The Lafayette String Quartet to Premiere And Tour Vivian Fung's String Quartet No. 5 'Spiraling'

On Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 7:45pm, the Lafayette String Quartet will perform the world premiere of Vivian Fung's fiery String Quartet No. 5 "Spiraling" at the Philip T. Young Recital Hall at the University of Victoria. The Lafayette String Quartet commissioned Fung as part of its series of works by female composers. The February 11 program, part of the Lafayette String Quartet's final season, also includes Beethoven's String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 and Shostakovich's String Quartet in D Major, Op. 83, No. 4.

The program then travels to Maple Ridge Music Society on Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 3:00pm; White Horse Concerts in Yukon on Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 2:30pm; artsPlace in Canmore on Friday, March 3, 2023 at 7:30pm; and finally, Edmonton Recital Society on Sunday, March 5, 2023 at 2:00pm in Edmonton, Alberta. Vivian Fung will be present and give pre-concert lectures before each performance.

Fung writes that this latest quartet "was written as a reflection on the tumultuous year that was 2021," when it "seemed that the only constant in our world was change, continual change..the quartet is a tour de force work in one movement that is constantly moving and morphing from one figure to the next, often spiraling in circular motions... Like a musical kaleidoscope, the quartet uses one motive from the very beginning but it weaves in and out in different colors and emotions, from the angst-filled beginning, through a more gentle transition" that leads "to a playful section that is sporadic and eventually grooves to a beat... a central melodic idea permeates the piece and closes the piece as a lament, filled with both sorrow and hope as it seeks to reassure."

Vivian Fung's String Quartets Nos. 1-4 are being recorded by the Jasper String Quartet for a forthcoming release in a portrait album out on Sono Luminus Recordings in late 2023. This is the latest portrait album since Fung's JUNO Award-winning 2012 album, Dreamscapes. Learn more about Dreamscapes.

As part of this project, the Lafayette String Quartet has also commissioned five new works from six female composers, whom they commissioned through the BK Weigel Fund. They will be giving performances in various cities in Canada before giving their final concert as an ensemble in Victoria.

Performance Details

Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 7:45pm

Philip T. Young Building in MacLaurin Bldg, University of Victoria | Victoria, British Columbia
Link: https://finearts.uvic.ca/music/calendar/events/faculty-concert-lafayette-quartet-feb2023/

Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 3:00pm

Golden Ears United Church | Maple Ridge, British Columbia
Link: www.mapleridgemusicsociety.ca/concerts.html

Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 2:30pm

Yukon Arts Centre | Whitehorse, Yukon
Link: https://whitehorseconcerts.com/project/lafayette-string-quartet-saturday-february-18-2023/

Friday, March 3, 2023 at 7:30pm

artsPlace Canmore | Canmore, Alberta
Link: https://artsplacecanmore.com/whats-on/music-and-performance/lafayette1

Sunday, March 5, 2023 at 2:00pm

Muttart Hall, Alberta College Campus, MacEwan University | Edmonton, AB
Link: https://edmontonrecital.com/

Program:
Pre-concert talk with Vivian Fung
Dmitry Shostakovich - String Quartet in D Major, Op. 83, No. 4
Vivian Fung - String Quartet No. 5 "Spiraling" [World Premiere]
Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3

About Vivian Fung

JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung has a unique talent for combining idiosyncratic textures and styles into large-scale works, reflecting her multicultural background. NPR calls her "one of today's most eclectic composers."

Highlights of upcoming performances include the world premiere of Vivian Fung's fifth String Quartet by Canada's Lafayette String Quartet and a new piece for Houston's ROCO; international performances of her critically-acclaimed elegy for the pandemic, Prayer; and the European premieres of A Child's Dream of Toys at Germany's Theater Erfurt, Baroque Melting with Switzerland's Berner Symphonieorchester led by Gemma New, and Prayer by the Argovia Philharmonic. Mary Elizabeth Bowden tours her Trumpet Concerto to Philharmonia Northwest, Waynesboro Symphony, San José Chamber Orchestra. Fung is the 2023 Composer-in-Residence at Alba Music Festival Composition Program in Italy.

