Download ELEMENTS QUARTET BIOGRAPHY

ELEMENTS QUARTET BIOGRAPHY
The Elements Quartet is dedicated to communicating the excitement of chamber music
to contemporary audiences of all ages. Founded in the summer of 1999, the ensemble has
already won acclaim for its passionate performances and dynamic programs. The quartet's
repertoire ranges from popular masterpieces to neglected treasures, and from Baroque
classics to newly commissioned works by today's most celebrated composers- an eclectic
and expansive view of the quartet literature that is unified by the group's keen
musicianship and its fresh insights into how chamber music can connect with today's
listeners.
Called "an important new ensemble" by the composer David Del Tredici, the Elements
Quartet is a partnership of highly skilled musicians. In contrast to some quartets, which
form when their players are students, the four musicians of the Elements Quartet enjoyed
successful individual careers in major international orchestras and distinguished chambermusic ensembles before their mutual love for the quartet sound brought them together.
The Quartet carries forward a long chamber music tradition, having studied with
members of the Cleveland, Tokyo, Juilliard, and Guarneri quartets.
The Elements Quartet selected its name for its evocative musical and metaphysical
associations. The ancient Greeks saw Air, Earth, Water, and Fire as the elements that
formed the natural world. Scientists of the 20th Century defined the cosmos with the
Table of Elements. Today's researchers are exploring our elements in the Human Genome
Project. In a string quartet, each member contributes a unique musical, human, and
creative element that knits together to form a seamless whole. All of these definitions
merge to form the artistic vision of the Elements Quartet. Like the word, Elements has a
multiplicity of meanings and messages, yet always seeks to find the irreducible core - the
basic material that is universal to us all.
Based in the New York metropolitan area, the Elements Quartet performed last summer
to critical acclaim at important venues, including Rutgers Summer Fest, Caramoor
Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale School of Music, and the Kent/Blossom
Music Festival. The quartet received grants from the Arthur Judson Foundation and the
National Orchestral Association for the commission of a new string quartet by noted New
Jersey composer David Sampson. Last summer, it was the recipient of a major grant from
the Koussevitzky Foundation to commission the first string quartet by Pulitzer Prizewinning composer David Del Tredici. The premiere of this important new work, titled
"Wondrous the Merge," is planned for Spring 2002. Elements Quartet was honored last
year by being awarded the Norfolk/Yale Debut Prize for outstanding new ensemble. In
Fall 2001, the quartet was featured on MetroArts 13 in a PBS program from the
Caramoor Festival with Peter Oundjian, Artistic Director of the Caramoor Festival.
INDIVIDUAL BIOGRAPHIES
Jeffrey Multer comes to the Elements Quartet with a distinguished resume as a quartet
player, soloist, and concertmaster. As a chamber musician, he has served as first violinist
of the Oxford String Quartet, as a member of the Kennedy Center Theater Chamber
Players, and has been at the core of the Great Lakes Chamber Festival in Detroit,
Michigan. As a soloist, he has appeared in recent years to critical acclaim in Virginia, and
at the Rudolphinium in Prague. Jeff's concertmaster experience is similarly impressive
having led the orchestras of the Echternacht Festival in Luxembourg, the Eastern Music
Festival in North Carolina (where he has also appeared as soloist several times), and the
Colorado Symphony in Denver.
The Detroit Free Press praised Jeff for his "Extraordinary precision and poise", and the
Cleveland Plain dealer applauded his "prodigious and aristocratic violin playing". He
began studies at age 5, then, at 16, moved to New York City to continue studies at the
Juilliard School, where he was the recipient of a Lincoln Center Fellowship. He has
studied under some of the finest quartet musicians of our time, most notably Arnold
Steinhardt and Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet and Shmuel Ashkenasi of the
Vermeer Quartet. Mr. Multer has recorded for Albany records.
Evan Mirapaul's career has included positions as Assistant Principal Second Violin with
the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He has also
been a member of the orchestras of Caracas, Phoenix and the San Francisco Opera. Most
recently he was a Visiting Professor of Violin at the University of Akron in Ohio.
