COSTA MESA, CA – October 25, 2022 – On Wednesday, November 2, the
Calidore String Quartet returns to Southern California to perform at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. The acclaimed chamber music ensemble will perform Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 18, No. 6; Smetana's String Quartet No.1 and a world premiere of the String Quartet No. 2 by Hannah Lash, commissioned by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting for the Chamber Series at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Tickets are now on sale at
scfta.org.
Founded at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, “Calidore” serves as an amalgamation of “California” and “doré” (French for “golden”), representative of its reverence for California's diversity and culture as well as the strong support received from the group's original home.
Performances of the Calidore String Quartet are renowned for their “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” (
New York Times). Their unique “balance of intellect and expression” (
Los Angeles Times) is complemented by the feeling that “four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one” (
Washington Post). After over a decade of performances and residencies in the world’s most esteemed venues and festivals, the release of numerous critically acclaimed recordings and significant awards, the Calidore String Quartet is recognized as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of a vast repertory; from the cycles of quartets by Beethoven and Mendelssohn to works of celebrated contemporary voices like Grygory Kurtag, Jörg Widmann and Caroline Shaw.
In their most ambitious recording project to date, Calidore is in the midst of recording the complete cycle of Beethoven’s String Quartets for Signum Records. The recording involves multiple releases, which began in March 2023. Their 2022-23 season includes debuts in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Prague, Madrid, Vancouver and Key West. Their concert activities also see them returning to Wigmore Hall, The Kennedy Center, Copenhagen, Florence, Montreal, St. Paul, Houston and Los Angeles. This month, Calidore performed at Carnegie Hall with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, in a memorial concert honoring the late composer Andre Previn. They also enjoy collaborations this season with the Emerson Quartet, clarinetist Anthony McGill, bassist Xavier Foley, violist Matthew Lipman, harpist Bridget Kibbey and pianists Ivo Kahanek and Sophiko Simisive.
Recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, the Calidore String Quartet first made international headlines as winner of the $100,000 Grand Prize of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition. The quartet was the first and only North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and is currently in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Highlights of recent seasons have included performances in major venues throughout North America, Europe, and Asia including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Brussels’s BOZAR, Cologne Philharmonie, Seoul’s Kumho Art Hall, and at significant festivals including the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Music@Menlo, Rheingau, East Neuk, and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The Calidore has given world premieres of works by Caroline Shaw, Hannah Lash and Mark-Anthony Turnage among others. Its collaborations with esteemed artists and ensembles include Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Marc-André Hamelin, Joshua Bell, David Shifrin, Inon Barnatan, Lawrence Power, Sharon Isbin, David Finckel and Wu Han. Calidore has collaborated and studied closely with the Emerson Quartet and Quatuor Ébène, and has also studied with Andre Roy, Arnold Steinhardt, Günter Pichler, Guillaume Sutre, Paul Coletti, and Ronald Leonard.
As a passionate supporter of music education, the Calidore String Quartet is committed to mentoring and educating young musicians, students, and audiences. In 2021 the Calidore joined the faculty of the University of Delaware School of Music and serve as directors of the newly established Graduate String Quartet Residency. Formerly, they served as artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto, University of Michigan and Stony Brook University.
The Calidore String Quartet was founded at the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2010. Within two years, the quartet won grand prizes in virtually all the major US chamber music competitions, including the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions, and it captured top prizes at the 2012 ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg.
Single tickets for Calidore String Quartet at Segerstrom Center for the Arts start at $29 and are now available online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236.
Calidore String Quartet
Wednesday, November 2 at 7:30 PM
Segerstrom Center for the Arts - Samueli Theater
Program:
Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 18, No. 6
Hannah Lash: String Quartet No. 2, World Premiere*
Smetana: String Quartet No.1
Tickets start at $29.00 and are available Online
- SCFTA.org or by calling (714) 556-2787
600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Segerstrom Center for the Arts is an innovative, nonprofit arts organization committed to supporting artistic excellence, creating impactful educational programs, and dedicated to engaging a culturally connected, inclusive and vital Orange County community for all, through the power of live performance.
As the leading cultural arts hub, the Center presents a variety of programming with performances by international dance companies, Broadway national tours, jazz and cabaret musicians, chamber orchestras and ensembles, comedy, and speaker series. Through the Education and Community Engagement departments, the Center also delivers family-friendly programming and performances on the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza; these events include outdoor movie screenings, concerts, dance classes, diverse festivals and more.
With six venues on a beautiful multi-disciplinary campus, Segerstrom Center for the Arts proudly serves as the artistic home to three of the region’s major performing arts organizations:
Pacific Symphony,
Philharmonic Society of Orange County and
Pacific Chorale as well as two independently acclaimed organizations: Tony Award
®-winning
South Coast Repertory and a site opening this fall as the home of the
Orange County Museum of Art. Segerstrom Center is also home to the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School and Studio D, Arts School for All Abilities.
Segerstrom Center for the Arts applauds its corporate partner Kaiser Permanente, its Official Health Care Partner and recognizes Kmozart as the official media partner in the Chamber series. Segerstrom Center for the Arts applauds the Colburn Foundation for its support of Chamber Music.
