Escher String Quartet Wraps Up Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival

Celebrity chamber music ensemble Escher String Quartet stays in Festival residency for the final week with three diverse concert programs. The performances feature the Festival's two artistic directors Jon Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse as instrumental guests, both celebrating the 10thanniversary serving CCCMF. Escher Residency and Nakamatsu performs on Monday, August 22 at 7:30 pm in Orleans (*Note: Monday's concert is sold out); Escher Residency and Manasse is held on Wednesday, August 24, 7:30 pm in Chatham, and the season comes to a brilliant close with Escher Residency and Symphonic Finale on Friday, August 26, 7:30 pm in Wellfleet.

Escher String Quartet commences its residency week in concert with Artistic Director Jon Nakamatsu as guest musician on piano. An engaging program of Schubert's lyrical Arpeggione Sonata and Brahms' electrifying Piano Quartet in G Minor promises a thrilling kick off to the week. On Wednesday, Schubert's breathtaking Quartettsatz and Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 1 continue the residency in concert featuring Artistic Director Jon Manasse on clarinet, joining the ensemble for Carl Maria von Weber's rousing Clarinet Quintet. The season finale concert on Friday gathers all nine performers in a triumphant collective performance, with chamber arrangements of three giant orchestral works: Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel, Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Jon Nakamatsu as soloist.

The Escher String Quartet is widely acclaimed for profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. Helming from New York, the ensemble is a former BBC New Generation Artist, serves as Artists of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is one of the very few chamber ensembles awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Championed by world-renowned Emerson Quartet (also appearing this season at the Festival), the Escher Quartet was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be Quartet in Residence at their respective summer festivals.

Numerous solo, concerto, and chamber music appearances in the U.S. and around the world fill out Artistic Director Jon Manasse's impressive resume, who has served as a CCCMF Artistic Director since 2006. He has filled the role of principal clarinet for American Ballet Theater Orchestra and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and New York Chamber Symphony; served as guest principal clarinetist for the New York Pops, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and New Jersey, St. Louis and Seattle Symphony Orchestras. Has appeared as a guest clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic in concerts conducted by Valery Gergiev and André Previn, and, during the 2003-04 season, served as the principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Co-Artistic Director, Manasse/Nakamatsu duo partner and American pianist Jon Nakamatsu draws unanimous praise as a true aristocrat of the keyboard, whose playing combines elegance, clarity, and electrifying power. A native of California, Nakamatsu raised international attention in 1997 when he was named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the only American to have achieved this distinction since 1981. Mr. Nakamatsu has performed world-wide, collaborating with such conductors as James Conlon, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Osmo Vänskä and Hans Vonk. He also performed at a White House concert hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton, in New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, amongst others. He has worked with various chamber ensembles, and has toured repeatedly with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Nakamatsu has served on multiple international piano competition juries and has also been invited as a guest speaker at numerous institutions including the Van Cliburn Foundation, Stanford University and the Juilliard School.

Festival seating is limited to venue capacity, advance purchase is recommended. Tickets ordered online are available at will call at the performances. Tickets may also be purchased by calling or visiting the box office at 508-247-9400 or at 3 Main Street Unit 6, North Eastham. Box office hours are 10 am to 3 pm, Monday through Friday. Phone orders are available until 12 noon on the day of each concert.

For more information about Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival's 2016 season, performers, mission and venues, visit capecodchambermusic.org, or follow Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival on Facebook and Twitter.

Hailed by The New York Times as "A Triumph of Quality," the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival (CCCMF) has been a year-round presenter of chamber music and a major contributor to the cultural life of Cape Cod since its inception in 1979. Founded as the Cape & Islands ChamberMusic Festival by the late collaborative pianist Samuel Sanders, the Festival continues his legacy. Now entering its 37th season, CCCMF presents four weeks of intensive chamber music programming in a variety of Cape locations in July and August. Throughout the rest of the year, CCCMF presents autumn and spring concerts, a community outreach program, and benefit concerts in New York and on Cape Cod. Hoping to ignite the interest of a younger audience, CCCMF welcomes all youth up to age 18 to attend any regular concert free of charge. TheFestival is also host to a Composer-in-Residence program, and features composers with Cape Cod connections. CCCMF is a private, non-profit organization supported by a volunteer Board of Directors with financial support from individuals, corporations, and foundations both local and nationwide. For more information about CCCMF's programs, schedule or tickets, visit capecodchambermusic.org, call 508-247-9400 or follow Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival on Facebook and Twitter.

Pictured: Escher String Quartet by Sophie Zhai

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