Presented by the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild
and the North Carolina Museum of Art
SITE: NC Museum of Art Map
2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh
PROGRAM
INFORMATION & TICKET SALES
- NCMA Box Office (919) 715-5923
- Raleigh Chamber Music Guild (919) 821-2030
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The Ciompi Quartet has a distinguished past stretching back almost forty years to its founding in 1965 by the renowned Italian violinist Giorgio Ciompi. The group currently travels widely, to destinations in Europe, the U.S., and Asia, while it continues to play a leading role in the cultural life of its home state, North Carolina.
Performances by the Ciompi Quartet have a reputation for intelligence and musical sophistication, as well as for a unanimity of musical intent that highlights the individual voices of its players. With a rare maturity and insight born of its considerable experience on the concert stage, the Ciompi Quartet projects the heart and soul of the music, in a repertoire that ranges from well-known masterpieces to works by today's most communicative composers.
In 2003-04 the Ciompi Quartet are touring as far afield as China and Germany, with concerts planned across the US. Summer engagements include the Monadnock festival in New Hampshire and North Carolina's Eastern Music Festival, as well as the Quartet's own summer series at Duke University. The Ciompi members' skill as teachers has led to frequent invitations for college residencies, most recently at Dartmouth College and St. Lawrence University, where the quartet returns this winter.
Musical collaborations this year include the distinguished talents of pianist Menahem Pressler, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and soprano Susan Narucki. The latter two will perform world premieres with the Ciompi Quartet, reflecting the Quartet's strong and sustained desire to program creatively, often mixing the old with the brand new, in ways that it believes will energize and intrigue its audiences.
The Quartet's extensive record of commissions includes many strong works that it continues to play on tour. This past year a commission from composer Paul Schoenfield produced a major new work for quartet, while the coming season promises more, with the arrival of Scott Lindroth's song cycle on text by the poet Rumi, written for the Ciompi and Ms. Narucki. This year will also see the release of the Quartet's latest CD, of 20th century music for quartet and voice, featuring Ms. Narucki and tenor Stephen Tharp. Numerous other discs by the Ciompi Quartet are on the CRI, Arabesque, Albany, Gasparo, and Sheffield Lab labels, with music from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, up through the present.
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