NEWS RELEASE 2/25/2019
BOISE CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES INTRODUCES PARKER QUARTET

Friday, Mar. 8 at 7:30, the PARKER QUARTET performs the third concert of the 2018-2019 season of the Boise Chamber Music Series. 

Inspiring performances, luminous sound, and exceptional musicianship are the hallmarks of the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet. Renowned for its dynamic interpretations and polished, expansive colors, the group has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation. The Quartet has appeared at the world’s most important venues since its founding in 2002.

Founded and currently based in Boston, the Parker Quartet’s numerous honors include winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at France’s Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, and Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award. Now Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music, and also in-residence at USC School of Music, the Quartet’s numerous residencies have included serving as Artists-in-Residence at the University of St. Thomas (2012–2014), Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Minnesota (2011– 2012), Quartet-in-Residence with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (2008-2010), and as the first-ever Artists-in-Residence with Minnesota Public Radio(2009-2010).

For their first appearance on the BCMS, Parker Quartet—Daniel Chong, violin; Ken Hamao, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; and Kee-Hyun Kim, cello—bring a striking program including mature Mozart—his sparkling “Haydn” Quartet K. 428—and Beethoven—his Op. 74, the “Harp.” Between them, Parker promises an unprecedented performance of Iannis Xenakis’ tumultuous Tetras, commissioned by the Arditti Quartet in 1983. Xenakis, a landmark figure in the Post World War II avant-garde generation, wrote music as textural architecture, sculpted by algorithms, with a holistic approach to sound and time. This virtuosic exploration of all the sounds and pitches the four instruments can possibly make contains no narrative or extra-musical agenda—it is the unbridled release of the imagination of this iconic sound designer. It has never been performed in Boise before.

For single tickets at $30 to the Friday, Mar. 8 concert, in the Velma V. Morrison Recital Hall, email in advance This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  

The events of the Boise Chamber Music Series are sponsored by the Boise Chamber Music Society and the Boise State Dept. of Music.  Special thanks to our group season sponsors, Hotel 43 and The Grove Hotel.  For further information:  Jeanne Belfy, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

FOR HIGH RES PHOTOS http://www.parkerquartet.com/

https://mkiartists.com/artists/parker-quartet

NEWS RELEASE 10/10/2018
BOISE CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES HOSTS LONDON HANDEL PLAYERS WITH BAROQUE DANCERS

Friday, Oct. 26 at 7:30, the London Handel Players will be joined by baroque dancers Mary Collins and Steven Player to perform the second concert of the 2018-2019 season of the Boise Chamber Music Series.

The London Handel Players, a world-class ensemble bringing together leading period-instrument specialists in the field of baroque chamber music, will feature Adrian Butterfield, leader and violinist; Rachel Brown, baroque flutist; Katharine Sharman, cello; and Silas Wollston, harpsichordist, in a concert of dance music by Lully, Marais, Handel, and J.S. Bach. Mary Collins, teacher at Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music in London; and Steven Player, who, after studying at the Royal College of Music as well as Commedia delle Arte, has devoted his 20-year career to performing music and dance from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, will illustrate the music with authentic 18th-century dance steps and costume.

Praised by the New York Times for their “soulful depth” and their “consummate skill and musicianship,” the London Handel Players captivate audiences across the world with their performances and recordings. Making their debut at Handel’s own parish church, St George’s Hanover Square, as part of London Festival in 2000, the Players appear regularly at venues and festivals in the UK, Europe and North America, performing baroque chamber music and concertos and collaborating with the world’s leading singers, such as Dame Emma Kirkby, Daniel Taylor, Charles Daniels and Peter Harvey. The London Handel Players also present ground-breaking choreographies with celebrated baroque dancers, Mary Collins and Steven Player, and innovative crossover (baroque/folk) programmes with Celtic fiddler Alasdair Fraser and his cellist duo partner Natalie Haas.

For single tickets at $30 to the Friday, Oct. 26 concert, in the Velma V. Morrison Recital Hall, email requests in advance to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Please also join us for a free, educational event, “A Little Afternoon Music,” at 3:30 on Friday Oct. 26, in the Morrison Center Recital Hall. The London Handel Players will perform excerpts from their evening program, discussing baroque performance practice and their instruments, as well as fielding audience questions. Supported in part by the Boise State School of the Arts.

Public parking in the Brady Garage.
The events of the Boise Chamber Music Series are sponsored by the Boise Chamber Music Society and the Boise State Dept. of Music. Special thanks to our group season sponsors, Hotel 43 and The Grove Hotel. For further information: Jeanne Belfy, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Miró Quartet, labeled by The New Yorker as “furiously committed” and noted by the Cleveland Plain-Dealer for their “exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity,” has for the past twenty years performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from passionate critics and audiences alike. Based in Austin, Texas, and thriving on the area’s storied music scene, the Miró takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music.

Highlights of recent seasons include a highly anticipated and sold-out return to Carnegie Hall to perform Beethoven’s Opus 59 quartets; a performance at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center as part of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s inaugural residency; the world premiere of a new concerto for string quartet and orchestra by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts; performances of the complete Beethoven Cycle at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall; and debuts in Korea, Singapore, and at the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival.

Formed in 1995, the Miró Quartet was awarded first prize at several national and international competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. The Miró Quartet took its name and its inspiration from the Spanish artist Joan Miró, whose Surrealist works — with subject matter drawn from the realm of memory, dreams, and imaginative fantasy — are some of the most groundbreaking, influential, and admired of the 20th century.

Founded and currently based in Boston, the Parker Quartet’s numerous honors include winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at France’s Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, and Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award. The Parker Quartet has distinguished itself with acclaimed recordings for Nimbus, Zig-Zag Territoires, Innova Records, and Naxos. The Quartet’s most recent recording featuring Mendelssohn’s Quartets Op. 44, No. 1 and 3 was widely lauded by the international press. The Quartet’s debut commercial recording of Bartók’s String Quartets Nos. 2 and 5 for Zig-Zag Territoires (July 2007) won praise from Gramophone: “The Parkers’ Bartók spins the illusion of spontaneous improvisation… they have absorbed the language; they have the confidence to play freely with the music and the instinct to bring it off.” Their Naxos recording of György Ligeti’s complete works for string quartet won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance (the last string quartet to win this category).

The Parker Quartet’s members hold graduate degrees in performance and chamber music from the New England Conservatory of Music and were part of the New England Conservatory’s prestigious Professional String Quartet Training Program from 2006–2008. Some of their most influential mentors include the original members of the Cleveland Quartet, Kim Kashkashian, György Kurtág, and Rainer Schmidt. They are exceptionally suited to join us as adjudicators of the 14th Annual BCMS Young Artist String Competitions, March 9.