Marshalltown
Community Concert Association
Monday, November 14,
2011 - 7:00 p.m.
Carpe Diem String Quartet
[Click Here MCCA Home Page]
[Click Here -
Carpe Diem String Quartet Web Site]
 Carpe
Diem String Quartet
Monday,
November 14, 2011 - 7:00 P.M.
A classical string quartet that rocks? Yes! Carpe
Diem String Quartet is an exciting group that is becoming one of the most
versatile ensembles of their generation. The group performs the classical
string quartet repertoire, but their musical passion has led them down the
paths of Gypsy, tango, folk, pop, rock, and jazz-inspired music. Carpe
Diem’s latest disc was selected for the 2009 Grammy Awards Entry List in no
fewer than four categories: Best Classical Album, Best Chamber Music
Performance, Best New Artist, and Best Engineered Album-Classical. With outside-the-box programs, electrifying
performances, and a passion for audience engagement, Carpe Diem has earned
critical acclaim and concert ovation.
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A classical string quartet that rocks? Yes!
Carpe Diem String Quartet is quickly becoming the
premiere American “Indie” string quartet. The group performs the classical
string quartet repertoire, but their musical passion has led them down the paths
of Gypsy, tango, folk, pop, rock, and jazz-inspired music. Collaborations that
showcase Carpe Diem’s outside-the-box programs include concerts with Graeme
Boone, banjo; Peter Soave, accordion/ bandoneon; and Willy Porter, guitarist and
songwriter. Their inventive school and outreach programs even make use of video
game songs, along with TV and movie theme music such as “The Simpsons.”
Recent projects include “Montana,” a new work written
by quartet member and Montana native Korine Fujiwara, which draws on the
composer’s roots in improvisational folk fiddling and never fails to leave
audiences wowed.
Carpe Diem’s latest disc was selected for the 2009
Grammy Awards Entry List in no fewer than four categories: Best Classical Album,
Best Chamber Music Performance, Best New Artist, and Best Engineered
Album-Classical.
Carpe Diem String Quartet, in residence at Ohio
Wesleyan University, is an exciting ensemble that has captured the imagination
of audiences, the respect of critics, and is one of the most versatile quartets
of their generation. Carpe Diem has earned critical acclaim with innovative
programming, electrifying performances, and a passion for audience engagement.
The group’s musical passion has led them down the paths of gypsy, tango, folk,
pop, rock, and jazz inspired music, but the quartet is equally at home with the
traditional string quartet repertoire. Carpe Diem has become the premier
American indie string quartet.
This season, Carpe Diem continues several ambitious
projects, including the complete recordings of the nine string quartets of
Sergey Taneyev on the Naxos label. The quartet continues its collaboration with
Columbus Dance Theater. Their joint project, “The String Machine,” was aired by
WOSU-PBS television. Carpe Diem has created an exciting program with
international accordion and bandoneon performer Peter Soave, "¡Viva Piazzolla!”
This program was featured at the prestigious Fontana Music Festival. This
season, Carpe Diem is launching a dynamic new concert series in Columbus called
“Seize the Music.”
Defying easy classification, the quartet continues to
break boundaries and push the limits of the classical string quartet. Carpe Diem
writes, arranges and performs music of all styles, and works with artists of
many different genres. The quartet recently performed with American
songwriter/guitarist Willy Porter, and the CD of their live concert will be
available in fall of 2010. Also this year Carpe Diem will be collaborating with
Latin Grammy winner Raul Juarena. Carpe Diem was recently featured in Strings
magazine, highlighting their unique and innovative vision for chamber music. The
quartet has a busy recording schedule, and continues its project of recording
the nine string quartets of Sergey Taneyev for the Naxos label. The first CD of
this series was selected for the 51st Grammy Awards Entry List (2009) in four
categories: Best Classical Album, Best Chamber Music Performance, Best New
Artist, and Best Engineered Album-Classical. The quartet is the resident
ensemble for Columbus Dance Theater, and their joint project The String Machine
was aired by WOSU-PBS television through 2007-2008, and nominated for an Emmy
award.
The quartet is committed to changing the concert experience of chamber music.
Using innovative programming, thematic concerts, and popular music for younger
generations, cameras and video to assist in the visual presentation, as well as
speaking from the stage to better engage the audience, Carpe Diem is bringing
new audiences into the concert hall and revitalizing the chamber music
experience.
The quartet, violinists Charles Wetherbee and John Ewing, violist Korine
Fujiwara and cellist Kristin Ostling, is dedicated to music education and
outreach, and regularly performs educational programs specifically designed to
relate to students of all ages and establish classical music's relevance to
their lives. Carpe Diem has developed three engagement programs by which they
accomplish this – MusiCare, Music Goes to School, and carpe_diem_ kids@harrisonpark.
