The 92nd Street Y, (just 20 minutes from Harlem) one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents the Gateways Music Festival: The Marian Anderson String Quartet on Friday, April 22, 2022, at 7:30 pm ET at Buttenwieser Hall.
The concert will also be available via Livestream and available for 72 hours from the time of broadcast.
Tickets for both the in-person and Livestream options are $20-$30 and are available at 92y.org/event/marian-anderson-string-quartet.
In collaboration with the Eastman School of Music’s Gateways “Around the Town” Series, the Marian Anderson String Quartet will perform in the intimate Buttenwieser Hall.
The all-female ensemble has performed at presidential inaugurations, the Library of Congress and more, making history in 1991 when they won the International Cleveland Quartet Competition, becoming the first African American ensemble to win a classical music competition.
Their program presents works reflecting on the theme of enslavement, beginning with Rhiannon Giddens’ “At the Purchaser’s Option with Variations,” through a suite by Jonathan McNair composed for the story of the underground railroad, and pieces written in honor of the quartet’s namesake, before leading organically into a performance of Dvorak’s “American” Quartet.
The program for “On Being Enslaved” includes:
- Rhiannon Giddens, At the Purchaser’s Option with Variations (arr. J. Garchik)
- Jonathan McNair, Follow the Drinking Gourd
- Samuel Adler, In Memoriam: Marian Anderson
- David Wallace, In Honor of Marian Anderson
- Antonin Dvořák, String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 “American”
- John Rosamon Johnson, Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing (arr. J.W. Johnson)
With 18 concerts, the spring season includes two appearances by world-renowned pianist Angela Hewitt; two performances by The Knights as 92Y’s inaugural Ensemble in Residence; the eagerly anticipated New York City main stage debut of pianist Eric Lu; the Grammy Award-nominated Israeli mandolin wizard Avi Avital; two co-presentations with the New York Philharmonic; and the return of guitarist Pablo Sainz-Villegas.
The season features one of the first NYC performances of the Gateways Music Festival, co-presented by 92Y, presenting works reflecting on the theme of enslavement; the New York premiere of 92Y co-commission, Dido Reimagined by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Melinda Wagner, performed by the Brentano String Quartet and soprano Dawn Upshaw; the world premieres of Cazon’s Revenge by Gonzalo Grau and Arum der Fayer by Osvaldo Golijov, both for mandolin and string quartet, performed by Brooklyn Rider; the New York premiere of A Shattered Vessel by Richard Danielpour, performed by an ensemble from the Curtis Institute of Music; the New York premiere of Acabris! Acabras! Acabram! written and performed by Stewart Goodyear; and award-winning composer Joel Thompson’s In response to the madness, performed by the New York Philharmonic String Quartet.
For more information, including purchasing tickets and COVID-19 protocols for in-person performances, please visit 92Y.org/Concerts.
About The Marian Anderson String Quartet: On September 30, 1989 the members of the Marian Anderson String Quartet, then known as the Chaminade Quartet, came together; unaware that they would soon change history.
In 1991, the Quartet won the International Cleveland Quartet Competition, becoming the first African American ensemble in history to win a classical music competition.
To highlight this singular achievement the members of the quartet asked permission of the great contralto, Marian Anderson, to use her name as their own.
Miss Anderson responded with heartfelt approval and, in a memorable show of gratitude, the Marian Anderson String Quartet played for its legendary namesake and her nephew, conductor James DePriest.
The Marian Anderson String Quartet’s artistic endeavors have brought them to New York’s Alice Tully Hall, the Corcoran Gallery, the Library of Congress, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Kilbourn Hall, The University of Southern California, and the Chateau Cantanac-Brown in Bordeaux, France.
The Quartet’s distinguished history includes performances through the Da Camera Society, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
In 1993, the Marian Anderson String Quartet performed at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center as part of the 52nd presidential inaugural celebration.
The Marian Anderson String Quartet has been on the faculty of numerous universities throughout the country. They were Quartet in Residence at the City College of New York (1990-1995), and were Ensemble in Residence at California State University- Los Angeles (1995 -1999).
In 2001, the Quartet completed a graduate fellowship program at the acclaimed Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
The Marian Anderson String Quartet was the Ensemble in Residence at Prairie View A&M University (2001-2005) and Ensemble in Residence at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX (2001- 2009) and Blinn College in Bryan, TX.
Driven by their belief in the power of education, the Marian Anderson String Quartet has performed in hundreds of churches, libraries, museums, soup kitchens and prisons.
They have brought their craft to countless children across America under the auspices of Young Audiences, Da Camera of Houston and Project G.R.A.D. (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) in Houston, Texas.
In 2000, the Marian Anderson String Quartet was awarded a rural residency grant from the Texaco Foundation, which brought music and culture to communities in the south and the southwestern United States.
In 2008 the Marian Anderson String Quartet received the prestigious Guarneri String Quartet Award from Chamber Music America (CMA). CMA awards an annual residency grant specifically designed for string quartets as part of their Residency Partnership Program.
This award provided the funding for an extensive outreach project featuring the Marian Anderson String Quartet and benefiting the inner-city school children of Seattle, Washington in 2009.
From 2006-2015 the quartet founded and ran the Marian Anderson String Quartet Community Music School and the summer Community Music Institute in Bryan, TX.
Residencies, concerts, and talks have included: The National Gallery of Art (2015), Brown University as the Heimark inaugural artist-in-residence at the Center for the Study for Slavery, and Justice (2016), TedxBlinnCollege (2016) and The Quad City Arts in Iowa (2019).
About 92nd Street Y: The 92nd Street Y (92Y) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. 92Y offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and masterclasses; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads.
The 92nd Street Y is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world.
All of 92Y’s programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit www.92Y.org.
Photo credit: Source.
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