In a collaboration by the internationally successful Finnish quartet and the TAC program, Meta4 will be performing a program of works inspired by nature and Nordic folk tunes, accompanied with visual design by TAC students. The program will also feature the premiere of pieces by TAC students for string quartet and electronics. A panel discussion and Q&A will follow with Meta4 and TAC students and faculty.

Program

Kaija Saariaho: Fleurs de neige

Udit Srivathsan*: Marble

visual accompaniment by Finn Roy (TAC '25)

Amy Beach: Quartet for Strings, Op. 89

Caroline Feitosa*: Business As Usual

visual accompaniment by Finn Roy (TAC '25)

Cullen Luper*: Gentle Giants

visual accompaniment by David Tippie (TAC '22)

Krishna Nagaraja: Stringar for string quartet
     I. Udelt Takt
     II. Telespringar
     III. Valdresspringar

*SFCM Student Composer

Artists

Meta4

Antti Tikkanen, violin
Minna Pensola, violin
Atte Kilpeläinen, viola
Tomas Djupsjöbacka, cello
 

Program Notes

Marble by Udit Srivathsan

Isn’t this big blue marble beautiful? Well it’s gonna be beautiful with or without us. Whether we can witness its beauty for a little longer is up to you and me… 

By embracing musical and cultural interconnectivity, composer Udit Srivathsan aims to incorporate Hindustani classical elements in his music. Having trained as a sitarist, Udit recognises the immense power of Hindustani classical music, which he implements in his composition practices. Udit is currently a Technology and Applied Composition major at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where, apart from composing music for various forms of media, he frequently participates in and leads recording sessions. 

Business As Usual by Caroline Feitosa

“Business as Usual” is a quartet composed upon the idea of a special clock. Instead of merely conveying the time, this clock ticks down the moments left before the Earth becomes unsalvageable from the catastrophic effects of Climate Change.  This clock can be slowed to a halt, but if we continue our “business as usual;” if humanity refrains from action and maintains the status quo, this clock will continue ticking as quickly as the everyday wristwatch. 

“Business as Usual” eloquently demonstrates mankind’s relationship with the Earth and her cycles.  Life arrives in a state of purity.  Overtime,  life seeks evolution and strives for innovation.  The condition of livelihood dares humanity to crave, to conquer, to expand.   Yet, is humanity ready to sacrifice this sacred planet for the sake of in-the-moment economic security?  Until the moment has passed, will life ever know its time was running out?

Life is but a small chapter in the Earth’s history.  Humanity is but the latest of a string of species to rise and fall like the empires of centuries past. While an inanimate planet may find no attachment to the life it produces, humanity rather is in dire need for this planet.  This is the only planet which can sustain life’s fragile state of existence.   If business continues as usual, the Earth will reciprocate, and continue to cycle.

Caroline Feitosa is a composer and guitarist from Denver, Colorado. Caroline had an extensive performance career with the School of Rock for six years, which included a performance at Red Rocks Amphitheater. While still in high school, she independently released, produced, and wrote her EP Bears In The Night. The title song on the EP went on to win a Denver Youth Music Award for “Best Original Song”. Caroline continues her compositional studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, working on a variety of different musical projects from film scores to hybrid orchestral pieces.

Gentle Giants by Cullen Luper

This piece Gentle Giants is referring to my connection with Redwood Trees, and the unique place they have in my heart. Growing up surrounded by them in California, their immense presence in the ecosystem and the climate of the Pacific Northwest helps make the place unique because they naturally grow here. The important balance of heavy fog in the Pacific Northwest is vital to these old trees because due to being so tall, they can’t draw water up from the ground. They instead majorly rely on heavy dense fog and draw water through their leaves hundreds of feet in the air. In the past 5-10 years I’ve observed notably less fog in the greater Bay Area, their main source of nourishment, due to global warming and droughts and seen many more dead redwood trees. These trees are so rare and a special part of the Pacific Northwest, and a balanced climate is necessary for them to survive. 

Cullen Luper is a San Francisco-based multi-instrumentalist composer who plays and composes music and styles ranging from Jazz and Classical music, to Cinematic and Electronic music. Growing up, Cullen was part of a rich community of Celtic music and having played in the style of music for over a decade, he wants to find ways to merge Celtic with hybrid orchestral and cinematic music. Currently, Cullen is studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in the Technology and Applied Composition department furthering his studies as a media composer, as well as a weekly performing jazz musician with Le Jazz Hot playing Gypsy Jazz.
 

About Meta4

Meta4, formed in 2001, is one of the most internationally successful Finnish string quartets. In 2004 it won the first prize in the International Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Moscow, and was also awarded a special prize for best Shostakovich interpretation. The quartet enjoyed continued success in 2007, when it won the first prize in the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Later that year the Finnish Minister of Culture awarded Meta4 with the annual Finland Prize in recognition of an international breakthrough. Meta4 was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist for 2008–2010 and in 2013 the Fund of Jenny and Antti Wihuri awarded the quartet with a special prize in recognition of its work.

Meta4 performs regularly in key music capitals and concert halls around the world including Wiener Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall and King’s Place in London, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Cité de la Musique in Paris and Stockholms Konserthus, and has recently also toured in Australia. Meta4 served as the quartet-in-residence at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival from 2008-2016.

The quartet studied at the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) under Hatto Beyerle and Johannes Meissl. They have released three recordings on Hänssler Classics: Haydn’s String Quartets op. 55 1–3 (2009), which was awarded the esteemed Echo Klassik Award in 2010; Shostakovich’s String Quartets 3, 4 & 7 (2012), which received the 2012 Record of the Year award from the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE as well as the Emma prize (the Finnish Grammy) in the category of Classical Album of the Year; and Bartók’s String Quartets 1 & 5, released in 2014. The quartet has also released an album of Kaija Saariaho’s chamber music works (Ondine, 2013) and an LP of Sibelius’s String Quartet Voces Intimae (Berliner Meister Schallplatten, 2013).

The members of Meta4 play distinguished instruments, which include a Stradivarius, kindly on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, a Carlo Bergonzi violin, kindly on loan from Signe and Ane Gyllenberg’s Foundation and a cello made by Lorenzo Storioni in Cremona in 1780.

This performance is in partnership with Stanford Live.  More information about Stanford Live can be found here.