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QUARTET WINS COMPETITIONS Jessica Stark Media Relations Specialist Email: stark@rice.edu The Jasper String Quartet, the graduate quartet-in-residence at the Shepherd School of Music, has recently won the grand prize and the audience prize at the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, as well as the grand prize at the 2008 Coleman Chamber Music Competition.
Finally, the musicians, who are graduating in May, will study with the Tokyo String Quartet at Yale University in the fall. The Jasper String Quartet comprises John Freivogel, Sam Quintal and Rachel Henderson, graduate students in music, and Sae Niwa, a visiting scholar at the Shepherd School. The Jasper String Quartet is currently the graduate quartet-in-residence at Rice University. Recent winners of the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, as well as the Grand Prize at the 2008 Coleman competition, the quartet looks forward to a busy schedule of competitions and performances in the coming months. Upon their graduation from Rice this spring, the quartet will continue their studies at Yale University, studying with the Tokyo String Quartet. Formed at Oberlin Conservatory in 2003, they immediately gained attention, winning the Oberlin-Smithsonian fellowship twice in their first two years, followed by the Presser Music Award in 2004, and the Kauffman Chamber Music Prize three times. Performance highlights include appearances at the Kennedy Center, Paul Hall, Harris Hall (Aspen, CO), the Vigeland Museum (Oslo, Norway), and on the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music and Santa Fe Pro Musica Series. The Jasper Quartet collaborates with pianists, vocalists, dancers, and visual artists. They are dedicated to presenting contemporary music, as well as standard repertoire, to a broad audience. The Jaspers attended the Aspen Music Festival’s Advanced String Quartet Program from 2004-2006. Last summer, they studied at the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. As representatives of the 9th Banff International Quartet Competition, they embarked on “guerilla chamber music”, performing concerts in unusual settings around Alberta. The Jasper Quartet has studied with members of today’s premiere quartets including the Axelrod, Brentano, Cleveland, Concord, Emerson, Juilliard, Miro, Pacifica, St. Lawrence, Takacs, Tokyo and Vermeer Quartets. Darrett Adkins and Gregory Fulkerson were their primary coaches in Oberlin; at the Shepherd School of Music they study with James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith. The Jasper Quartet is named for Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. |
