Emerson Quartet Celebrates the 80th Birthday of American Composer William Bolcom

The world-renowned Emerson String Quartet celebrates the 80th birthday of American composer and pianist, winner of the National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award, William Bolcom at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall on Sunday, October 21, 2018 at 5 PM. Joined by the acclaimed pianist Shai Wosner, the Quartet performs Bolcom's Piano Quintet No. 1. Composed in commemoration of the 80th birthday of the legendary violinist Isaac Stern, the piece was premiered in 2001 by Stern and members of the Emerson Quartet (Philip Setzer, violin, Lawrence Dutton, viola, David Finckel, cello) along with pianist Jonathan Biss at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

In addition to Bolcom's Piano Quintet, the upcoming concert features the Mozart Quartet in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, K. 493 and concludes with the vibrant and unabashedly joyful Dvorák Quartet in G major for Strings, Op. 106 of which the slow movement is considered one of the glories of Dvorák's whole catalog.

Sunday, October 21, 2018 at 5:00 pm
Alice Tully Hall, New York, NY

Emerson String Quartet
With Shai Wosner, piano

MOZART: Quartet in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, K. 493 (1786)
BOLCOM: Quintet No. 1 for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello (2000)
--- Intermission ---
DVORAK: Quartet in G major for Strings, Op. 106 (1895)

National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer Prize, and Grammy Award-winner William Bolcomis an American composer of keyboard, chamber, operatic, vocal, choral and symphonic music. Born in Seattle, Washington in 1938, William Bolcom studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College and the Paris Conservatoire, received a Master's degree from Mills

College and the first Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stanford University. Past honors include the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Music; four GRAMMY® Awards (2005); the 2006 National Medal of Arts; two Guggenheim fellowships; six honorary doctorates; and "2007 Composer of the Year" designation by Musical America. Bolcom has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony and the MET Orchestra, among others. He has written for Plácido Domingo, Isaac Stern, James Galway, Marilyn Horne, Joyce Castle, and Ursula Oppens, among many others. His extensive chamber commissions include works for Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, the Emerson and Guarneri Quartets, Pro Arte Quartet, and other groups. Bolcom has composed nine symphonies, twelve string quartets, four operas, three theater operas, and one zarzuela. As a highly acclaimed solo pianist and concert artist with his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, Bolcom has recorded and performed widely.

To post a comment, you must register and login.