Fry Street Quartet Hosts Inaugural Summer Chamber Music Festival
The internationally acclaimed Fry Street Quartet, Utah State University's string quartet in residence, hosts its inaugural summer chamber music festival July 9-15.
The internationally acclaimed Fry Street Quartet (FSQ), Utah State University’s string quartet in residence, hosts its inaugural summer chamber music festival July 9-15. Serious pre-college string students (ages 14-18) will have the opportunity to work in a uniquely personalized and intense environment. Participants will have daily access to FSQ members and enjoy a host of performance opportunities over the course of the festival.
“We’re excited to bring students to our campus and to be able to design our own chamber music workshop here at USU,” Bradley Ottesen, violist in the FSQ and professor of professional practice in the Caine College of the Arts, said. “The quartet has traveled around the country and the world to teach chamber music festivals—it’s great to be able to create something here in our own backyard.”
A typical day will include two coachings, two rehearsals and sessions ranging from instrumental and chamber music master classes to lecture demonstrations and informal performances by the FSQ. Participants will also receive private lessons with quartet members and participate in social activities with the FSQ and all festival attendees.
“One particularly exciting event this summer will be the world premiere of a new string quartet written for the festival by Emma Cardon, entitled ‘Airport Birds,’” Anne Francis Bayless, cellist in the FSQ and associate professor of professional practice in the Caine College of the Arts, said. “Emma recently graduated from Logan High and is already a highly accomplished composer who has won prestigious competitions. This quartet will be featured in our Monday evening concert, along with a string quartet by Haydn and the fabulous Brahms Piano Quintet.”
Pianist Andrew Staupe will join the FSQ for their July 10 concert at 7:30 p.m. in the Caine Performance Hall.
“Andrew was recently appointed to the faculty at the University of Utah’s School of Music, although we first met him while performing together at a festival in Montana,” Francis Bayless said. “Andrew is a dynamic and thrilling performer and an incredible collaborator.”
The FSQ will be joined by Nicholas Morrison, professor of clarinet and senior associate dean in the Caine College of the Arts, for their Wednesday evening performance of Mozart’s famous Clarinet Quintet, paired with Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132 at 7:30 p.m. in the Caine Performance Hall. There will be additional performances featuring the festival’s student ensembles on Friday, July 14, as part of Noon Music at the Logan Tabernacle and in the Caine Performance Hall on the afternoon of Saturday, July 15. All performances are free and open to the public.
“There is a great tradition of music here in Cache Valley during the summertime,” Ottesen said. “The Fry Street Quartet wants to carry this tradition forward and put our own stamp on it. We hope that our inaugural festival will be the beginning of something that will grow and that our audiences can look forward to in the future.”
For more information visit http://music.usu.edu/frystreetcmf.
Writer and contact: Whitney Schulte, whitney.schulte@usu.edu, 435-797-9203
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