sa国际传媒官网网页入口

The Isidore String Quartet, one of the world鈥檚 premier string ensembles, is coming to sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Academy鈥檚 Simms Auditorium this Sunday, April 13.

Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher career grant and the 14th Banff International String Quartet competition in 2022, the four met as students at Juilliard and formed their quartet in 2019. They鈥檝e been performing together ever since.

The ensemble鈥檚 two violinists, Phoenix Avalon and Adrian Steele, it turns out, have New Mexico ties.

鈥淧hoenix grew up in Santa Fe,鈥� Steele said. 鈥淎nd I actually grew up going down to sa国际传媒官网网页入口 a lot (from Seattle), because we have family friends down there.鈥�

He is looking forward to returning as part of Isidore鈥檚 current tour.

鈥淚t鈥檚 beautiful,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd the food there is one of my favorite things ever.鈥�

The quartet will perform works by Joseph Haydn, Billy Childs, Erwin Schulhoff and Anton铆n Dvor谩k.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a super fun program with lots of drama,鈥� Steele said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 also a lot of dance music. I think that鈥檚 one of the fun things, especially in the Schulhoff, which has these five different kinds of stylized dances. They鈥檙e super vocative.鈥�

In addition to the two violinists, there is a viola player, Devin Moore, and a cellist, Joshua McClendon.

鈥淥ne of the funny things about our group is that all of us started on violin, and then Josh and Devon both eventually switched,鈥� Steele said.

Steele said the members of the ensemble put their own emotions into all the pieces they perform.

鈥淧art of the beauty of being a musician is being able to take the experiences that you have as a person 鈥� and you know music is a reflection on life 鈥� and to not only reflect our own experiences, but to create a narrative and a music that can also reflect the experiences of the people that are listening,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e can create a bond between us as musicians and the community that we are playing for.鈥�

It requires a high degree of emotional intelligence to put authentic feelings into pieces of music written by other composers. It also requires thinking and interpreting beyond what鈥檚 on the page.

鈥淣otation only goes so far,鈥� Steele said. 鈥淎 dotted eighth note from Dvor谩k might mean something totally different from a dotted eighth note in one of the Schulhoff dances that we鈥檙e playing. So, not only are you looking at the music, you鈥檙e also looking at the context of the music and the narrative. That鈥檚 something that we as a group try to focus on.鈥�

Some pieces have a built-in narrative.

鈥淲ith Billy (Childs), his piece talks about going through the five stages of grief, and we get to figure out where the music corresponds to those stages,鈥� Steele said.

Over the years, the quartet has developed an intimate connection to the works of the contemporary Grammy-winning composer Childs. They are performing Childs鈥� 鈥淯nrequited鈥� this season, and they will debut a new piece next season that the composer is writing especially for them.

Some compositions are more abstract and open to interpretation. In those cases, the musicians spend time developing their own narrative ideas.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an adventure with every piece,鈥� Steele said, 鈥渢o figure out where those narratives are, and how we build them.鈥�

String theory: Award-winning Isidore Quartet to play sa国际传媒官网网页入口 concert