Aizuri Quartet to Embark On U.S. Tour With New Program THE ART OF TRANSLATION

The GRAMMY-nominated Aizuri Quartet will present its latest program, The Art of Translation, which creatively juxtaposes works by Schubert with pieces by some of today's most compelling new voices (Lembit Beecher, Hannah Kendall, and Paul Wiancko) to explore the highly personal and expressive ways in which composers transform visual art and poetry into music and consider the dynamic nature of art.

The program will appear on Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 3:00pm at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana; Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 7:30pm at Texas Performing Arts in Austin, TX; Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 7:30pm at the University of Mississippi's Ford Center; Monday, March 27, 2023 at 7:30pm at the New Orleans Friends of Music; and Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 7:30pm at the University of Hartford's Garmany Chamber Music Series. The Aizuris perform a modified version of The Art of Translation, closing with Haydn's String Quartet Op. 76 No. 4 in B-flat Major "Sunrise," on Friday, February 24, 2023 at 7:00pm at Canada's Ottawa ChamberFest.

The quartet will also perform a special family program, AizuriKids, at Austin classical radio station KMFA's Draylen Mason Studio on Sunday, March 5, 2023 at 1:00pm. Learn more about AizuriKids.

The Art of Translation asks the questions: "How does art translate from one medium to another? How do we account for our varied and personal responses to art?" The first half of the program opens and closes with new works written for the Aizuri Quartet by Lembit Beecher and Paul Wiancko. Created in response to the visual art of Alma Thomas and Sam Gilliam respectively, these works are recent commissions by the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. Composer Hannah Kendall's Glances / I Don't Belong Here is "a collection of seven miniatures inspired by the British-Guyanese artist Ingrid Pollard's Pastoral Interludes, a series of photographs in which her Black British subjects are posed in the Lake District, the epitome of rural Britain; exploring the notion of alienation and 'otherness' in such spaces." These compelling new works are juxtaposed with two art songs by Franz Schubert, An Die Musik and Nacht und Träume. In new arrangements created for the Aizuri Quartet by Jannina Norpoth, they allow the listener a moment to reflect and to pause, to consider Schubert's ode to art and the dream world where ambiguities reside.

The second half of the program returns us to the 19th Century with Schubert's Death and the Maiden, which features two levels of translation: Matthias Claudius's poem ("Der Tod und das Mädchen") inspired the composer's lied of the same name (composed in 1817), which in turn formed the basis for the second movement of his beloved string quartet. Written in the throes of a serious illness, Schubert's Death and the Maiden transforms a short poem into an epic, deeply felt contemplation on life and death.

Program Information

Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 3:00pm

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Presents The Art of Translation
Krannert Center, University of Illinois | Urbana, IL
Link: https://krannertcenter.com/events/aizuri-quartet-art-translation#yourvisit

Friday, February 24, 2023 at 7:00pm*

Ottawa Chamberfest Presents Aizuri Quartet
Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre | Ottawa, ON, Canada
Link: www.chamberfest.com/event/2022/introducing-aizuri-quartet/

Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 7:30pm

Texas Performing Arts Presents The Art of Translation
McCullough Theater | Austin, TX
Link: https://texasperformingarts.org/season/aizuri-quartet-2023-mccullough-theatre-austin-texas

Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 7:30pm

Ford Center for the Performing Arts Presents The Art of Translation
Ford Center | Oxford, MS
Link: https://fordcenter.org/event/aizuri-string-quartet/

Monday, March 27, 2023 at 7:30pm

New Orleans Friends of Music Presents The Art of Translation
Dixon Hall, Tulane University | New Orleans, LA
Link: www.friendsofmusic.org/aizuri-quartet

Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 7:30pm

Garmany Chamber Music Series Presents The Art of Translation
Millard Auditorium, University of Hartford | Hartford, CT
Link: www.hartford.edu/academics/schools-colleges/hartt/performances/garmany-chamber-music-series.aspx

Program:
Lembit Beecher (b. 1980) - These Are Not Estonian Flowers (2021)
Franz Schubert (arr. Jannina Norpoth) - An Die Musik
Hannah Kendall (b. 1984) - Glances / I Don't Belong Here (2019)
Schubert (arr. Jannina Norpoth) - Nacht und Träume
Paul Wiancko (b. 1983) - Purple Antelope Sound Squeeze (2021)
Schubert - String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, "Death and the Maiden"
OR
Haydn - String Quartet Op. 76 No. 4 in B-flat Major, "Sunrise"*

*Ottawa performance only.

About Aizuri Quartet

The 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.

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.

In early 2022 the Aizuri Quartet was named fellows to the Artist Propulsion Lab, a project of WQXR, New York City's Classical radio station. The Quartet's fellowship includes live-broadcast performances, radio content, and the release of a new AizuriKids video, featuring music by Elizabeth Cotten, stop-motion animation by Lembit Beecher, and an interview with Rhiannon Giddens.

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.

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

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