Cassatt Quartet
Encyclopedia
The Cassatt String Quartet was founded in 1985. Originally the first participants in Juilliard's Young Artists Quartet Program, the Quartet has gone on to win many teaching fellowships and awards and has toured internationally. Named after impressionist painter Mary Cassatt
, the quartet is based in New York City
.
The Cassatt Quartet has performed at New York's Alice Tully Hall
and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
, the Tanglewood Music Theater
, the Kennedy Center and Library of Congress
in Washington, DC. Internationally, it has taken the stage at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
in Paris
, Maeda Hall in Tokyo
, the American Academy in Rome
, the Palacio de Bellas Artes
in Mexico City
and the Festival de Música de Cámera in San Miguel de Allende
. Composers whose works the quartet has performed include Tina Davidson
, Jay Reise
, Andy Tierstien, Joan Tower
, and Dan Welcher
. The acclaimed quartet has built a reputation for being a champion of work by living composers.
Named three times in The New Yorker
magazine's Best Of The Year CD Selection, they have recorded for the Koch, Naxos, New World, Albany and CRI Labels.
In 1991 the quartet, composed of Muneko Otani, Laura Goldberg (violin); Michiko Oshima (viola); Anna Cholakian (cello) performed for the soundtrack of the TV Show Fishing with John
. That work appears in a CD produced in 1998.
As of 1993, the members of the quartet were Anna Cholakian, cello, Muneko Otani and Sunghae Anna Lim, violins, and Michiko Oshima, viola.
Cholakian was lost to cancer in February 1996. Composer Andrew Waggoner dedicated his Symphony No. 2 to Anna Cholakian’s memory, indicating that the third movement echoed, among other things "an old Armenian song beloved of Anna and her father, “Hokis Murmur (My Soul is Sad).” Composer David Lang also wrote a piece in memory of Cholakian, 'Cello', as part of his piano works series, "memory pieces."
Members of the Cassatt Quartet have served in residency at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and created the Louis Krasner Graduate String Quartet Program for training young, professionally oriented string quartets at the Setnor School of Music of Syracuse University while in extended residency there. Quartet members as of 2001 were Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower, violins; Tawnya Popoff, viola; and Caroline Stinson, cello.
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
, the quartet is based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
The Cassatt Quartet has performed at New York's Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall...
and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, the Tanglewood Music Theater
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
, the Kennedy Center and Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in Washington, DC. Internationally, it has taken the stage at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées is a theatre at 15 avenue Montaigne. Despite its name, the theatre is not on the Champs-Élysées but nearby in another part of the 8th arrondissement of Paris....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Maeda Hall in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, the American Academy in Rome
American Academy in Rome
The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome.- History :In 1893, a group of American architects, painters and sculptors met regularly while planning the fine arts section of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...
, the Palacio de Bellas Artes
Palacio de Bellas Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...
in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
and the Festival de Música de Cámera in San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende is a city and municipality located in the far eastern part of the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. It is 274 km from Mexico City and 97 km from the state capital of Guanajuato...
. Composers whose works the quartet has performed include Tina Davidson
Tina Davidson
-Background:Davidson was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1952, and was raised in Oneonta, New York and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received her BA in piano and composition from Bennington College in 1976 where she studied with Henry Brant, Louis Calabro, Vivian Fine and Lionel Nowak.She founded the...
, Jay Reise
Jay Reise
-Biography:Reise spent his childhood surrounded by classical music and jazz, but began his composition studies with Jimmy Giuffre and Hugh Hartwell in 1970...
, Andy Tierstien, Joan Tower
Joan Tower
Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world...
, and Dan Welcher
Dan Welcher
Dan Welcher is an American composer, conductor, and music educator.- Biography :Welcher was born in Rochester, New York and earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, studying bassoon, piano, and composition...
. The acclaimed quartet has built a reputation for being a champion of work by living composers.
Named three times in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine's Best Of The Year CD Selection, they have recorded for the Koch, Naxos, New World, Albany and CRI Labels.
History
The Cassatt Quartet was founded in 1985 by four young artists at Juilliard who were inspired by the work of artist Mary Cassatt. It won the Coleman Chamber Music Competition one year later, and two top prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 1989. At that time the quartet consisted of Laura Goldberg and Muneko Otani, violins; Sarah Adams, viola; and Anna Cholakian, cello. Founding members included cellist Anna Cholakian and violinist Laura J. Goldberg. Goldberg went on to join the Juilliard pre-college teaching faculty and later left the quartet. She later founded Arts Ahimsa, a group that uses music and the arts to promote non-violence.In 1991 the quartet, composed of Muneko Otani, Laura Goldberg (violin); Michiko Oshima (viola); Anna Cholakian (cello) performed for the soundtrack of the TV Show Fishing with John
Fishing with John
Fishing with John is a 1991 television series conceived, directed by and starring actor and musician John Lurie, which earned a cult following. On the surface, the series resembles a standard travel or fishing show: in each episode, Lurie takes a famous guest on a fishing expedition...
. That work appears in a CD produced in 1998.
