WHAT: Arod Quartet from Paris performs works by Mozart, Bartók and Ravel for string quartet
presented by Friends of Chamber Music and Concerts on Carter Creek
WHEN: Friday, April 1, 2022, at 7 p.m.
WHERE: First Presbyterian Church, 1100 Carter Creek Pkwy, Bryan
DETAILS: Concert and Forum are free and open to the public.
No registration is required to attend in person. Register for livestream at fcmtx.org.
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Arod Quartet is at the forefront of the younger generation of string quartets, praised by the classical music magazine, Gramophone, for its “expressive flexibility and delicacy of detail and keen ear for balance and harmonic flux” and hailed by Le Monde as a “luxury instrument that many composers dream to seize." The Paris-based ensemble skyrocketed to international attention when it won the coveted First Prize at the 2016 ARD International Music Competition in Munich and went on to serve as a BBC New Generation Artist from 2017-2019. The quartet has performed at many prestigious concert halls around the world, including the Philharmonie de Paris in their hometown, New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
The concert program will present three distinct compositional styles through works by Mozart, Bartók, and Ravel that are some of the best in the string quartet repertoire. After their Bryan performance, the musicians will answer questions from the audience at the Artists’ Forum that traditionally follows each concert presented by Friends of Chamber Music. Prior to the start of the concert, students of Andrew Nguyễn from College Station High School (cellists Hannah Jeong and Sasha Ostrovsky and contrabassists Christine Kim and Porto Ortiz-Arrieta) will play music by Brahms, Dietrich, Czerny, Gounod, and Schumann as audience members enter the First Presbyterian Church's sanctuary.
In addition to their local performance, the Arod Quartet will present a short educational program for students at Texas A&M University for the Philharmonic Orchestra class of Travis Almany, director of orchestras and associate director of bands. Students who take this class are non-music majors pursing Engineering, Science, Math, and many other degrees. The artists will also participate in a group interview conducted by students from the writing class of Dr. Dale Rice, professor of journalism studies at TAMU. Each student will then write an in-depth story, and the best story, selected by Dr. Rice, will be published on the Friends of Chamber Music's website.
The Quartet takes its name from Legolas’s horse in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy; in Tolkien’s mythic Rohirric language, Arod means "swift." Mécénat Musical Société Générale is the Arod’s principal sponsor, and the ensemble is the 2016 HSBC Laureate of the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en- Provence.
Violinists Jordan Victoria and Alexandre Vu are loan recipients of composite Stradivari and Guadagnini violins through the Beare’s International Violin Society. Violist Tanguy Parisot performs on the composite instrument by Carlo Ferdinando Landolphi, Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza from 1775, and cellist Jérémy Garbarg performs on an instrument made by Giovanni Battista Ruggieri circa 1700.
The live, in-person concert will be also available online at the time of the event and later, released for an extended period of time on the Friends of Chamber Music's YouTube channel and accessible with registration at fcmtx.org. All events are free and open for the community.
For more information regarding Arod String Quartet, visit quatuorarod.com/en/,
