Beo String Quartet Returns To Charleston With Classical & Contemporary Program, March 24 - 26

The adventurous Beo String Quartet, noted for its sterling sound and experimental as well as classical performances, will travel to Charleston, West Virginia, where the Charleston Ballet will present them in a program entitled "BOLD MOVES," as part of the ballet's season finale.

The evening will consist of two dance works performed by the Charleston Ballet dancers and the Beo String Quartet-Marc Mellits' String Quartet No. 5; Waniyetu and Alexander Glazunov's 5 Novelettes, Op.15. In between the Beos will play selections from J.S. Bach's The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080. The two concerts of this residency will take place on March 24 and 25, 2023, at the Charleston Coliseum Theater, 7:30 p.m. EDT.

Next, the ensemble will appear under the aegis of the Charleston Chamber Music Society on March 26, 2023, at the Christ Church United Methodist, at 2 p.m. EDT. This concert will see the ensemble performing works by Bach, Shostakovich, and Mendelssohn. Reviewing the Beo performing Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 at New York City's Morgan Library and Museum, George Grella of the New York Classical Review wrote:

This was an ideal pairing of playing and compositional styles-the quartet's sheer expressive force added tremendous weight to Shostakovich's theme, even as the delivery was slightly understated. The group had a supple way with the music's changing timbres, and the range of their playing, with mutes and at extremes of speed and dynamics in the Allegro molto, was thrilling."

-February 1, 2023

The full program follows:

Charleston Ballet, Charleston Coliseum Theater

(5001 Coliseum Dr, North Charleston, SC 29418)

Friday, March 24, Saturday, March 25, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

Marc Mellits (b. 1966) String Quartet No. 5: Waníyetu

with Charleston Ballet dancers

J. S. Bach Selections from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080

Alexander Glazunov 5 Novelettes, Op.15

with Charleston Ballet dancers

Tickets: For $35 adult tickets and $30 student tickets please visit the Charleston Ballet website.

Charleston Chamber Music Society, Christ Church United Methodist

(1221 Quarrier Street, Charleston, WV 25301)

Sunday, March 26, 2023, 2:00 p.m.

J. S. Bach The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080, Contra 1, 3, 4, 5, and 9

Dmitri Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8

Felix Mendelssohn String Quartet No. 5, in E-flat Major Op. 44, No. 3

Tickets: General admission of $20 can be purchased on the Charleston Chamber Music Society website. Children tickets are free with a paying adult.

The eclectic and highly polished Beo String Quartet has created a niche for itself as a daring, genre-defying ensemble. Rigorously trained in the classical tradition, violinists Jason Neukom and Andrew Giordano, violist Sean Neukom, and cellist Ryan Ash also know their way around contemporary expression, including the use of electronics, live sound processing, and spatial audio manipulation. Their performances of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, or Shostakovich have been compared to those of the best among 21st-century international string quartets.

Undaunted by artistic or logistical challenges, they play the masters in a variety of settings, collaborate with living composers, and explore technology's capacity to the fullest. Called "an absolutely spectacular group of young, hungry musicians" by composer Marc Mellits, University of Chicago, and "an ensemble whose music-making speaks to the heart as well as the mind by composer Richard Danielpour, Curtis Institute for Music, Beo defies categorization. Works such as "Haydn Recycled" and "Projection 1: Triple Quartet" combine virtuosic quartet writing and staging in various forms. Founded in 2015, Beo has to date performed more than 100 concert works, including some 45 world premieres, throughout Europe and the United States.

Highlights of the 2022/2023 concert season included a guest appearance January 31, 2023 under the aegis of the distinguished Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. The program featured selections from J.S. Bach's timeless "Art of the Fugue," BWV 1080; the New York premiere of Sean Neukom's "People;" "Enthusiasm Strategies" by noted American composer Missy Mazzoli; and Dmitri Shostakovich's haunting Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110.

That same day, the Beo String Quartet released a new classical album entitled "131"on Beo's own label NeuKraft, named for Beethoven's celebrated String Quartet No. 14 in C# Minor, Op. 131. In addition to the Beethoven, the recording includes Missy Mazzoli's "Enthusiasm Strategies" and "19/20" by Beo violist and composer Sean Neukom.

Beo regularly collaborates with living composers including Richard Danielpour, Marc Mellits, Missy Mazzoli, Lawrence Dillon, Joel Hoffman, and Charles Nichols. As part of its annual residency with the Charlotte New Music Festival, Beo hosts an annual Composition Competition which yields a winning work selected from 100+ submissions. Every year, the quartet then records the composition and makes a point of programming it frequently in subsequent seasons.

NeuKraft Records was recently founded so as to facilitate producing and distributing Beo's numerous original projects without constraints of style or genre. Beo built a new, personalized recording studio space to conduct its recording, engineering, mastering, and live-streaming in-house using state-of-the-art equipment, giving the players direct control over the quality of the final product and greatly simplifying the production process. Projects released on the label include string quartet masterpieces, original art songs, and long-form concept albums.

Music education outreach is essential to the quartet's vision. Beo has earned a reputation for its thoughtfully crafted educational programs. Although disguised as entertainment, each show is designed to teach real chamber music skills and a love for classical music to students ranging from complete beginners to pre-professionals. Also in development is a publishing effort to make the student ensemble works of Richard Neukom-father to Beo founders Sean and Jason Neukom-a strings educator with 40+ years' experience, available to elementary, middle, and high-school string ensemble educators. In some cases, these pieces have solo parts for Beo to play so they can be used as part of in-person clinics with student ensembles. Through its educational tours of elementary, middle, and high schools, short-term residencies at colleges and universities, and its annual residency at Dakota Chamber Music, Beo has shared these engaging experiences with more than 3,500 students to date.

The name "Beo" derives from Latin, meaning "to make happy."

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