Takacs Quartet to Premiere New Work by Ngwenyama in National Tour

The world-renowned, award-winning Takács Quartet, now in their 49th season, embark on a national 13-city tour featuring a new work written for them by award-winning violist and composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama. The new composition, titled “Flow,” is a celebration of the natural world in the context of a rapidly changing climate. This work is the cornerstone of a program entitled “The Natural World,” which opens with Haydn's “Sunrise” Quartet and closes with Beethoven's “Razumovsky” Quartet, which found its place on the program due to Czerny's report that Beethoven had conceived the slow movement “while contemplating the starry sky and thinking of the music of the spheres.”  

“Any commission is an opportunity to embrace a new voice," said the members of the Quartet. "There's a continuity in engaging with contemporary composers, but of course a brand new piece is also a departure, inspiring us in exhilarating new directions. We approached Thula to write a piece for us because of our admiration for her as a virtuosic violist and performer who understands the dramatic and sonorous possibilities of a string quartet. 'Flow' combines Thula's passion for science, mathematics and theology. Her delight and wonder in the natural world is infectious: we are excited to bring this vibrant new work to life.”

An excerpt from Ngwenyama's program note: 

When Harumi Rhodes of the celebrated Takács Quartet asked me about writing a piece for the group I was surprised, greatly honored and fearful.  The string quartet is considered a “perfect” ensemble. It inspires delicacy, sensitivity and adventure. The core range is smaller than that of the piano, yet its timbre allows for beauteous interplay.  Harumi asked that the quartet be about anything in the natural world, an idea requested by lead commissioner Cal Performances.   Fortunately, patterns in music and science pair well, so that brought relief.

I researched a wide array of subjects for over a year. Topics included the life cycle, carbon reclamation, environmental protection, animal communication, starling murmurations, our last universal common ancestor (LUCA), black hole collisions and the sub-atomic realm. I listened to the recordings of the Takács Quartet with gusto.  Systems layered upon other systems revealed a common flow to existence tying us to the initial outburst of energy and matter at the birth of our universe.

The complete program note can be found here. 
"Flow" by Nokuthula Ngwenyama

“The Natural World” tour includes a stop at each of the nine co-commissioning venues: Cal Performances; Portland Friends of Chamber Music; The Broad Stage; Shriver Hall Concert Series; Celebrity Series of Boston; the 92nd Street Y, New York; Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; Capital Region Classical; and UMS, University of Michigan.  

New Takács Quartet Recordings This Season

The Takács Quartet just released a new recording of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Dvořák for Hyperion Records. Gramophone wrote, “The Takács are impressive on this album: every micro-phrase, every note is considered. Their sound draws you in from the first moment. The opening chords and sinuous lines vibrate and thrill on many levels..." 

Later this season the quartet will release works by Schubert, including his final quartet in G major, and in the spring of 2024 the ensemble will perform and record piano quintets by Price and Dvořák with long-time chamber music partner Marc-Andre Hamelin.

"The Natural World" Tour Dates, 2023-2024
* Indicates "Flow" Co-commissioning venue

November 12, 2023 / Berkeley, CA / Cal Performances (World Premiere of “Flow”)*
November 13 & 14, 2023 / Portland, OR / Portland Friends of Chamber Music*
November 17, 2023 / Santa Monica, CA / The Broad Stage*
November 19, 2023 / Baltimore, MD / Shriver Hall Concert Series*
February 11, 2024 / Beaver Creek, CO / Vilar Performing Arts Center 
February 16, 2024 / Boston, MA / Celebrity Series of Boston*
March 13, 2024 / New York, NY / The 92nd Street Y, New York (NY Premiere of “Flow”)*
March 15, 2024 / Philadelphia, PA /Philadelphia Chamber Music Society*
March 17, 2024 / Schenectady, NY /Capital Region Classical at Union College Memorial Chapel*
March 22, 2024 / Scottsdale, AZ / Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts 
March 26, 2024 / Buffalo, NY / Buffalo Chamber Music Society**
April 12, 2024 / Ann Arbor, MI / UMS, University of Michigan*
April 14, 2024 / Rochester, NY / Eastman School of Music 

About the Takács Quartet

 The Takács Quartet, now in its 49th season, is “one of the world's greatest string quartets” (The New York Times), consistently receiving enthusiastic critical acclaim for its virtuosic performances, ingenious programming and unsurpassed recordings. The members of the quartet are violinists Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes, violist Richard O'Neill and cellist András Fejér (the remaining original member).

“These are both powerful, brilliantly imagined interpretations, painted in bold, rich colors and shaped with flashing virtuosity,” wrote Gramophone about the Quartet's 2023 release of music by Hough, Dutilleux and Ravel, which earned five stars from BBC Music Magazine.  Also in 2023, Scherzo magazine in Madrid wrote, “Even with personnel changes, the Takács Quartet remains one of the greatest chamber string ensembles we have on the world stage.” 

The Takács Quartet has a large, varied and award-winning discography.  In 2021, the Quartet won a Presto Music Recording of the Year Award for their recordings of string quartets by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, and a Gramophone Award with pianist Garrick Ohlsson for piano quintets by Amy Beach and Elgar. Other releases for Hyperion feature works by Haydn, Schubert, Janáček, Smetana, Debussy and Britten, as well as piano quintets by César Franck and Shostakovich (with Marc-André Hamelin), and viola quintets by Brahms and Dvorák (with Lawrence Power). For the ensemble's CDs on the Decca/London label, the Quartet has won three Gramophone Awards, a Grammy Award, three Japanese Record Academy Awards, Disc of the Year at the inaugural BBC Music Magazine Awards, and Ensemble Album of the Year at the Classical Brits. 

Takács Quartet website

About Nokuthula Ngwenyama

“Mother of Peace” and “Lion” in Zulu, Nokuthula Ngwenyama (No-goo-TOO-lah En-gwen-YAH-ma) has garnered recognition as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and composer.  Also known as ‘Thula' (TOO-lah), her performances provide “solidly shaped music of bold mesmerizing character” (Gramophone). Her music has been performed by leading orchestras, including the Detroit, London and Chicago Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic and the Orquesta Nacional de Madrid, among others. Her chamber works have been performed in North America, Africa and Asia.

‘Thula' gained international prominence winning the Primrose International Viola Competition at age 16. The following year she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which led to debuts at the Kennedy Center and the 92nd Street ‘Y.'  As a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant she has performed as soloist and in recital around the world.   

Born in Los Angeles, CA of Zimbabwean-Japanese parentage, Ngwenyama attended the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences and the Colburn School for the Performing Arts (now the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts) before graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music.  As a Fulbright scholar she studied at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris and received a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.  A voting member of the Recording Academy, Ms. Ngwenyama is the first composer in residence with the Phoenix Chamber Music Society.  She resides with her family in Arizona on Tohono O'odham land.

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