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Escher Quartet
10/20/2024 at 3:00 pm Adam Barnett-Hart, violin Brendan Speltz, violin Pierre Lapointe, viola Brook Speltz, cello Mozart String Quartet No. 21 in D major, K 575
Florence Price Quartet No. 2 in A minor Ravel String Quartet in F major
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CONCERT LOCATION:
Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church 330 Greentree Road Sewell, NJ 08080 CONCERT TIME: 3:00 pm Doors open at 2:30 pm PLEASE PLAN AHEAD To guarantee your seat, purchase online by Saturday night of concert week. On concert day, ticket purchases at the door can be made by cash, check or credit card. Call 856-494-6077 to leave a request for information before concert day. Phone line is not manned on concert day. If you have a problem with ticket purchase, please call (856) 494-6077 and leave a voicemail or send email to [email protected] for assistance. This program is made possible in part by funding from The Gloucester County Cultural and Heritage Commission at Rowan College of South Jersey, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State and the National Endowment for the Arts. |
American violinist Adam Barnett-Hart has attracted worldwide attention for his sensitive musicianship and inspired artistic decisions. As the founding first violinist of the Escher Quartet, he has performed in many of the most prestigious venues and festivals around the world, including Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Louvre, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. With the Escher Quartet, he was recently awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant and served as a BBC New Generation Artist from 2010-2012. As a soloist, Barnett-Hart made his debut performing the Brahms Concerto in Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Symphony in 2002. He continues to solo with such orchestras as the Colorado Symphony, the Wichita Falls Symphony, the Riverside Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Jefferson Symphony. He also regularly tours Korea as concertmaster of the Sejong Soloists. Barnett-Hart studied with Pinchas Zukerman and Joel Smirnoff at the Juilliard School.
Noted for his “expressive warmth” [Chicago Classical Review] NYC based and Los Angeles born violinist Brendan Speltz is violinist in the world renowned Escher String Quartet and a seasonal artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Highlights this year include appearances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Savannah Music Festival, and Wigmore Hall, among others. He’s also toured with groundbreaking ensembles such as A Far Cry, Ethel, the Harlem Quartet, Shuffle Concert, and the Manhattan Chamber Players, and with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, and Dover Quartets. An avid believer in the power of classical music to reach young adults, Speltz has produced innovative concert events across the U.S. and Canada which have been described by The New Yorker as “Thrilling, poignant, unexpected, and utterly DIY.” Recent productions include curating the closing concert experience of the prestigious Chamber Fest Ottawa in 2018 and before that co-creating a cross-disciplinary presentation of Steve Reich’s Different Trains with aerial dance troupe ABCirque which was sponsored by Meyer Sound Labs in Brooklyn. In NYC he has performed as guest with the New York New Music Ensemble, Mark Morris Dance Group, American Ballet Theatre, The American Symphony, and Orchestra of St. Luke. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California with Los Angeles Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and his Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music with Laurie Smukler. He plays a 1925 Carl Becker violin.
Violist Pierre Lapointe is an international touring musician. His playing has been described by The Times as “expressive” and by the New York Classical Review as “particularly outstanding.” The New York Times also depicted his tone as “attractively unsettled.” Known in the world of classical music as the violist of the acclaimed Escher String Quartet, Lapointe co-founded the group in 2005 while studying at the Manhattan School of music. Lapointe earned a D.M.A. degree from the Manhattan School of Music in 2012 after writing a thesis about the unusual structure of Alexander Zemlinsky’s 2nd string quartet. Almost simultaneously, Lapointe finished a two-year recording project of the complete cycle of quartets written by Zemlinsky for the Naxos label. As an educator, Lapointe is often invited by universities and music schools to coach chamber music groups and give master classes to viola students. He has taught at Stony Brook University, Manhattan School of Music Precollege and is presently an adjunct associate professor at SMU Meadows School of the Arts. Lapointe plays on a viola made and designed by contemporary luthier Christophe Landon. He is married to violinist Wu Jie and currently resides in Plano, Texas, with their son Arthur and daughter Isabella.
Praised for his “fluid virtuosity” and “soulful melodies,” Los Angeles native Brook Speltz has been inspired since childhood by the long tradition of deep musical mastery of artists such as Jascha Heifetz, Pierre Fournier, and the Guarneri String Quartet. Mr. Speltz is the cellist of the internationally renowned Escher String Quartet—Quartet-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University in Dallas–and an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
An extremely versatile cellist, Mr. Speltz has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist throughout the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. First Prize winner of the prestigious Ima Hogg Competition, he has performed as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra and International Contemporary Ensemble, among others, and is a regular performer at England’s IMS Prussia Cove and on tour with Musicians from Marlboro. An avid and sought after chamber musician, Mr. Speltz has been personally invited by musical giants such as Itzhak Perlman and Richard Goode to collaborate in chamber music recitals and tours throughout the country. As a result of these collaborations, he has been nominated for the inaugural Warner Music Prize, a newly established prize presented by Warner Music and Carnegie Hall.
A lover of all facets of the music world, Mr. Speltz has enjoyed performing on extensive tours with the cello rock band Break of Reality, whose online video of the Game of Thrones cover immediately went viral and has already received over 8.5 million views. Their recent U.S. tour raised funds and awareness for music programs in public schools all around the country. Mr. Speltz studied at the renowned Curtis Institute of Music with Peter Wiley and at the Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick, after his formative years of study with Eleanor Schoenfeld in Los Angeles. He performs on a 1756 J.C. Gigli on loan from his father, a cellist and his first inspiration in a family of professional musicians.