Indubitably Music for Strings
Join us for a pre-concert talk at 7:15pm.
The prestigious Villiers Quartet hops the pond to present a program of exceptional English string quartets, including works by Thea Musgrave, Frank Bridge, and Goehr’s String Quartet #4.
THE PROGRAM
String Quartet (1958)……………………………………………. Thea Musgrave (1928- )
String Quartet #2 Op. 20 (1952-53)…….. Peter Racine Fricker (1920-1990)
Inquieto allegro
Molto allegro
Adagio
String Quartet #4 Op. 52 (1990)………………………. Alexander Goehr (1932- )
INTERMISSION
Piano Quintet Op. 49 in D minor (1912)………………. Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Nadia Shpachenko, pianist
Adagio – Allegro moderato
Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro con brio – Adagio ma non troppo
Allegro energico
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Hailed as one of the most charismatic and “adventurous” quartets of the British chamber music scene (The Strad), the Villiers Quartet have developed an international reputation as exceptional interpreters of English composers including Elgar, Delius, Fricker, Bush. Formed in 2010, their Fricker recording was CD of the month in the Strad, “A True discovery” Classical Zaken, “Moments of supreme radiance” Europadisc.
The Villiers quartet have performed live on BBC Radio 3 as part of the Leamington Int’l String Quartet Series, and performed at numerous festivals and halls including the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, the Brit Jazz Fest, the Barnes Music Festival, Kings Place, St. John’s Smith Square, the Holywell Music Room and the British Music Society. The VQ is also regular visitors to Dartmouth College, Syracuse University, USA.
Their internationally acclaimed VQ New Works Competition encourages audiences to interact with contemporary music performance online, and supports the creation of new works for string quartet.
Multiple GRAMMY® nominated pianist Nadia Shpachenko enjoys bringing into the world things that are outside the box – powerful pieces that often possess unusual sonic qualities or instrumentation. Described by critics as a “truly inspiring and brilliant pianist… spellbinding in sensitivity and mastery of technique,” she performs on piano, toy piano, harpsichord, and percussion in concerts that often also feature recitation, electronics and multimedia. Nadia’s concert highlights include recitals at Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Bargemusic, the Phillips Collection, and Disney Hall, as well as numerous appearances as soloist with orchestras in Europe and the Americas.
An enthusiastic promoter of contemporary music, Nadia has given world and national premieres of more than 60 works by Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Daniel Felsenfeld, Tom Flaherty, Annie Gosfield, Vera Ivanova, Leon Kirchner, Amy Beth Kirsten, Hannah Lash, James Matheson, Missy Mazzoli, Harold Meltzer, Adam Schoenberg, Lewis Spratlan, Gernot Wolfgang, Iannis Xenakis, Peter Yates, Jack Van Zandt, and others. Most recently Nadia performed contemporary solo and chamber compositions on Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella and Chamber Music Series, the Piano Spheres Series, Salastina Music Society, and Hear Now Music Festival.
Described as “an exceptional recording of newly composed piano works,” Nadia’s Reference Recordings CD “Woman at the New Piano: American Music of 2013” was nominated for 58th GRAMMY® Awards in 3 categories: Best Classical Compendium, Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance by Nadia Shpachenko and Genevieve Feiwen Lee for Tom Flaherty’s “Airdancing” for Toy Piano, Piano and Electronics, and Producer of the Year, Classical for Marina A. Ledin and Victor Ledin. Nadia’s new 2018 Reference Recordings release “Quotations and Homages” features solo and collaborative works for 6 pianists (performed with Ray-Kallay Duo, HOCKET and Genevieve Feiwen Lee) inspired by a variety of earlier composers and pieces. Nadia’s upcoming 2019 Reference Recordings album “The Poetry of Places” will feature new solo and collaborative works (performed with LA Phil pianist Joanne Pearce Martin and LAPQ percussionists Nick Terry and Cory Hills) inspired by diverse buildings. Nadia’s recording projects are supported by grants from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, and The Cal Poly Pomona Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Fund, among others.
Nadia Shpachenko is Professor of Music at Cal Poly Pomona University, where she leads the Piano Performance program and was awarded the 2017 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities. She is also on the faculty of Claremont Graduate University, where she teaches Doctoral piano students. Nadia completed her DMA and MM degrees at the University of Southern California, where she was awarded the title of Outstanding Graduate. Her principal teachers included John Perry, Victor Rosenbaum, and Victor Derevianko. Nadia Shpachenko is a Steinway Artist and a Schoenhut Toy Piano Artist.