As of 1993, the members of the quartet were Anna Cholakian, cello, Muneko Otani and Sunghae Anna Lim, violins, and Michiko Oshima, viola.
Cholakian was lost to cancer in February 1996. Composer Andrew Waggoner dedicated his Symphony No. 2 to Anna Cholakian’s memory, indicating that the third movement echoed, among other things "an old Armenian song beloved of Anna and her father, “Hokis Murmur (My Soul is Sad).” Composer David Lang also wrote a piece in memory of Cholakian, 'Cello', as part of his piano works series, "memory pieces."
Members of the Cassatt Quartet have served in residency at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and created the Louis Krasner Graduate String Quartet Program for training young, professionally oriented string quartets at the Setnor School of Music of Syracuse University while in extended residency there. Quartet members as of 2001 were Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower, violins; Tawnya Popoff, viola; and Caroline Stinson, cello.
Current members
- Muneko Otani serves on the faculty of Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and the Mannes College of MusicMannes College of MusicMannes College The New School for Music is The New School university's music conservatory. While the university's main campus is located in Greenwich Village, New York City, Mannes maintains its main academic building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan....
in New York City, and the Mozarteum Summer FestivalSalzburg FestivalThe Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
in SalzburgSalzburg-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
. Otani plays a 1770 J.B. Guadagnini of Parma violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
.
- Jennifer Leshnower coaches chamber music worldwide, including masterclasses in IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
at Trinity College, DublinTrinity College, DublinTrinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
and the Royal Irish Academy of MusicRoyal Irish Academy of MusicThe Royal Irish Academy of Music is a linked college of Dublin City University located in Dublin, Ireland.It was founded in 1848 by a group of music enthusiasts and moved to its present address in Westland Row in 1871. The following year it was granted the right to use the title "Royal"...
. Leshnower's violin is a 1655 Jacobus Stainer.
- Sarah Adams attended the Eastman School of Music, Kent State University and the Juilliard School. She includes among her teachers Kurt Loebel, Edward Ormond, Heidi Castleman, Martha Katz, Kay Slocum and Karen Tuttle.Ms. Adams performs on a Hiroshi Iizuka viola circa 1982.
- Nicole Johnson has performed as chamber player and recitalist throughout the United States and GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. She holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and The Juilliard School. Her teachers have included Andres Diaz, Alan Harris and Joel Krosnick Ms. Johnson plays an 1806 Nicholas cello.
Discography
- Cassatt: The Cassatt String Quartet, Composers Recordings, Jun 8, 1994
- Julia Wolfe: Arsenal for Democracy, Polygram Records, Jun 4, 1996
- Francis White: The Composer in the Computer Age IV, Centaur, Jan 21, 1997
- Nothing Devine is Mundane: Songs of Virgil Thompson, Albany Records, Dec 16, 1997
- Mary Jane Leach: Adriane's Lament, New World Records, Feb 24, 1998
- Gisburg: Trust, Tzadik, Oct 20, 1998
- The Music of Ursula Mamlok, Composers Recordings, Apr 13, 1999
- Margaret Brouwer: Crosswinds, New World Records, Nov 1, 2001
- Andrew Waggoner: Legacy, New World Records, Nov 1, 2001
- The Music of Ezra Laderman, Vol. 3, Albany Records, Jan 29, 2002
- Chamber Music by Lawrence Dillon, Albany Records, Jul 30, 2002
- Julia Wolfe: The String Quartets, Cantaloupe, Feb 11, 2003
- Daniel S. Godfrey: String Quartets, KOCH International Classics, Apr 27, 2004
- Steven Stucky: In Shadow, In Light, Albany Records, May 25, 2004
- Sebastian Currier: Quartetset, Quiet Time, New World Records, Feb 7, 2006
- Tina Davidson: It Is My Heart Singing, Albany Records, Jun 1, 2006
- Jay Reise: Chamber Music, Albany Records, Mar 4, 2008
- Music of Ezra Laderman, Vol. 8 Albany Records, Dec 1, 2008
- Andy Teirstein "Open Crossings" Naxos Records
- Dan Welcher "String Quartets Nos. 1-3" Naxos Records
- Ravel and Dvorak "String Quartet and Quartet Op. 105 in A-Flat Major", 2008
Recognition and Awards
- First Prize at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in 1986.
- First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition
- 2nd Place at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, plus 'Best performance of the piéce de concert (Allan Bell, Arche II)', 1989
- The 1995 CMA/ASCAP First Prize Award for Adventurous Programming
- A 1996 recording grant from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust
- Julia Wolfe: The String Quartets listed in The New Yorkers Year's Best CDs of 2003
- Daniel S. Godfrey: String Quartets listed in The New Yorkers Year's Best CDs of 2004
- Sebastian Currier, Quartetset/Quiet Time listed in The New Yorkers Year's Best CDs of 2006
External links
- Cassatt Quartet website
- NY Times review of Cassatt Players' celebration of Joan Tower’s 70th birthday, by Allan Kozinn, September 21, 2008.