Tue 4/14 @ 7:30PM
The Calder Quartet formed in 1998 when they were students at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. The musical path they’ve followed reflects both their training as serious classical musicians and their youth.
They’ve performed the requisite Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert. But what’s really put them on the map is their commissioned works by contemporary composers and their collaborations outside the hothouse of classical music. They’ve commissioned works by respected classical composers such as Terry Riley and Thomas Adès — but also Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh. They collaborated with Phillip Glass, Vampire Weekend. The National, the Dirty Projectors, Fred Frith — and the Cleveland Orchestra. They’ve even played the ultimate celebrity hipster fest, Coachella.
In 2013, they collaborated with avant-garde violinist/vocalist/composer Iva Bittová and appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra as part of the California Masterworks series at the Cleveland Museum of Art. But they’re becoming very familiar faces in this area. They landed a residency at the Oberlin Conservatory from 2014-2016 that has been bringing them back here regularly, as well as a residency for a series of concerts presented by the Cleveland Museum of Art at the Transformer Station.
For their upcoming performance, they’ll mix it up. They’ll play Maurice Ravel’s 1903 String Quartet in F major, Thomas Adès’ 1994 Arcadiana for String Quartet, and Sabina, by 35-year-old Andrew Norman, a fellow USC alum now on the faculty there.
Tickets are $20; $18 for CMA members.
clevelandart.org/calder-quartet
Cleveland, OH 44113