Program

Weinberg
String Quartet No. 6 in E minor, Op. 35

Beethoven
String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130
Grosse Fuge, Op. 133

Performers

The Telegraph Quartet
Eric Chin, violin
Joseph Maile, violin
Pei-Ling Lin, viola
Jeremiah Shaw, cello

Artist Profile

The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works alike. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "… an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape" and "powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety," the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including New York City's Carnegie Hall, San Francisco's Herbst Theatre, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Chamber Masters Series and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. The Quartet is currently on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as their Quartet-in-Residence.

Notable collaborations include projects with cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; pianist Simone Dinnerstein; and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet co-commissioned John Harbison's String Quartet No. 6 and gave its West Coast premiere in the fall of 2017 on San Francisco State University's Morrison Artists Series. The Quartet gave the world premiere of Robert Sirota's String Quartet No. 3, Wave Upon Wave at Weill Recital Hall for their Carnegie Hall debut in 2018, sponsored by the Naumburg Foundation. The Telegraph Quartet also premiered Richard Festinger's third string quartet, Icarus in Flight, a musical representation of climate change data from the year 1880 to projected simulations of 2080. In 2018 the Quartet will release its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label.

Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. In the Fall of 2017, the Quartet traveled to communities and schools in mid-coast Maine with Yellow Barn's Music Haul, a mobile performance stage that brings music outside of the concert hall to communities across the U.S. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts and National Taiwan Normal University.