MusiCare concerts are offered to those unable to attend regular concerts. This
includes: free performances at senior citizen communities, hospice centers,
hospitals, and Alzheimer care units. This year, the quartet will be expanding
MusiCare to include visits to the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center.
This will be a unique and unprecedented expansion. Until now, no performing arts
organization has ever taken on the mission of reaching out to the troubled young
people in this facility.Music Goes to School gives Central Ohio schools the
opportunity to have CDSQ come right to their classroom – up close and personal.
We are proud to announce that next season we will team up with the Columbus Head
Start Centers, offering a quality musical experience to pre-school age children
in Columbus.
carpe_diem_kids@harrisonpark is a series of free family concerts performed in
the Columbus community of Harrison West. Students and their parents join CDSQ
for an hour of intimate, interactive music making. With the younger listener in
mind, we engage the audience with playful musical selections, discussion, and
question-and-answer time.
Carpe Diem champions the music of living composers, and has premiered and given
first Mid-West performances of works by Frank Bennett, Danny Elfman, Ken Fuchs,
Korine Fujiwara, Osvaldo Golijov, Andre Hajdu, Donald Harris, Jennifer Higdon,
Jonathan Leshnoff, Nicholas Maw, William Thomas McKinley, Clancy Newman, Carter
Pann, Kevin Putts, Eric Sawyer, Gunther Schuller, Richard Smoot, and Bruce
Wolosoff, among others.
Charles Wetherbee, Violin
Violinist Charles Wetherbee has performed as a soloist and chamber musician
throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Canada, Mexico,
and the United States. He has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, the Garth
Newell Center, the Hidden Valley Festival, the Roycroft Chamber Festival, the
Nouvelle Academie International d’Été (Nice, France), the Olympic Music
Festival, the MidAmerica Music Festival, and at Strings in the Mountains in
Steamboat, CO. Charles has been the Concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony
Orchestra following his appointment in 1994.
A native of Buffalo, New York, Charles gave his first performances at age six.
He made his debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under Symon Bychkov,
and since then has performed with the National Symphony under Mstislav
Rostropovitch, as well as the Alexandria Symphony, the Concerto Soloists of
Philadelphia, the Minnesota Synphonia, the National Repertory Orchestra, the
Orchestra Nacional de Mexico, the Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute,
the Virginia Symphony, the Kyoto Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Academic
Orchestra of St. Petersburg, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and the Iris
Chamber Orchestra, among others. In 1988, he toured Asia, including performances
in Seoul, Korea as part of the 88 Olympic Arts Festival. In the same year he
also made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim. In 1990, he
traveled to the Persian Gulf to perform for the men and women of the armed
services. The Washington Post called Wetherbee “a consummate artist...with
flawless technique”. The Virginia Pilot said that he “...gave a performance of
great conviction and emotion”.
A devoted chamber musician, Charles is a founding member of the Carpe Diem
String Quartet, with whom he tours and performs regularly. Charles is on faculty
at Ohio Wesleyan University. He is also the Artistic Director of the Marble
Cliff Chamber Players, a music festival based in Columbus, Ohio. He is founding
member of Opus 3 piano trio, and with Opus 3 has performed in the French,
German, Austrian, and Dutch embassies, as well as the Terrace Theater of the
Kennedy Center, the National Gallery, the Corcoran Gallery, Strathmore Hall, and
throughout the eastern United States. He is also the artistic director of the
Snake River Chamber Players, in Keystone, Colorado.
Charles is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with
Aaron Rosand. Other mentors include Sylvia Rosenberg, Karen Tuttle, and Felix
Galimir. As a recording artist, he is represented on Naxos, the Vienna Modern
Classics, as well as the Cascade labels. In 2002, Charles was fortunate to
acquire a violin made by Kurt Widenhouse.
John Ewing, Violin
Violinist John Ewing is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Music
where he studied with Ruggiero Ricci and James Buswell. John also attended the
Meadowmount School of Music, studying with Sally Thomas, Paul Mackanowitzky, and
Ivan Galamian. Upon graduation from Indiana University, John moved to Brisbane,
Australia, where he was the associate concertmaster of the Queensland Symphony
Orchestra.
Tearing himself away from the beautiful beaches of Australia, John returned to
the US to become the concertmaster of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in Fort Wayne,
Indiana. From Fort Wayne he relocated to Savannah, Georgia, where he was the
concertmaster of the Savannah Symphony Orchestra. During this same period, John
participated in the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, and Spoleto, Italy.
Prior to joining Carpe Diem, John held the position of principal second
violinist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
John is married and has one son. His wife Mindy is a flutist in the Columbus
Symphony Orchestra. They met while participating in the Spoleto Festival in
Italy. Their son Steven is currently a student at Indiana University. John is an
avid boater. When not busy with his musical pursuits, you will most likely find
him on his boat somewhere in the middle of Lake Erie. John performs on a violin
made for him in 2008 by Kurt Widenhouse.
