Music in the Great Hall

 

Music in the Great Hall: Jasper String Quartet


 

The Department of Music, Theatre and Film presents Music in the Great Hall: Jasper String Quartet on April 24, 2025 at 7:30 PM in the Frances M. Maguire Art Museum. The program includes quartets by Haydn, Prokofiev, and 2025 String Commission unglove by Suzanne Sorkin. 

Admission is free and all are welcome! Doors will open at 7:00 PM.

Music in the Great Hall is open to the public – no tickets are required. However, limited reserved seating is available for visitors outside of the university community up to one week prior to the event. Once the reserved seating is fulfilled, seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. To reserve seats for an upcoming Music in the Great Hall event, please submit this form by 3:00 PM on 4/17/25.

There is a suggested donation of $20.00 for visitors outside of the university community. Donations can be made by placing your cash or check in the Department of Music, Theatre & Film collection box located in the museum lobby.
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Celebrated as one of the preeminent American string quartets of the twenty-first century, the prizewinning Jasper String Quartet is hailed as being “flawless in ensemble and intonation, expressively assured and beautifully balanced” (Gramophone). The Quartet is highly regarded for its “programming savvy” (ClevelandClassical.com), which strives to evocatively connect the music of underrepresented and living composers to the canonical repertoire through thoughtful programs that appeal to a wide variety of audiences.

A recipient of Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award (2012), the Quartet’s playing has been described as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling” (The Strad). The ensemble has released eight albums, including its most recent release, Insects and Machines: Quartets of Vivian Fung (2023) which Strings Magazine praised as being “intensely dramatic throughout demonstrating both their advocacy of new music and their transcendent mastery.” The Quartet’s 2017 release, Unbound, was named by The New York Times as one of the year’s 25 Best Classical Recordings.

The Quartet will release new recordings in 2024 and 2025, including Reinaldo Moya’s Pájaros Garabatos with soprano Maria Brea in 2024, works by Tina Davidson with pianist Natalie Zhu in 2024, and Richard Festinger’s Quartet No. 5 in 2025. In celebration of its Twentieth Anniversary in 2026-27, the Quartet has commissioned new works from composers Patrick Castillo, Brittany J. Green, Reinaldo Moya and Michelle Ross.

The Jasper String Quartet is passionate about connecting with audiences beyond the concert hall and is the Professional Quartet-in-Residence at Temple University’s Center for Gifted Young Musicians and Director of the annual Saint Paul Chamber Music Institute. The Quartet is Artistic Director of Jasper Chamber Concerts, a series in Philadelphia dedicated to encouraging curiosity, community, and inclusivity through world-class chamber performances.

The Jasper String Quartet is named after Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada and is represented by Suòno Artist Management. For more information, please visit jasperquartet.com.