The Telegraph Quartet Chamber Music Immersive is an intensive chamber music program for advanced musicians seeking to delve deeper into the study and performance of chamber music through an apprentice style curriculum. Students will be coached by members of the Telegraph Quartet on a weekly basis, receive independent ensemble rehearsal time and one-on-one coaching, and participate in performance classes, master classes, chamber music seminars, and concerts throughout the academic year. Two string quartet ensembles will be selected for participation based upon chamber music placement process and submission of required audition excerpts.

Telegraph Quartet Chamber Music Immersive Curriculum:

• Two hours of weekly coaching, study of two complete chamber works and one additional contrasting movement or shorter work
• Applications to and preparation for local and national chamber music competitions
• Multiple performance opportunities
• Four 90-minute seminars on chamber music topics

All scheduling for the Pre-College program takes place on Saturdays. This program requires a significant time commitment, which includes weekly private lessons, musicianship class, quartet coaching, independent rehearsal time, performances classes, and chamber music seminars.

Interested students should have at least 2 years of prior chamber music experience in the SFCM Pre-College Chamber Program or other qualified institutions at the discretion of the Telegraph Quartet. Students apply and audition specifically for the TQCMI program through participation in the Pre-College chamber music placement process and submission of two required excerpts.

For more information, please contact lreynolds@sfcm.edu.

Get to Know Telegraph Quartet:

The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) 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, 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 the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence.

Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; 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 Telegraph Quartet 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. The Quartet gave the world premiere of Robert Sirota’s String Quartet No. 3, Wave upon Wave at Weill Recital Hall for its Carnegie Hall debut in 2018, sponsored by the Naumburg Foundation. In spring 2020, the Telegraph will premiere a new work with soprano Abigail Fischer by composer Robert Sirota and librettist Stevan Cavalier, commissioned by Sierra Chamber Music Society.

In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The San Francisco Chronicle praised the album, saying, "Just five years after forming, the Bay Area’s Telegraph Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of serious depth and versatility, and the group’s terrific debut recording only serves to reinforce that judgment." AllMusic acclaimed, “An impressive beginning for an adventurous group, this 2018 release puts the Telegraph Quartet on the map.”

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 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, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University,and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Highlights of Telegraph Quartet’s 2019-20 season include the group’s debut on the Lincoln Center Great Performers series, a concert with acclaimed composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann at San Francisco Performances, and performances at Gretna Music, Friends of Chamber Music, Morris Museum, Mill Valley Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Houston, Chamber Music Society of Utica, Rossmoor Chamber Music Society, Music at Oakmont, Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, and Chamber Music San Francisco.

While the Telegraph Quartet is indebted to numerous mentors and teachers, the group’s primary musical guidance and support has come from Mark Sokol, Bonnie Hampton, and Ian Swensen at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The Telegraph Quartet is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.