Mr. Mirapaul has studied with Maurico Fuks and Gyorgy Sebok at the Indiana University
School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, where he earned a Performer's Certificate in
Violin Performance. As a chamber musician he has performed as part of the Pittsburgh
Chamber Music Project and the Montreal Camerata. Evan has spent summers at the
Garth-Newell Festival in Virginia, the Yale-Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and as
Associate Concertmaster of the Colorado Philharmonic Summer Festival Orchestra.
Violist Danielle Farina is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied
with Karen Tuttle. She was the recipient of several awards while a student, most notably
Grand Prize, First Prize, and prize for "most beautiful sound" at the 1996 American
String Teacher's Association Competition. Upon graduation, she joined the renowned
Lark Quartet, of which she was a member for three years.
Touring extensively with the Lark in North America, Europe, and Scandinavia, Ms.
Farina performed at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals including the Great
Performers Series and the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Library of Congress,
Smithsonian Institution, Schleswig Holstein Festival, and the International Istanbul Music
Festival.
Ms. Farina collaborated with numerous performing artists, namely pianists Gary
Graffman, Grant Johannesen, Joanne Polk, Jerome Lowenthal, violist Joseph DePasquale,
and cellist/composer Giovanni Sollima. Composer collaborations involved Peter
Schickele, Aaron J. Kernis, and Jennifer Higdon. Ms. Higdon's piece "Scenes from the
Poet's Dreams" was written for the Lark and Mr. Graffman and was commissioned by the
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Mr. Sollima's "Viaggio in Italia" for quartet, voice,
and cello was another important project. It was commissioned by Milanese jewler
Gianmaria Buccellati and premiered at Carnegie Hall with the composer performing. Mr.
Sollima has also written a piece for solo viola expressly for Ms. Farina, which will be
premiered this year in New York.
Ms. Farina can be heard in a recording of "Viaggio in Italia" on the Agora label, as well
as on the Arabesque label in the string quartets of Aaron J. Kernis commissioned by the
Quartet, and with pianist Joanne Polk in works of Amy Beach.
Ms. Farina's other artistic pursuits include performances at Weill Recital Hall as part of
Carnegie Hall's Making Music Series and at the 92nd Street Y with pianist Maurizio
Pollini as part of the Perspectives Series. Ms. Farina has also performed as guest artist
with the Bachmann-Klibonoff-Fridman Trio on their series at the Morgan Library and
with pianist Michael Boriskin and Music from the Copland House.
Peter Seidenberg began his studies at the age of six. His first teacher, with whom he
studied for twelve years, was Nell Novak of the Music Center of the North Shore in
Winnetka, Illinois. After high school he went on to receive his Bachelor of Music degree
from the Eastman School of Music and his Masters degree from the New England
Conservatory, graduating from both schools with the highest honors. During the course of
his study, Mr. Seidenberg was awarded the prestigious Eastman School of Music
Performer's Certificate as well as an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of
Music. His principal teachers have included Paul Katz, Bernard Greenhouse and Alan
Harris.
As a chamber musician and soloist, Mr. Seidenberg has played throughout Europe,
America and Asia. He made his concerto debut in 1983 with the Chicago Symphony and
has since gone on to play solos with the De Paul Chamber Orchestra, the EastmanRochester Philharmonic, the New American Chamber Orchestra, and the Century
Orchestra of Osaka, Japan. His chamber music partners have not only included members
of major orchestras such as Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York, but also
major pianists such as Richard Goode, Andras Schiff and Mitsuko Uchida. Further, he
played with members of the Cleveland, Juilliard and Emerson String Quartets and has
participated in the Marlboro, Aspen and Norfolk summer music festivals.
Mr. Seidenberg has recorded for RCA and Pantheon. Radio broadcasts have included
appearances on French National Radio, Air Aspana, Scandinavian National Radio, and
Asahi and NHK Broadcasting in Japan.