2020 Ensemble-In-Residence: The Borromeo String Quartet

Each visionary performance of the award-winning Borromeo String Quartet strengthens and deepens its reputation as one of the most important ensembles of our time. Admired and sought after for both its fresh interpretations of the classical music canon and its championing of works by 20th and 21st century composers, the ensemble has been hailed for its “edge-of-the- seat performances,” by the Boston Globe, which called it “simply the best.” Inspiring audiences for more than 25 years, the Borromeo continues to be a pioneer in its use of technology, and has the trailblazing distinction of being the first string quartet to utilize laptop computers on the concert stage. Reading music this way helps push artistic boundaries, allowing the artists to perform solely from 4-part scores and composers’ manuscripts, a revealing and metamorphic experience which these dedicated musicians now teach to students around the world. As the New York Timesnoted, “The digital tide washing over society is lapping at the shores of classical music. The Borromeo players have embraced it in their daily musical lives like no other major chamber music group.” Moreover, the Quartet often leads discussions enhanced by projections of handwritten manuscripts, investigating with the audience the creative process of the composer. And in 2003 the Borromeo became the first classical ensemble to make its own live concert recordings and videos, distributing them for many years to audiences through its Living Archive, a music learning web portal for which a new version will soon be released.  Passionate educators, the Borromeos encourage audiences of all ages to explore and listen to both traditional and contemporary repertoire in new ways. The ensemble uses multi-media tools such as video projection to share the often surprising creative process behind some works, or to show graphically the elaborate architecture behind others. This produces delightfully refreshing viewpoints and has been a springboard for its acclaimed young people’s programs. One such program is MATHEMUSICA which delves into the numerical relationships that under-pin the sounds of music and show how musical syntax mirrors natural forms. CLASSIC VIDEO uses one movement of a quartet as the platform from which to teach computer drawing, video editing, animation, musical form and production processes to create a meaningful joining of music and visual art.  The BSQ has been ensemble-in-residence at the New England Conservatory and Taos School of Music, both for 25 years, as well as at the Heifetz International Music Institute, where first violinist Nicholas Kitchen is Artistic Director. The quartet was also in residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for more than two decades, where it continues to regularly appear, and has worked extensively as performers and educators with the Library of Congress (highlighting both its manuscripts and instrument collections) and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The ensemble joined the Emerson Quartet as the 2014-15 Hittman Ensembles in Residence at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and also recently was in residence at Colorado State University, Kansas University, and the San Francisco Conservatory. The BSQ’s presentation of the cycle of Bartók String Quartets as well as its lecture “BARTÓK: PATHS NOT TAKEN,” both of which give audiences a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear a set of rediscovered alternate movements Béla Bartók drafted for his six Quartets, has received accolades. Describing a Bartók concert at the Curtis Institute, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that the quartet “performed at a high standard that brought you so deeply into the music's inner workings that you wondered if your brain could take it all in ... The music's mystery, violence, and sorrow become absolutely inescapable.” The Quartet has collaborated with some of this generation’s most important composers, including Gunther Schuller, John Cage, György Ligeti, Steve Reich, Aaron Jay Kernis, Osvaldo Golijov, Jennifer Higdon, Steve Mackey, John Harbison, Sebastian Currier, and Leon Kirchner, among many others; and has performed on major concert stages across the globe, including appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall (Tokyo), the Concertgebouw, Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Incontri in Terra di Siena Chamber Music Festival in Tuscany, Kammermusik Basel (Switzerland), the Prague Spring Festival, and the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt.

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Jeffrey Silberschlag: Conductor, Alba Festival Co-Director

Jeffrey Silberschlag is music director and conductor of the Chesapeake Orchestra and River Concert Series, and serves as artistic director and head of music performance at St. Mary's College of Maryland where he is the Steven Muller Distinguished Professor in the Arts. He has appeared as guest conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Soloists, Orchestra Filharmonici di Torino, Symphony Orchestra of Rumania, Bulgarian Philharmonic, La Scala Virtuosi, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, and the Moscow Academy Chamber Orchestra.  He also collaborated which such soloists Anne Akiko Myers, Mikhail Gantwarg, Hilary Hahn, Yi Jia Hou, and Lara St. John (violinists). In 2011 he received the Prize for Artistic and Cultural Activities from European Union of the Arts for his lifetime achievement in classical music as a conductor and trumpeter.  Mr. Silberschlag is also a prominent trumpet performer on the international music circuit and has recorded as trumpet soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Czech Radio Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Maryland Bach Aria Group.  He held principal trumpet positions with the Italian National Symphony RAI-Torino, Jerusalem Symphony, and the New York City Opera-National Company.

Giuseppe Nova: Flute, Alba Festival Co-Director

A graduate from the Conservatory in Turin and Conservatoire Supérieur de Lyon, where he studied with the celebrated Maxence Larrieu, Giuseppe Nova has been described as one of the most outstanding Italian flutists of his generation. Mr. Nova made his debut in 1982 as a soloist with the RAI Symphony Orchestra, and has gone on to perform in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe, the United States and Asia (Japan, Thailand, China, Korea, Singapore). Soloist with several Orchestras, such as Prague Virtuosi, Ensemble of Tokyo, Orchestre de Cannes Côte d'Azur, Camerata Bohemica, Arena di Verona Orchestra, Turin Philharmonic, Tübinger Kammerorchester, Thailand Philharmonic, West Bohemian Symphony orchestra, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Chesapeake Orchestra, Astana Symphony Orchestra, Pavlodar Philharmonic, North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Petrapavlosk Philharmonic Orchestra, Filarmonica Cervantes, Pardubice Philharmonic Orchestra in prestigious concert halls and Festivals, like Suntory Hall Tokyo, Rome Parco della Musica, Umbria Jazz, Washington Italian Embassy, Esterhàzy Castle, Teatro Filarmonico in Verona. 

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