String Theory welcomes Decoda Cello Quartet for chamber, family concerts

A weeklong residency in Chattanooga will give the Decoda Cello Quartet chances to showcase the performers’ fun and formal sides.

The four visiting musicians — Hamilton Berry, Claire Bryant, Caitlin Sullivan and Yves Dharamraj — have two concerts on their agenda as part of the String Theory chamber music series, as well as educational workshops and interactive performances with students.

The cello quartet is part of the larger Decoda, a New York- based chamber collective of 30 young classical musicians regarded as some of the brightest talents of their generation.

According to press material, Decoda became Carnegie Hall’s first affiliate ensemble after collaborating as fellows in Ensemble ACJW, a two-year artist training program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute.

The New York Times has praised the group of virtuoso musicians as “refreshing in the extreme.”

This season, the Decoda Cello Quartet is continuing “last season’s look at works that explore themes of whimsy, storytelling and images from the natural world.”

Their String Theory concert is sched- uled Tuesday, Jan. 17, at the Hunter Museum of American Art, which produces the series with Lee University. The program will include music by Franchomme, Cornish, Frank and Ravel. Pianist Gloria Chien, String Theory’s founder, will join the cellists in Menotti’s Suite for Two Cellos and Piano.

The Decoda musicians will spend the rest of the week visiting schools and community venues, then present a workshop on “How To Frame a Piece of Music” with students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Friday evening, Jan. 20.

Their visit will culminate Saturday, Jan. 21, with the annual String Theory Family Concert at the Hunter Museum. “Four Crayons” will illustrate how the sound of the cello helps to create a musical picture, with the performers showing how much versatility of sound is possible when drawing from four of the same instrument.

The concert will be followed by an instrument petting zoo hosted by the String Theory Youth Initiative.

The concert is dedicated to Woodmore Elementary School, and all proceeds will be donated to the Woodmore Fund to provide assistance to families whose children were on the bus that crashed in November.