Isidore String Quartet with Andy Milne, James Ehnes, and Edward Arron
Featuring the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition laureates, Isidore String Quartet, joined by composer and pianist Andy Milne for the world premiere of his new quintet commissioned by BISQC.
Other works to be performed include Ruth Crawford Seeger’s String Quartet 1931, as well as P.I. Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence for String Sextet with James Ehnes on viola and Edward Arron on cello joining the Isidores.
Isidore String Quartet
Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, violins
Devin Moore, viola
Joshua McClendon, cello
Winners of the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022 and a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The four began as an ensemble at the Juilliard School, and following a break during the global pandemic reconvened at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 2021 under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick. The ISQ has also studied with Joseph Lin, Astrid Schween, Laurie Smukler, Roger Tapping, Misha Amory, Atar Arad, Miriam Fried, and Paul Biss. Their 23/24 season featured appearances in Berkeley (Cal Performances), Boston (Celebrity Series), Washington DC (Phillips Collection), New York (92nd St. Y), Chicago, Baltimore, Ann Arbor, Denver, Houston, La Jolla, Aspen, Vancouver, Calgary, and at Dartmouth College, and Spivey Hall in Georgia, among many others. European highlights from the last year include Edinburgh, Lucerne, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Hamburg’s ElbPhilharmonie.
Photo by Rita Taylor, Banff International String Quartet Competition, 2022.
Andy Milne
For over 30 years, two-time Juno Award winning pianist/composer Andy Milne has demonstrated boundless versatility, collaborating with artists spanning multiple genres. A fearless improviser and respected voice at the heart of New York’s creative jazz scene, he has recorded and toured throughout the world with Ravi Coltrane, Ralph Alessi, Carlos Ward, Carla Cook and Steve Coleman, and has collaborated with a range of artists including Andrew Cyrille, Sekou Sundiata, Avery Brooks, Bruce Cockburn, Fred Hersch, Ben Monder, Dianne Reeves, Jen Shyu and Tyshawn Sorey. Milne has also scored films, including seven Star Trek themed documentaries for acclaimed actor/director William Shatner and the recent CBC Television series “Black Life: Untold Stories”. He has released 12 recordings as a leader or co-leader, is a Yamaha Artist and a full-time assistant professor of music at The University of Michigan. Milne has received numerous awards and commissions, including the prestigious Civitella Fellowship in Italy.
Photo by Anna Yaskevich
James Ehnes
James Ehnes is one of the world’s foremost violinists and a favorite guest of many of the world’s most celebrated orchestras and concert halls. Recent orchestral highlights include the National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National de France, Sydney Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule and is the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society. His extensive discography has won many awards, including two Grammys, three Gramophones, and 11 Junos. He began violin studies at the age of four, debuted with l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal at age 13 and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1997, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Member of the Order of Canada, and is a professor at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. James Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.
Photo by Ben Ealovega
Edward Arron
Cellist Edward Arron has garnered recognition worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since that time, he has appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician, throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
The 2023-24 season marks Mr. Arron’s 11th season as the co-artistic director with his wife, Jeewon Park, of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Mr. Arron tours and records as a member of the renowned Ehnes String Quartet and he is a regular performer at the Boston and Seattle Chamber Music Societies, the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Bargemusic, Caramoor, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Seoul Spring Festival in Korea, Music in the Vineyards Festival, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has performed numerous times in Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and David Geffen Halls, New York’s Town Hall and the 92nd Street Y. Other festival appearances include Salzburg, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, PyeongChang, Bravo! Vail, Bridgehampton, Spoleto USA, Santa Fe, Evian, La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, Chesapeake Chamber Music, and the Bard Music Festival. He has participated in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project as well as Isaac Stern’s Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters. Mr. Arron’s performances are frequently broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today. In 2021, Mr. Arron’s recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Jeewon Park was released on the Aeolian Classics Record Label. The recording received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Classical Recording Foundation.
In the May of 2022, Mr. Arron stepped down after 15 years as the artistic director of the acclaimed Musical Masterworks concert series in Old Lyme, Connecticut. In 2013, he completed a ten-year residency as the artistic director of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber music series created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. Mr. Arron was also the artistic director of the USCB Chamber Music Series in Beaufort, South Carolina from 2009-2021, and the Chamber Music on Main concert series at the Columbia (SC) Museum of Art from 2009-2018.
Edward Arron began playing the cello at age seven in Cincinnati and continued his studies in New York with Peter Wiley. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro. In 2016, Mr. Arron joined the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst, after having served on the faculty of New York University from 2009 to 2016.
