Arts & Lectures
2001-2002 Performing Arts Season News Release
For Immediate Release

January 15, 2002
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

Vibrant Borromeo String Quartet to perform world premiere of UCSB composer Michael Ellison’s work, Mozart and Beethoven at the Montecito Country Club

Summary Facts:

The critically acclaimed Borromeo String Quartet will perform a program featuring the world premiere of String Quartet No. 2 by UCSB composer Michael Ellison on Thursday, February 21 at 8 pm in the Montecito Country Club, 920 Summit Road, Montecito. Formed in 1989 at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the Borromeo String Quartet has established itself as one of the most important chamber ensembles performing today. Since earning top prizes in the 1990 International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France, the Quartet has won both the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award presented by Chamber Music America and the Martin E. Segal Award that Lincoln Center annually bestows on rising artists. The Boston Globe states, “This quartet combines every 20th-century virtuoso ensemble virtue with an old-world sense of color, character and style.”

The Quartet is comprised of Nicholas Kitchen and William Fedkenheuer on violin, Mai Motobuchi on viola and Yessun Kim on cello. The group’s performance schedule takes it to major venues throughout the world, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Alice Tully Hall in New York. Its list of collaborators is equally impressive, including pianists Christoph Eschenbach and Leon Fleisher, clarinetist David Shiffrin, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard and Cleveland quartets.

The Borromeo String Quartet has strong Boston ties, serving on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music as Quartet-in-Residence. The group’s longstanding relationship with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum culminated with the Quartet’s completion of its first Beethoven cycle there in the spring of 2000. In 1997 the Quartet was the Ensemble-in-Residence for National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” an outgrowth of its extensive work with WGBH Public Radio in Boston.

The Quartet has always maintained a strong connection to contemporary composers, including John Cage, Gunther Schuller, Thomas Ades and Steve Mackey. Its world premiere performance of Michael Ellison’s String Quartet No. 2 continues this interest. Members of the quartet and Ellison met in the classroom of the New England Conservatory’s esteemed Louis Krasner. Ellison, who is currently living in Turkey, researching Anatolian folk music and composing while preparing a doctoral thesis for UCSB, has written about this work: “The most pleasurable thing to do as a composer is write for friends. And when the friends concerned are artists of the highest caliber, with the worthiest and most commendable of musical agendas, this pleasure is further intensified.” The other works on the program are Mozart’s Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K. 421/417b and Beethoven’s Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3, “Hero.”

A Pre-Concert Meet-the-Artists Discussion, featuring the quartet and Michael Ellison, will be held at 7 pm for ticket holders only. As part of their residency, the quartet will hold a Master Class with musicians from the Music and Arts Conservatory and the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony on Tuesday, February 19 at 5 pm at Lehmann Hall, Music Academy of the West (a co-sponsor of the event). The class is free and open to public observation.

An informal architectural chat and reception will immediately follow the concert. Christine Palmer, Urban Historian for the City of Santa Barbara, and Edward Cella, Landmarks Commissioner, will be available to answer questions. The Montecito Country Club was designed by architect Bertram G. Goodhue and built 1916-1918. Recently restored in keeping with Goodhue’s original design, the clubhouse incorporates decorations typical of the Spanish Churrigueresque that the architect employed in his designs for Balboa Park in San Diego. The country club is an intimate setting for the concert by this brilliant young quartet.

This concert is the last of three events in UCSB Arts & Lectures’ 2001-2002 performing arts season held in local buildings of architectural significance where audiences can experience music in unique and intimate environments. Celesta Billeci, director of Arts & Lectures, says, “We have been delighted to present musicians of the caliber of the Tallis Scholars and Anonymous 4 in settings so fitting for their artistry. This season’s series will be followed next year by other creative pairings of great music and beautiful architecture.”

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents its historic sites series by agreement with Chamber Music in Historic Sites®—a nationally licensed series, Dr. MaryAnn Bonino, president and founder. Thanks to the Pearl Chase Society for its support and to Santa Barbara Magazine for sponsoring this concert. This residency is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency. Tickets are $35 for the general public and $19, but in limited availability, for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.

©2002 UCSB Arts & Lectures, University of California, Santa Barbara