Korine Fujiwara, Viola
Montana native Korine Fujiwara holds degrees from The Juilliard School and
Northwestern University, where she studied violin with Joseph Fuchs and Myron
Kartman, respectively. Her other mentors include Harvey Shapiro, Robert Mann,
and Joel Krosnik.
Ms. Fujiwara is a founding member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, a devoted
and sought-after chamber musician, and a gifted composer and arranger. She is a
member of the Duvall Piano Trio, the ensemble-in-residence at Ohio Wesleyan
University, where she is also Instructor of Violin and Viola. She is a founding
member of the Marble Cliff Chamber Players, based in Columbus and Delaware,
Ohio. She has also been heard throughout the Northwest United States on public
radio as a performer at the Olympic Music Festival in Seattle, Washington with
members of the Philadelphia String Quartet. Critics have described her
performances as “engaging” and “with finesse and perfection.” Korine performs
annually with the Snake River Chamber Players in Keystone, Colorado.
She has been invited to participate in numerous music festivals, including the
MidAmerica Chamber Music Festival, the Victoria International Festival, the
Aspen Music Festival, the Focus! Festival of 20th Century Music at Lincoln
Center, and the Summergarden Festival at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
City, where she collaborated with composer John Cage. She was an
Artist/Teacher-in-residence with the Icelandic Youth Orchestra in Reykjavik,
Iceland.
Ms. Fujiwara has received many awards and prizes, including the Hjalmer and Emma
Kivekas Award, the Raymond Cerf Memorial Scholarship in Violin, and the Fetzer
Prize for outstanding performance. She is a member of the music honorary society
Pi Kappa Lambda.
One of Central Ohio’s most sought-after teachers, students of Ms. Fujiwara have
been accepted into the performance programs of such institutions as Indiana
University, Cincinnati College Conservatory, and Northwestern University, to
continue their musical studies. Korine began her orchestral career with the
Brooklyn Philharmonic. She has been a member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra
since 2001, and prior to that, she was a principal player and soloist with
ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. Korine performs on a viola made for her in 2004 by
Kurt Widenhouse.
Kristin Ostling, Cello
Cellist Kristin Ostling comes to the Carpe Diem String Quartet as a veteran of
the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a 1995 appointee of then conductor David
Zinman.
Kristin is a graduate of both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Mannes
College of Music, where she received the Mannes College Performance Award. Her
teachers have included Orlando Cole, Paul Tobias, Susannah Onwood, and Robert
Story.
This superlative and versatile artist is enjoying a varied career as chamber
musician, soloist, symphony cellist, and rock musician. She has been featured as
a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, as well as in chamber music roles with
some of the world's most prominent musicians, a roster that includes Pinchas
Zukerman, Ralph Kirschbaum, and BSO concertmaster Jonathan Carney. In addition,
she serves as principal cellist with the Emmy-winning Baltimore Choral Arts
Society, a post she has held since 2002. In addition, she has found time to make
guest appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Concerto Soloists of
Philadelphia, and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Ostling began her cello studies in Louisville, KY where, as a winner of the
Young Artists Competition, she appeared as a soloist with the Louisville
Orchestra. Since then she has appeared as soloist and chamber musician at
countless venues and festivals throughout the world, including Lincoln Center,
the Kennedy Center, the German and Icelandic Embassies in Washington, D.C., the
U.S. State Department, ”Bargemusic,” the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s “
SummerFest,” the Pensacola Chamber Music Festival, the Academia Musicale
Chigiana in Siena, Italy, the Baltimore Symphony’s “Chamber Music by
Candlelight,” Concert Artists of Baltimore, the UMBC Chamber Music Series,”
Sundays at Three” of Columbia ,MD, the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, and The
Snake River Chamber Players. She recently gave the world premiere of composer
Larry Hoffman’s Blues Suite for Solo Violoncello.
In addition to playing the traditional classical repertoire, Kristin is also one
of a handful of cellists exploring the genre of rock cello. She can be heard on
the Rock Album Southern Barber Supply by the Cashmere Jungle Lords, and recently
joined the rock cello band Primitivity, whose first album was greeted with rave
reviews. Footage from Primitivity’s concerts has been featured on many top
websites. An honorary member of The Sofa Kings of Pittsburgh, Kristin can also
be heard on a rare Wednesday night off playing “open mike” night at Hula’s Bar
in California, MD.
Kristin plays a cello by Giacomo Rivolta (Milan,1828),as well as a bow by J.
Arthur Vigneron, c 1908.
[Click Here -
Carpe Diem String Quartet Web Site]
[Click Here MCCA Home Page]
