The world premiere of University of Illinois professor Stephen Andrew Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth for String Quartet is on Saturday, April 3rd at 6 p.m. You can watch the concert here.
Taylor’s piece was commissioned by Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, and will be performed by the U of I’s Jupiter String Quartet.
Details are below.
Stephen Andrew Taylor
World Premiere: Chaconne/Labyrinth for String Quartet
Franz Schubert
String Quartet in D Minor (“Death and the Maiden”), D. 810
Allegro
Andante con moto
Scherzo: Allegro molto
PrestoNelson Lee, violin
Meg Freivogel, violin
Liz Freivogel, viola
Daniel McDonough, celloIn an era when everything seems in flux, it is reassuring to hear a chamber ensemble that is performing in their 19th year together. This particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (sister to Meg), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband), is “an ensemble of eloquent intensity” and “has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene,” claims The New Yorker.
Much acclaimed with honors, awards, and grand prizes, the quartet was appointed artists-in-residence and faculty at the University of Illinois in 2012, where they continue to perform regularly, maintain private studios, and direct the chamber music program.
Here, they present the world premiere of a composition by Stephen Taylor. Taylor composes music that explores boundaries between art and science. His first orchestra commission was inspired by images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the New Testament. An opera was based on a novella by Ursula K. Le Guin. During the virtual concert, Taylor joins us to speak briefly about this new work, presented here with appreciation to its sponsors.
Top image by Sarah Gardner and from the Jupiter String Quartet website.
