb string quartets are plentiful at the moment. But even so, the performance that the Parker

String Quartet gave on Tuesday evening at Weill Recital Hall set the group apart as something

extraordinary.

It was clear from the program's opening bars - those of Beethoven's Quartet in E minor (Op. 59,

No. 2) - that these musicians were determined to keep their phrasing incisive and their textures

transparent. This was Beethoven as high drama, couched in a sound with an unusual presence, depth and

warmth, and pushed to its emotional limits. And the players maintained those characteristics - with some

tweaking to suit the music at hand - in a rigorous program that also included recent work by Gyorgy

Kurtag and Bartok's Fifth Quartet.

What is all the more striking about the group's sound is that the players have achieved it in fairly

short order. The violinists Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, the violist Jessica Bodner and the cellist Kee-

Hyun Kim banded together in 2002 as students at the New England Conservatory. This year, they won

the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition as well as the Concert Artist Guild Competition.

The concert, part of the Concert Artists Guild's series, was the quartet's New York debut. But the

group brought a souvenir of its visit to Bordeaux as well. Mr. Kurtag's "Six Moments Musicaux Dédies à

Mon Fils" (Op. 44) was written as a test piece for the Bordeaux competition, and it certainly gives a

quartet a workout. Its six movements are varied in shape and texture, but most are spiky to an almost

visual degree, with bursts of angularity offset by passages that range from the dark and tentative to the

pointillistic and high-spirited.

The group closed with a live-wire account of Bartok's difficult Fifth Quartet. Passages that

demand ensemble precision were flawlessly balanced, perfectly tuned and sheathed in lustrous textures.

Even the sections where Bartok asks for deliberately off-pitch playing, or sliding between pitches, moved

with a fluidity that kept the music's currents of anxiety, tension and resolution fully in the spotlight. They

played this work as the perfect modernist counterpart to the Beethoven.

Parker Quartet Washington Post ∙ January 25, 2005

A Splash of Color at the Phillips

BY JOAN REINTHALER

It is early in their career and the info on the members of the Parker Quartet has more to say about

who they've studied with (the Cleveland Quartet, the Emerson, the Tokyo and the Takacs) than about

where they have played. But if their performance at the Phillips Collection on Sunday is anything to go

by, this is a quartet that deserves close attention.

First of all, they already have a distinctive personality. It's characterized by an ensemble that

does not sound like an end in itself but, rather, like the result of a focus on the shape, color and weight of

each individual line. Their sound is, at the same time, big and subtle. They propel the music irresistibly

but with extraordinary grace and flexibility and, above all, they make sense of the music.

Their program was the sort that a young group might take on – the Bartok String Quartet No. 2,

the Beethoven Op. 59, No. 2, and, to begin with, the powerful and well-crafted “Nightfields I-II-III”; by

Joan Tower. They are all big, energetic and technically demanding pieces that an ensemble can make a

splash with just by getting through them athletically. What was most impressive about this performance,

however, was that virtuosity never seemed to hold the spotlight. Instead it was Bartok's passion and

introspection, Beethoven's astonishing moodiness and the fine-tuning of Tower's play on timbres that

were projected with energy, and the exhilaration of a risk well taken.

Parker Quartet The Strad

FEBRUARY 2006

The Parker Quartet gave the New York premiere of Kurtág’s Moments

musicaux at its own New York debut in Weill Recital Hall (15 November). And although

they had only had the parts for six months, these young musicians gave a finely nuanced

and deeply felt performance. The Parker’s Beethoven (op.59 no.2) was well

characterized, too, and exciting from start to finish. The quartet has a tendency to rush in

fast passages, and its playing can be more expressive in forte than in piano, but I’m

guessing these issues will sort themselves out. I had no reservations whatsoever about its

Bartók Fifth Quartet, which was ferocious yet controlled. The Parker never used force;

the players always let the music speak – thrillingly – for itself.

APRIL 2007

Earlier that day, the Parker Quartet played Haydn, Webern and Ravel with

immensely pleasurable tonal and stylistic sophistication. Haydn's 'Rider' opened the

ensembles matinee program at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater (29 January). It

and Webern's Five Movements op.5 were fully realised on the player's own terms, and it

was fascinating to hear the connections between those two Austrian masterpieces. Ravel's

Quartet in F major, although as immaculately played as the other works, did not possess

the full measure of Gallic style and sound; however, the group's conception was so

clearly in the right direction that attainment must be merely a matter of time.