THE CASSATT STRING QUARTET is, from left, Ah Ling Neu (viola), Elizabeth Anderson (cello), and Jennifer Leshnower and Muneko Otani (violins).
The celebrated Cassatt String Quartet and esteemed pianist George Lopez will team up for a concert at Bowdoin College next week.
The free concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 6, at Studzinski Recital Hall on the Bowdoin campus.
The program will feature the world premiere performance of Vineet Shende’s Quartet No. 2 Raag Ahir- Bhairav, as well as Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 74 Harp and Dvorak’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major Op. 81.
The New York-based quartet, named for American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt, is comprised of violinists Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower, Ah Ling Neu on viola and cellist Elizabeth Anderson.
It was the first quartet chosen for Juilliard’s Young Artists Quartet Program. Since then, they have performed at New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood Music Theater, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Theatre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the Beijing Central Conservatory in China.
At the Library of Congress, the Cassatts performed on the library’s matched quartet of Stradivarius instruments, and they performed the three complete Beethoven Quartet cycles at the University at Buffalo. The quartet has been heard on NPR’s Performance Today, Boston’s WGBH, and New York’s WQXR and WNYC. They have 30 recordings, and were named three times to Alex Ross’ 10 best classical recordings of the year in The New Yorker Magazine.
Lopez, Bowdoin’s Robert Beckwith Artist in Residence, has been a performer, educator and lecturer for more than 25 years. Known in Europe, South America and the U.S. for his performance of standard repertoire, as well as newly written works, he recently premiered a new piano concerto here in Maine and is also comfortable in styles of music ranging from jazz, ragtime to more contemporary styles of improvisation.
In 2015, he toured Philadelphia,NYC, the Bay Area, Seattle, Mexico and around New England, making his first visit to Cuba this past May to give masterclasses and concerts with the Aries Trio. His “Music in the Museum” series at Bowdoin College has consistently sold out to audiences who enjoy his creative and engaging lecture recitals on the relationship of music to art and ideas.
Lopez also has taken up the baton and conducts the Bowdoin Chamber Orchestra, made up of students from the college and local high schools.
For more information about the Cassatt String Quartet, visit cassattquartet.com.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
