Telegraph Quartet Performs In A Musical Call For Climate Action

On Friday, November 12, 2021, at 11am PT the Telegraph Quartet, winner of the 2016 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, will perform on Live from Vienna and San Francisco: A Musical Call for Climate Action, presented by The ClimateMusic Project and Friday Nights with Yury Revich. The Telegraph's performance will take place for live audiences at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and will be available to stream online at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 8pm CET, with additional live performances from Vienna.

The Telegraph Quartet will perform Richard Festinger's string quartet, Icarus in Flight, a musical representation of climate change data from 1880 to 2080 with projected simulations. Festinger collaborated with The ClimateMusic Project for over a year to create the piece, which models three human drivers of climate change - population growth, carbon emissions, and land-use change - based on widely accepted United Nations data. This is the Telegraph Quartet's first performance of the work since they premiered it in June 2018 at the Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco.

Live from Vienna and San Francisco: A Musical Call for Climate Action also includes a diverse array of world class artists performing climate-themed music from across the ages and across music genres, from classical to hip hop, culminating in a wide range of climate actions and resources appropriate for individuals from all backgrounds and circumstances to participate in and share. More information is available at www.climatemusic.org/events.

About the Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works alike. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "...an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape" and "powerfully adept... with a combination of brilliance and subtlety," the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including New York City's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco's Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. The Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence.

Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.

In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The San Francisco Chronicle praised the album, saying, "Just five years after forming, the Bay Area's Telegraph Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of serious depth and versatility, and the group's terrific debut recording only serves to reinforce that judgment." AllMusic acclaimed, "An impressive beginning for an adventurous group, this 2018 release puts the Telegraph Quartet on the map.

Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan.

The Telegraph Quartet adapted to the challenging times presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and performed virtual concerts presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Crowden Chamber Music Workshop, Noe Music, Noontime Concerts, Music in Corrales, and Intermusic SF. For Earth Day 2020 (the 50th anniversary of Earth Day), the National Academy of Science in collaboration with the ClimateMusic Project hosted a virtual performance by the Telegraph Quartet of Richard Festinger's Icarus in Flight. In 2020, Telegraph launched an ongoing online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet.

For more information, please visit www.telegraphquartet.com.

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