Miami String Quartet to perform at ETSU

The Miami String Quartet will perform at East Tennessee State University on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the D.P. Culp University Center’s Martha Street Culp Auditorium.  The event is co-sponsored by the ETSU Department of Music and the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts.

The renowned quartet has performed for large audiences in Europe, Asia and America when its members were not teaching at Kent State University.  But when they sit down to play their instruments, their music is described as personal, intimate and attuned to each individual listener.

“That’s what chamber music is,” says ETSU music faculty member and pianist Dr. Chih-Long Hu, who will perform with the quartet.  “The music is not designed for a big hall. Instead, it is for a small room. The music is close to you, and the Miami String Quartet does remarkable work in this setting. They can play with such high, intense energy and make their instruments sing.

“After people hear chamber music, as opposed to a big orchestra or soloists, they tell me they just fall in love with it.”

Hu heard the Miami String Quartet play the opening concert at the nine-day Heartland Chamber Music Festival near Kansas City in 2010.  “It was the most amazing experience I have ever heard,” Hu said. “They are highly accomplished musicians themselves, but when they play together, they are so solid, so complete.  I wanted our people here to experience it.”

The Miami String Quartet asked Hu to perform with them at a 2011 festival, and Hu later invited the group – lauded by the New York Times as “everything one wants in a quartet” – to visit East Tennessee.

“They are such amazing musicians,” Hu added. “Miami String Quartet is one of the top string quartets in the world. It’s so nice to have the opportunity to hear them in Johnson City and I feel so very honored to be performing with them.”

Hu will lend his expertise at the piano to the “Piano Quintet No. 2 in E-flat, Op. 26,” by Hungarian conductor, composer and concert pianist Erno Dohnanyi, known for his chamber performances, as well as solo work.  The program on Feb. 8 will begin with Ludwig van Beethoven’s “String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18,” one of composer’s most popular quartets.

The final work of this evening of chamber music will be “String Quartet in D minor, D. 810,” also known as “Death and the Maiden,” by Austrian composer Franz Schubert.

With all four movements in the minor mode, the piece is best known for its second movement, which uses the melody of Schubert’s song, “Der Tod and Das Madchen” or Death and the Maiden, as the basis for its variations, and its powerful and “tragic grandeur.”

Performing this evening of chamber music will be Benny Kim, violin; Cathy Meng Robinson, violin; Scott Lee, viola; and Keith Robinson, cello; and Hu on piano.  Cathy and Keith Robinson are founding members of the Miami String Quartet, and all the ensemble members are full-time Kent State University faculty artists in residence.

The Miami String Quartet has appeared extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Highlights of recent seasons include performances in New York at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall; engagements in Boston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Paul; and its own concert series in Palm Beach, Fla.

Known not only for its classical repertoire, the quartet also has a strong interest in music education and encouraging new music, which has led to many commissions and premieres. While visiting ETSU, the group will work with a number of music classes and hold a master class for strings.

Tickets for Wednesday evening’s performance are $5 for all students, $15 for senior citizens and $20 for general admission. For information, call the ETSU Mary B. Martin School of the Arts at 423.439.TKTS (8587) or visit www.etsu.edu/cas/arts/ or www.Facebook.com/ETSU.MBMSOTA.