Fung is currently at work on a new project about identity with soprano Andrea Nunez and Royce Vavrek, percussion works for Network for New Music and Ensemble for These Times, a piano work for the "Ligeti Etudes meets 18 Composers" commissioning project, and a commission by Cape Cod Chamber Music Society. A portrait album featuring the Jasper Quartet in Vivian Fung's first four string quartets will be released on Sono Luminus in 2023, and Elizabeth Bowden has recorded her Trumpet Concerto with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras for future release on Çedille Records.

Recent season highlights include the world premiere of new flute concerto, Storm Within, by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and principal flutist Christie Reside; the digital world premiere of two operatic scenes based on Fung's oral family history in Cambodia with librettist Royce Vavrek, part of Edmonton Opera's The Wild Rose Opera Project; and the world premiere of String Quartet No. 4 "Insects and Machines" by the American String Quartet. In July 2020, the CBC's Virtual Orchestra gave the world premiere of Fung's Prayer, a unique work recorded in isolation for an online performance led by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fung has a deep interest in exploring cultures through travel and research. She traveled to Southwest China in 2012 to study minority music and cultures, continuing research that previously inspired Yunnan Folk Songs (2011). As a composer whose trips often inspire her music, Fung has also explored diverse cultures in North Vietnam, Spain, and Indonesia. She toured Bali three times, and competed in the Bali Arts Festival as an ensemble member and composer in Gamelan Dharma Swara. With a grant from the Canada Council, she and Royce Vavrek will travel to Cambodia in 2023 to continue research for a new opera based on her family's experience surviving the Cambodian genocide.

In 2012, Naxos Canadian Classics released a recording of Fung's Violin Concerto [No.1], commissioned by the Metropolis Ensemble, which earned Fung the 2013 JUNO Award for "Classical Composition of the Year." Several of Fung's other works have also been released commercially on the Telarc, Çedille, Innova, and Signpost labels.

Fung has mentored young composers in programs at the London Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Forum, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. She is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and served on the board of the American Composers Forum, and has been a guest educator at many organizations including the Mostly Modern Summer Music Festival, the New York State School Music Association, and coming up at the Longy School and Luna Composition Lab.

Born in Canada, Fung received her doctorate from The Juilliard School, where her mentors included David Diamond and Robert Beaser. She currently lives in California with her husband Charles Boudreau, their son Julian, and their shiba inu Mulan. Learn more at www.vivianfung.ca.

About the Lafayette String Quartet

Founded in 1986, the members of the Lafayette String Quartet (Ann Elliott-Goldschmid and Sharon Stanis, violins; Joanna Hood, viola; and Pamela Highbaugh Aloni, cello) have had a multifarious career, performing in many of the great concert halls of the world.

Quartet in Residence at the University of Victoria since 1991, they have mentored literally hundreds of musicians, many who have gone on to have remarkable careers of their own. They have recorded several CDs, had a book written about them, and recently had an asteroid named after them. They have collaborated with distinguished colleagues including bassist Gary Karr, clarinetist James Campbell, violinists Andrew Dawes and Gary Levinson, violists James Dunham, Atar Arad, and Yariv Aloni, cellists Paul Katz, and the late Tanya Prochazka. They have enjoyed working with many pianists including Luba Edlina Dubinsky, Arthur Rowe, Bruce Vogt, Jane Coop, Robert Silverman, Ronald Turini, Stéphane Lemelin, Alexander Tselyakov and Flavio Varani. They often collaborate with other string quartets including the Saguenay (Alcan), Penderecki, New Zealand, Molinari, Emily Carr, and Cuarteto Latinoamericano.

In this, their final year together, they are performing and recording five works by six remarkable female composers (one work was co-composed) whom they commissioned through the BK Weigel Fund. They will be giving performances in various cities in Canada before giving their final concert in Victoria on August 20th at the University of Victoria, after nearly forty years together without a change in personnel. Learn more at https://lafayettestringquartet.ca/.

Photo Credit: Genevière Caron

To post a comment, you must register and login.