Saturday, October 3 • 7:30 p.m. • Rolston Recital Hall • The
Banff Centre
Adult $35 • Senior/Student $32
Day of performance: Adult $38 • Senior/Student $35
Banff Centre Box Office: 1-800-413-8368 or 403-762-6301
Presented as part of the 2009 - 2010 Visiting Artists’ Series
“A stylistically fluid extended fantasy…” — The New York Times
American composer John Adams, one of the most acclaimed composers of his generation, wrote String Quartet specifically for the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ). Both currently based in the bay area near San Francisco, Adams heard the Quartet play in 2007, and went backstage to propose the new work. Co-commissioned by The Banff Centre, The Juilliard School, and the Stanford Lively Arts performance series at Stanford University, String Quartet is the first full-length string quartet Adams has written without electronic track. On October 3, Adams will attend the Canadian premiere of the work by the SLSQ in The Banff Centre’s Rolston Recital Hall, answering audience questions following the performance.
A composer of contemporary opera, including Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, and Doctor Atomic, John Adams is among the most celebrated composers of the modern era. As composer-in-residence for the San Francisco Symphony in the early 1980s, he began writing orchestral works, and programmed a series of new contemporary classical compositions. His work On the Transmigration of Souls, written for the New York Philharmonic in 2002 to commemorate the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and its recording on Nonesuch Records won three Grammy Awards. Adams has published a memoir and collection of commentary on American music, called Hallelujah Junction.
Following the October 3 performance of String Quartet, Adams will stay in Banff for the Nonesuch recording of the work by the SLSQ, with Grammy Award-winning classical producer Judith Sherman, and Banff Centre Director of Audio, Theresa Leonard.
The St. Lawrence String Quartet has had a long partnership with The Banff Centre, and its musicians are among the Centre’s most treasured alumni. Geoff Nuttall, Scott St. John, Lesley Robertson, and Christopher Costanza (founding violinist Barry Shiffman left the quartet in 2006 to become The Banff Centre’s Director of Music) are the ensemble in residence at Stanford University. Winners of the 1992 Banff International String Quartet Competition, members of the SLSQ are frequent music faculty members in Banff. Their extensive touring schedule takes them around the world every year, and they have collaborated with composers including Osvaldo Golijov, Christos Hatzis, R. Murray Schafer, and Ka Nin Chan. On October 3, in addition to String Quartet, the SLSQ will play selections by Ravel and Haydn.
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- For more information on The Banff Centre’s 2009 – 2010
Visiting Artists’ Series:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/events/presenting/
