The Peru Gazette

The Alexander String Quartet has performed in the major music capitals of five continents, securing its standing among the world’s premier ensembles and a major artistic presence in its home base of San Francisco, serving since 1989 as Ensemble-in-Residence of San Francisco Performances and Directors of The Morrison Chamber Music Center Instructional Program at San Francisco State University. Widely admired for its interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, and Shostakovich, the quartet’s recordings have won international critical acclaim. They have established themselves as important advocates of new music, commissioning dozens of new works from composers, including Jake Heggie, Augusta Read Thomas, Paul Siskind, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Wayne Peterson. 

The Alexander String Quartet’s annual calendar includes engagements at major halls throughout North America and Europe. They have appeared at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, and the Metropolitan Museum; Jordan Hall; the Library of Congress; and chamber music societies and universities across the North American continent, including Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Lewis and Clark, Pomona, UCLA, the Krannert Center, Purdue and many more. Recent overseas tours include the U.K., Czech Republic, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Greece, the Republic of Georgia, Argentina, Panamá, and the Philippines. Their visit to Poland’s Beethoven Easter Festival is beautifully captured in the 2017 award-winning documentary Con Moto: The Alexander String Quartet.

The Alexander String Quartet performs at the Saranac Methodist Church on Route 3 in Saranac, New York on Sunday, October 2 at 3:00 pm.  The program features Mozart’s String Quartet No. 22 in B-flat major, K589; Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13; and Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10. They play on a matched set of instruments made in San Francisco by Francis Kuttner, known as the Ellen M. Egger quartet.

Admission at the door is $15 general; $12 seniors; $5 students; free for children under 12.  Current public health guidelines will be followed. For further information please telephone 518-293-7613, e-mail ambrown.hillholl@gmail.com or visit hillandhollowmusic.org

Weatherwatch Farm  •  550 Number 37 Road  •  Saranac NY 12981 

518-293-7613 •  ambrown.hillholl@gmail.com  •  www.hillandhollowmusic.org

More About the Alexander String Quartet

Zakarias Grafilo, violin • Frederick Lifsitz, violin • David Samuel, viola • Sandy Wilson, cello

“Dream-come-true performances from the excellent Alexander Quartet.” — BOSTON GLOBE

“This is a group deep in its element, firm in its stride.”  — LOS ANGELES TIMES

Distinguished musicians with whom the Alexander String Quartet has collaborated include pianists Joyce Yang, Roger Woodward, Menachem Pressler, Marc-André Hamelin, and Jeremy Menuhin; clarinetists Joan Enric Lluna, Richard Stoltzman, and Eli Eban; soprano Elly Ameling; mezzo-sopranos Joyce DiDonato and Kindra Scharich; violinist Midori; violist Toby Appel; cellists Lynn Harrell, Sadao Harada, and David Requiro; and jazz greats Branford Marsalis, David Sanchez, and Andrew Speight. The quartet has worked with many composers including Aaron Copland, George Crumb, and Elliott Carter, and enjoys a close relationship with composer-lecturer Robert Greenberg, performing numerous lecture-concerts with him annually.

Recording for the FoghornClassics label, their 2021 recording of the complete string quartet of Brahms has been praised by MusicWeb International: “The joy of this quartet’s playing is immediately apparent in the ferocious opening movement of the C minor quartet: they play with all the verve, drive and passion you could wish for but never at the expense of homogeneity or intonation – and the sustained warmth and depth of their string tone are a constant delight.” Fanfare lauded their 2020 release of the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets (with Eli Eban) as “clearly one of the Alexander Quartet’s finest releases.” Their release in 2019 of Dvořák’s “American” quartet and piano quintet (with Joyce Yang) was selected by MusicWeb International as a featured recording of the year, praising it for interpretations performed “with the bright-eyed brilliance of first acquaintance.” Also released in 2019 was a recording of the Late Quartets of Mozart, receiving critical acclaim (“Exceptionally beautiful performances of some extraordinarily beautiful music.” –Fanfare), as did their 2018 release of Mozart’s Piano Quartets with Joyce Yang. (“These are by far, hands down and feet up, the most amazing performances of Mozart’s two piano quartets that have ever graced these ears” –Fanfare.) Other major releases have included the combined string quartet cycles of Bartók and Kodály (“If ever an album had ‘Grammy nominee’ written on its front cover, this is it.” –Audiophile Audition); the string quintets and sextets of Brahms with violist Toby Appel and cellist David Requiro (“a uniquely detailed, transparent warmth” –Strings Magazine); the Schumann and Brahms piano quintets with Joyce Yang (“passionate, soulful readings of two pinnacles of the chamber repertory” –The New York Times); and the Beethoven cycle (“A landmark journey through the greatest of all quartet cycles” –Strings Magazine). Their catalog also includes the Shostakovich cycle, Mozart’s Ten Famous Quartets, and the Mahler Song Cycles in new transcriptions by Zakarias Grafilo.

The Alexander String Quartet formed in New York City in 1981, capturing international attention as the first American quartet to win the London (now Wigmore) International String Quartet Competition in 1985. The quartet has received honorary degrees from Allegheny College and Saint Lawrence University, and Presidential medals from Baruch College (CUNY). 

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts.