Watch: Aizuri Quartet And WQXR's AizuriKids Episode 7: 'Friends, Family, & Identity' Out Now

The GRAMMY-nominated Aizuri Quartet today released the seventh episode of its critically acclaimed AizuriKids series.

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AizuriKids Episode 7: Friends, Family, & Identity features WQXR Propulsion Lab Fellow Andrew Yee, founding cellist of the Attacca Quartet, with her son Otis in their cozy home, and animation by Aizuri violist Ayane Kozasa. Aizuri Quartet cellist Karen Ouzounian joins Yee for Caroline Shaw's Limestone & Felt, in Yee's new arrangement for two cellos. Watch the episode on YouTube.

In addition to sharing her favorite music, Yee and Aizuri Quartet violinist Emma Frucht talk about how to be a good friend when introducing our pronouns. Later in the episode, Aizuri Quartet violinist Miho Saegusa asks Yee to share a delicious recipe that is very close to her heart. Works, in order of appearance, include Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti's ko'u inoa; Caroline Shaw's Limestone & Felt; American traditional, Working On a Building, arranged by George Meyer; Clara Schumann's Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen, arranged by Aizuri cellist Karen Ouzounian; and Paul Wiancko's American Haiku. Later, clarinetist Kinan Azmeh joins the Aizuri Quartet to perform Michi Wiancko's song about finding friends who love you for who you are, Lullaby for the Transient.

In early 2022, the Aizuri Quartet became members of the Artist Propulsion Lab, a project of WQXR, New York City's classical music service. Aizuri is the only ensemble in this year's class of APL. Other members include Andrew Yee, Emi Ferguson, Justin Austin, Steven Banks, and Layale Chaker. The Quartet's projects include live-broadcast performances, radio content, and the release of two new AizuriKids videos. Episode 6: Songs, Trains, and Banjos! featured music by Elizabeth Cotten, stop-motion animation by Lembit Beecher, and an interview with Rhiannon Giddens.

Watch all episodes of AizuriKids.

About Aizuri Quartet

Aizuri Quartet has established a unique position within today's musical landscape, infusing all of its music-making with infectious energy, joy, and warmth, cultivating curiosity in listeners, and inviting audiences into the concert experience through its innovative programming, and the depth and fire of its performances.

Praised by The Washington Post for "astounding" and "captivating" performances that draw from its notable "meld of intellect, technique and emotions," the Aizuri Quartet was named the recipient of the 2022 Cleveland Quartet Award by Chamber Music America, and was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition along with top prizes at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan and the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London. The Quartet's debut album, Blueprinting, featuring new works written for the Aizuri Quartet by five American composers, was released by New Amsterdam Records to critical acclaim ("In a word, stunning" - I Care If You Listen), nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY Award, and named one of NPR Music's Best Classical Albums of 2018. The Aizuri Quartet's follow-up to Blueprinting will be released on Azica Records in 2023.

The 2021/22 season saw notable performances, including concerts with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ken David Masur, in which Aizuri Quartet performed John Adams's Absolute Jest. With legendary indie rock band Wilco, Aizuri Quartet opened five concerts at the United Palace in Harlem and appeared with Wilco on The Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert. Also in 21/22, the quartet premiered David Ludwig's Organistrum with Anthony McGill and Demarre McGill at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and unveiled new works by Paul Wiancko and Lembit Beecher at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.

The Aizuris view the string quartet as a living art and springboard for community, collaboration, curiosity and experimentation. At the core of its music-making is a virtuosic ability to illuminate a vast range of musical styles through the Aizuri's eclectic, engaging and thought-provoking programs. The Quartet has drawn praise both for bringing "a technical bravado and emotional power" to bold new commissions, and for its "flawless" (San Diego Union-Tribune) performances of the great works of the past. Exemplifying this intrepid spirit, the Aizuri Quartet curated and performed five adventurous programs as the 2017-2018 MetLiveArts String Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, leading The New York Times to applaud Aizuri Quartet as "genuinely exciting," "imaginative," and "a quartet of expert collaborators." For this series, the quartet collaborated with spoken word artist Denice Frohman and shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki, commissioned new works by Kinan Azmeh, Michi Wiancko and Wang Lu, as well as commissioned new arrangements of vocal music by Hildegard von Bingen and Carlo Gesualdo, which was paired with the music of Conlon Nancarrow, Haydn and Beethoven in a program focused on music created in periods of isolation.

The Aizuris believe in an integrative approach to music-making, in which teaching, performing, writing, arranging, curation, and the quartet's role in the community are all connected. In 2020, the quartet launched AizuriKids, a free, online series of educational videos for children that uses the string quartet as a catalyst for creative learning and features themes such as astronomy, American history, and cooking. These vibrant, whimsical, and interactive videos are lovingly produced by the Aizuris and are paired with activity sheets to inspire further exploration.

The Aizuri Quartet is passionate about nurturing the next generation of artists, and is deeply grateful to have held several residencies that were instrumental in its development: from 2014-2016, the String Quartet in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the 2015-2016 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet in Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and the resident ensemble of the 2014 Ravinia Festival's Steans Music Institute.

Formed in 2012 and combining four distinctive musical personalities into a powerful collective, the Aizuri Quartet draws its name from "aizuri-e," a style of predominantly blue Japanese woodblock printing that is noted for its vibrancy and incredible detail. Learn more at www.aizuriquartet.com.

About WQXR and Artist Propulsion Lab

WQXR is New York City's only all-classical music service, immersing listeners in the city's rich musical life on-air at 105.9FM, online at WQXR.org, and in person through live events and performances. WQXR presents new and landmark classical recordings, as well as live concerts from New York City's concert halls and performance venues, and broadcasts essential destination programs including Carnegie Hall Live, Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcasts, New York Philharmonic This Week, New York in Concert, This Week with Yannick, and the Young Artists Showcase. WQXR also produces podcasts that reach new audiences for the artform: The Open Ears Project, Helga, and the critically acclaimed opera podcast Aria Code. As a public radio station, WQXR is supported through the generosity of its members, donors and sponsors, making classical music relevant, accessible and inspiring for all.

As New York's cultural community struggled through the pandemic in 2020, WQXR created the Artist Propulsion Lab (APL) to support and spotlight emerging and mid-career performers and composers. WQXR continues to empower artists to set their own direction and make full use of all of WQXR's broadcast, digital and event platforms, and seeks to highlight not just their artistry, but their creativity and their leadership in using music as an agent and platform for social change and community service. Throughout the one-year period, WQXR's staff offers critical editorial and technical guidance, provides space and technology for high-quality multi-platform production, and brings audiences to the artists so that the artists can focus on the creation of their work.

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