Corigliano Quartet
Encyclopedia
The Corigliano Quartet is a classical music
string quartet
founded in 1996 with the blessing of the Pulitzer
-, Grammy
-, and Oscar-winning John Corigliano
. "They are truly one of the great quartets of the new generation," said the composer. "Their fiery intensity, musical sensitivity, and bold programming make for an absolutely stunning concert experience." The group's dedication and passion for new works has made them one of the most sought after interpreters of contemporary music today. For their efforts in bringing new music to a wider audience, the quartet was recently presented with the ASCAP/CMA Award For Adventurous Programming.
: String Quartet No. 1 "Farewell" (1995), Snapshot: Circa 1909 (2003), and Corigliano's string quartet arrangement of his A Black November Turkey (1972). The Corigliano Quartet has also been dedicated to the performance of music by younger, rising composers such as Shafer Mahoney, Adam Silverman
and Jefferson Friedman
as well as modern masters like Wynton Marsalis
, Ben Johnston
, Roberto Carnevale
and Elliott Carter
.
Composed of violinists Michael Jinsoo Lim and Lina Bahn, who alternate at first violin, violist Melia Watras, and cellist Amy Sue Barston, the Corigliano Quartet rapidly climbed the ranks of the chamber music world. One year after its formation, the group drew the attention of Isaac Stern
, who invited them to the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall
. The next year, the Corigliano won the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition and followed that up by winning both First Prize in the Senior Wind Division and Grand Prize at the 1999 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition
.
The group has performed in many of the nation's leading music centers, including Carnegie Hall
, Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall
, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center
Lincoln Center's "Great Performers" series and the Corcoran Gallery. Recent performances have taken the Corigliano to Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. They have also made appearances in Italy, Mexico, and Korea, where they gave the Korean premiere of Corigliano's Farewell Quartet. They have been heard in numerous radio broadcasts, including NPR's All Things Considered
, and WFMT-Chicago's Live From Studio One. The group's festival appearances include performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Aspen Music Festival
, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Música de Cámara de San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, and Strings in the Mountains.
The Corigliano Quartet has held residencies at the Juilliard School
, where they served as the teaching assistants to the Juilliard String Quartet
; Indiana University
, where they served on the faculty as visiting lecturers; Dickinson College
, and the New York Youth Orchestra Chamber Music Program. Under the mentorship of Atar Arad
, the group formed while its members were students at Indiana. The Corigliano has recorded for Naxos, CRI, Albany, Aguava New Music and Bayer Records.
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
founded in 1996 with the blessing of the Pulitzer
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-, Grammy
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-, and Oscar-winning John Corigliano
John Corigliano
John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...
. "They are truly one of the great quartets of the new generation," said the composer. "Their fiery intensity, musical sensitivity, and bold programming make for an absolutely stunning concert experience." The group's dedication and passion for new works has made them one of the most sought after interpreters of contemporary music today. For their efforts in bringing new music to a wider audience, the quartet was recently presented with the ASCAP/CMA Award For Adventurous Programming.
History
The Corigliano Quartet's repertoire ranges from classical to contemporary works, including three works by their namesake John CoriglianoJohn Corigliano
John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...
: String Quartet No. 1 "Farewell" (1995), Snapshot: Circa 1909 (2003), and Corigliano's string quartet arrangement of his A Black November Turkey (1972). The Corigliano Quartet has also been dedicated to the performance of music by younger, rising composers such as Shafer Mahoney, Adam Silverman
Adam Silverman
Adam Benjamin Silverman is a composer of contemporary classical music. His works include the opera Korczak's Orphans , chamber and orchestral music, and music for the theater...
and Jefferson Friedman
Jefferson Friedman
Jefferson Friedman is an American composer.-Life:He received his M.M. degree in music composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano, and his B.A. from Columbia University, where his teachers included David Rakowski and Jonathan Kramer...
as well as modern masters like Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, Ben Johnston
Ben Johnston
Benjamin Burwell Johnston, Jr. is a composer of contemporary music in the just intonation system.-Johnston's music:...
