Nazareth College presents the American String Quartet on stage

New series kicks off with a program of Octavio Vazquez and Beethoven

Rochester, NY (08/30/2022) — Nazareth College's 2022-2023 Visual & Performing Arts Changemakers Series kicks off with an exciting evening of music featuring the world-renowned American String Quartet at 7:30 p.m., Friday, September 16, in the Glazer Music Performance Center's Beston Hall on the Nazareth College campus, 4245 East Avenue. Internationally recognized as one of the world's finest classical music ensembles, the American String Quartet has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous.

The program will include Octavio Vazquez's Piano Quintet, a piece composed for the ensemble and commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival, where it enjoyed a wildly successful premiere last summer, featuring the composer, and Beethoven's String Quartet in C Sharp Minor, Op. 131.

Vazquez's piano quintet relates to late 15th century events in his native Galicia, and in the Iberian Peninsula in general. In 1492, the crowns of Castile and Aragon signed the Alhambra Decree, by which all Jews had to leave their kingdoms and territories within four months, taking no valuables with them, under penalty of death. This put a protracted end to hundreds of years of history during which Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Pagans had coexisted in relative mutual tolerance, allowing an unparalleled cultural and economic development for the Europe of that time. Eventually Judaism was strictly forbidden in the whole peninsula, and punished by confiscation of all property, torture, and often death. Soon after Islam followed a similar fate.

"At the root of the piece are the themes of forced displacement, intolerance, violence against "others" in whichever form the distinction is made, the imposition of narrow views," noted Vazquez. "And the building of artificial divides between peoples."

The Quartet celebrates its 48th anniversary this year, and, in its years of touring, has performed in all fifty states and has appeared in the most important concert halls worldwide. The group's presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartok, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim, and their MusicMasters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire.

Recent seasons featured performances of the Quartet's major project with National Book Award-winning author Phil Klay and poet Tom Sleigh, combining music and readings that examines the effects of war. The Quartet also collaborated with renowned author Salman Rushdie in a work for narrator and quartet by the film composer Paul Cantelon built around Rushdie's novel The Enchantress of Florence. These tremendously imaginative collaborations cement the American String Quartet's reputation as one of the most adventurous and fearless classical groups performing today, as comfortable with the groundbreaking as with the traditional.

Formed when its original members were students at The Juilliard School, the American String Quartet's career began with the group winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Award in the same year. Resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York since 1984, ASQ has also served as resident quartet at the Taos School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Today, the group is comprised of Peter Winograd (violin), founding member Laurie Carney (violin), Daniel Avshalomov (viola), and Wolfram Koessel (cello).

Born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Octavio Vazquez spontaneously started writing music at age 7. Not knowing how to notate music at that age, he created his own system. At age 12 he became music director at St. Peter's church in Lugo. In 1989 he moved to Madrid, where he studied at the Adolfo Salazar Conservatory and the Madrid Royal Conservatory, taking degrees in piano, collaborative piano, and theory. While in Madrid he also worked as assistant conductor to Oscar Gershensohn and pursued graduate studies in conducting and musicology. After winning the prestigious Barrie de la Maza Foundation Scholarship, he went on to study composition at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and afterwards obtained his doctorate from the University of Maryland. He is currently Associate Professor and Director of the Music Composition Program at Nazareth College's School of Music.

"We're honored to bring the American String Quartet and Nazareth's own Octavio Vazquez, to our beautiful stage this season," said Mario E. Martinez, Nazareth's Interim Dean for Visual and Performing Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences. "The Rochester community and the western New York region will have the opportunity to experience music-making at the highest calibver."

Reserved seated tickets are $40, $38, $35, and $25, and are available at naz.edu/artscenter or by calling 585-389-2170. Nazareth students are admitted free of charge.

In addition to the concert, the Changemakers Series includes a residency component featuring a workshop on the 16th, from 12-1 p.m. on the Beston Hall stage, and a masterclass featuring Nazareth College students and community members on Saturday, September 17, from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Wilmot Recital Hall, with members of the American String Quartet. Both of these events are free and open to the public.

Nazareth College is an inclusive community of inspired learners, educators, and changemakers who for nearly 100 years have been driven by a bold commitment to action, empathy, equity, and leading innovation for the common good.

Impact experiences are at the heart of a Nazareth education, preparing each student to discover within themselves the potential to cultivate positive change in their life's work, in any career field, and in a world that is constantly evolving and infinitely interconnected. Our broad academic offerings present a range of study options typical of big universities, yet achieved in our supportive campus culture. Nearly 2,100 undergrad and 600 graduate students enroll in degree and certificate programs and engage in collaborative, transformative learning experiences, preparing them for the professions and society of today and tomorrow. In a learning community that purposefully integrates liberal arts and professional programs, Nazareth graduates launch lifetimes of changemaking leadership in communities and workplaces near and far.

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