The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Music Mountain hosts Daedalus Quartet, Tanya Bannister
FALLS VILLAGE — America’s longest running summer chamber music festival, Music Mountain, continues its 90th season on Sunday at 3 p.m., with the Daedalus Quartet and guest pianist Tanya Bannister. The quartet performs selections from Bach’s “Art of the Fugue,” BWV 1080 (174250) and Beethoven’s “String Quartet in E Flat Major, Op. 74, Harp” (1809), and they are joined by Bannister for Elgar’s “Piano Quintet in A Minor, Op. 84” (1918).
The Daedalus Quartet has established itself as a leader among the new generation of string ensembles, recognized by The New Yorker as “a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets.” Since winning the top prize in the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2001, the Quartet has impressed critics and listeners alike with the security, technical finish, interpretive unity, and sheer gusto of its performances. Since its founding, the quartet has performed in many of the world’s leading music venues, from Carnegie Hall to Vienna’s Musikverein, and with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists, from pianist MarcAndré Hamelin to clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera.
The Daedalus Quartet recently recorded Fred Lerdahl’s “Chaconne” (which will be released by Bridge Records as part of a disc of Lerdahl’s collected works), and “Frenetic Memories,” written for the group by Vivian Fung (with clarinetist Romie deGuiseLanglois). In 201920, the quartet will present a series of concerts at the University of Pennsylvania based on the theme of migration, including collaborations with soprano Karen Slack, pipa player Lin Ma, and cellist Kinan Abouafach, and featuring premieres of works by Abouafach, Gabriel Bolanos, and Nansi Carroll.
Lauded by The Washington Post for playing “… with intelligence, poetry and proportion,” pianist Tanya Bannister has made a career that is both immersed in tradition and decidedly entrepreneurial. She is cofounder and artistic director of Alpen Kammer Musik, an 12day, intimate musical experience in a small Alpine village in Austria that provides an opportunity for students and music lovers to study chamber music in a beautiful setting with a world class faculty.
She also spearheaded a collaborative project with fellow pianists, “Pianists for New Orleans,” which has performed across the U.S. to help support the classical music community of New Orleans. Bannister also created a live recital CD with renowned ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox to raise funds to support children who survived the devastating tsunami in Japan in 2011. She was a winner of Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition, and was featured as an “Artist to Watch” on the cover of Symphony Magazine.
Music Mountain is located in Falls Village, on Music Mountain Road. Free parking and picnic facilities are available.
Chamber music concerts continue with the Dover Quartet on Sept. 15 and the Juilliard Quartet on Sept. 22, in a Special Benefit Concert to celebrate the completion of the 90th anniversary season.
Regularly scheduled Chamber Music Concerts are $39. The benefit concert on Sept. 22 is $60. Children ages 518 are admitted free to all concerts when accompanied by a ticket holder.
Sunday afternoon Chamber Music concerts are at 3 p.m. Discounts apply through participating organizations. For a complete schedule, special ticket prices and promotions, visit www.musicmountain.org or call 8608247126.