, Roberto Carnevale
Roberto Carnevale
Roberto Carnevale is an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.- Biography and career :Born in Catania, he started studying piano at the age of seven. He took a degree in Arts at the University of Catania and he attended the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena...
and Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
.
Composed of violinists Michael Jinsoo Lim and Lina Bahn, who alternate at first violin, violist Melia Watras, and cellist Amy Sue Barston, the Corigliano Quartet rapidly climbed the ranks of the chamber music world. One year after its formation, the group drew the attention of Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...
, who invited them to the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop 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 next year, the Corigliano won the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition and followed that up by winning both First Prize in the Senior Wind Division and Grand Prize at the 1999 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition
Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition
Begun in South Bend, Indiana, USA in 1973, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition is the largest chamber music competition in the world, and the only with separate Junior and Senior Divisions...
.
The group has performed in many of the nation's leading music centers, including 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....
, Weill Recital Hall, 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...
, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
Lincoln Center's "Great Performers" series and the Corcoran Gallery. Recent performances have taken the Corigliano to Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. They have also made appearances in Italy, Mexico, and Korea, where they gave the Korean premiere of Corigliano's Farewell Quartet. They have been heard in numerous radio broadcasts, including NPR's All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
, and WFMT-Chicago's Live From Studio One. The group's festival appearances include performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Aspen Music Festival
Aspen Music Festival and School
The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...
, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Música de Cámara de San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, and Strings in the Mountains.
The Corigliano Quartet has held residencies at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
, where they served as the teaching assistants to the Juilliard String Quartet
Juilliard String Quartet
The Juilliard String Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York. The original members were violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer, and cellist Arthur Winograd; Current members are Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes violinists,...
; Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, where they served on the faculty as visiting lecturers; Dickinson College
Dickinson College
Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally established as a Grammar School in 1773, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded in the newly...
, and the New York Youth Orchestra Chamber Music Program. Under the mentorship of Atar Arad
Atar Arad
Atar Arad is an Israeli American violist, professor of music, essayist and composer.He has performed in top venues around the world both as a featured soloist with orchestras in and as a member of the distinguished Cleveland Quartet from 1980 to 1987, taking the seat previously established by...
, the group formed while its members were students at Indiana. The Corigliano has recorded for Naxos, CRI, Albany, Aguava New Music and Bayer Records.
Members
- Lina Bahn - violin
- Amy Sue Barston - cello
- Michael Jinsoo Lim - violin
- Melia WatrasMelia WatrasDescribed as "staggeringly virtuosic" by The Strad, Melia Watras is a prominent American violist. She is active as a performer and recording artist, both as a soloist and co-founder of the award-winning Corigliano Quartet...
- viola
Discography
- 2007 Music by John Corigliano and Jefferson Friedman. Naxos RecordsNaxos RecordsNaxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
- John Corigliano: String Quartet (Farewell); Black November Turkey; Snapshot: Circa 1909; Jefferson Friedman: String Quartet No. 2
- 2004 Movement for string quartet on Beata MoonBeata MoonBeata Moon is an acclaimed classical pianist and composer, raised in Indiana, making her debut at age 8 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. She trained as a pianist at the Juilliard School with Adele Marcus, and self-taught as a composer...
: earthshine. BiBimBop Records - 2004 the promise of the far horizon on Jeffrey Mumford: the promise of the far horizon. Albany RecordsAlbany RecordsAlbany Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Peter Kermani in 1987, and is based in Albany, New York.-External links:**...
- 2002 String Quartet on Atar Arad: Sonata for Viola Solo and String Quartet. RIAX Records
- 2001 Legacy: Two Movements for String Quartet on Andrew Waggoner: Legacy. CRI Records
- 2000 Nightshade on Cary Boyce: Itineraries of the Night. Aguava New Music
- 2000 Dawnen Grey on The Music of Frederick FoxFrederick A. FoxFrederick Alfred Fox, Jr. was an American composer and former music educator specializing in contemporary classical music.-Formative Years:...
, Volume 2. Indiana University School of Music - 1999 Quintet for Clarinet and Strings (with James Campbell, clarinet) on Bernard Heiden: Chamber Music. Bayer Records
- 2004 Movement for string quartet on Beata Moon