About the Artists
Jeffrey Myers, first violinist of the Calidore String Quartet, makes his home in New York City. His chamber music career with the award winning Calidore String Quartet has established an international reputation for its informed, polished, and passionate performances. The quartet won the $100,000 Grand Prize at the inaugural 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition along with grand prizes in the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions and captured top prizes at the 2012 ARD Munich International String Quartet Competition, and Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition. The CSQ is a recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. The quartet was the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and is currently in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program.
As a soloist, Jeffrey has performed with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra, as well as the Colburn Orchestra. He has served as guest concertmaster of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and has also served as concertmaster of the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Colburn Orchestra. Jeffrey has collaborated with such artists as Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Marc-André Hamelin, Menahem Pressler, as well as the Ebène, and Emerson String Quartets. Festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, Banff Centre, BBC Proms, Ravinia, and Verbier Festival.
Born in Columbus, Ohio to music educators, Jeffrey began playing the violin at the age of five. As a graduate of the Colburn Conservatory of Music, he studied with renowned pedagogue Robert Lipsett. His other teachers and mentors include Paul Kantor, Michelle Kim, Arnold Steinhart, and Mary Irwin. Committed to sharing his passion for music, Jeffrey is currently an associate professor of music at the University of Delaware.
Jeffrey plays on a rare Italian violin made by Francesco Rugeri in Cremona c1680, owned by a private benefactor and on loan through the Leonhard Fellowship with strings kindly sponsored by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna.
Violinist
Ryan Meehan has been hailed for his “singing tone” (New York Times) and his “remarkably polished and sophisticated playing” (Chicago Tribune). As a member of the Calidore String Quartet he is a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Ryan regularly performs in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Cologne Philharmonie, Seoul’s Kumho Arts Hall and at festivals, including the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Music@Menlo and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. With the Calidore, he has released six commercial recordings.
As a soloist, Ryan has garnered top prizes in competitions, including the Washington International Competition (also winner of the audience prize), ASTA National Solo Competition, Artists’ Series of Sarasota, Pasadena Showcase for the Arts Instrumental Competition and NFAA Young Arts. He has performed as soloist with the Colburn Orchestra and the Bellingham Festival Orchestra and played recitals throughout the United States and Europe. As a chamber musician, he won grand prizes at the M-Prize, Coleman, Chesapeake, St. Paul and Rembrandt chamber music competitions, as well as prizes at the ARD Munich, Hamburg and Fischoff competitions. He has collaborated with such esteemed musicians as Menahem Pressler, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Paul Watkins, Lawrence Power and members of the Emerson, St. Lawrence and Ebène String Quartets.
Ryan serves on the faculty of the University of Delaware School of Music as Associate Professor of Violin and co-directs the UD Graduate Fellowship Quartet Program. He also serves as the String Chamber Music Director at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance. Previously, he served as artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto. In response to the 2020 summer festival cancellations caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, Ryan co-founded the Virtuosi Virtual Summer Academy (VVSA), which connected a diverse group violinists and pianists with the world’s leading soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians. A dedicated teacher, Ryan’s violin students have won top prizes in national and international competitions and have been accepted on full scholarships to prestigious musical institutions, such as the Colburn School, Indiana University, Hochschule für Musik in Munich. He is a graduate of the Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. His teachers include Almita and Roland Vamos, Robert Lipsett, Arnold Steinhardt, Julia Fischer, Günther Pichler and Amy Schwartz Moretti.
In 2014
Jeremy Berry graduated from the Colburn Conservatory of Music where he received a Professional Studies Certificate and an Artist Diploma studying with Paul Coletti. Jeremy also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory.
Solo experiences include a concerto performance with the American Youth Symphony and the Bellingham Festival of Music as well as receiving first place in The Marrowstone Music Festival Concerto Competition. Jeremy has participated in a variety of summer festivals, including the Perlman Music Program, The Aspen Music Festival and School, The Verbier Academy, Kneisel Hall, Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and the Sarasota Music Festival. Jeremy was born in Bellingham, Washington and began his viola studies with Elizabeth Stuen-Walker at the age of 5.
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, cellist
Estelle Choi has garnered top prizes as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She has gained international recognition as a founding member of the Calidore String Quartet, an ensemble that celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2020. Praised by
the New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” the Calidore won the Grand-Prize of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition. As a member of the Calidore, Choi is an Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, recipient of the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist award, BBC 3 New Generation Artist and Borletti-Buitoni Trust recipient. Choi and the Calidore are members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and alumni of the Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). Choi’s artistry with the Calidore has been broadly praised by critics like Mark Swed of the
Los Angeles Times who wrote that “her tone is rich, deep and powerful, giving the impression that music and the room are a single living being.” Choi studied with John Kadz in Calgary, Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music and Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory. She instructed cello performance and chamber music at the University of Houston. With the Calidore, Choi teaches and performs at the University of Delaware. She holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor and Artist Diploma from the Colburn Conservatory of Music.
