Saturday, October 10th at 7:30 PM
The Boston Public Quartet will perform the String Quartet in A minor, Op 13 No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn and, with special guest Michael Norsworthy, perform the Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 by Johannes Brahms. $10 admission fee at the door.
The Boston Public Quartet is creating a new model for music performance and education that brings together musicians, teachers and families around the shared intention of student success. In this model music is not just a lesson or a concert, but a means of transformation and connection for students, families, teachers, musicians, and the larger community. The BPQ also seeks to provide a new model for musicians employed in social change, with chamber music at the center. Founded in 2007 by Betsy Hinkle, the quartet is in residence at the Chittick Elementary School in Mattapan, a Boston Public School where 100% of students qualify for free or reduced price school meals. Our in-school presentations, small group lessons, and after-school chamber music program are the only music at the school. The BPQ currently has 26 enrolled students, with 150 on the waiting list. All programming is provided free of charge, supported mainly by grants and donations. The quartet performs all over Boston and beyond feeling just as at home in traditional concert venues, such as St. Johns Church in Jamaica Plain, as they do performing at the Roslindale Farmers Market or the Boston Home in Dorchester. The present members of the BPQ are:
Betsy Hinkle, Founder, Director and Resident Musician (violin), received her Master of Music from the New England Conservatory in 2001. In addition to her work with the BPQ, she performs with the Boston Ballet Orchestra, the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, and the Boston Classical Orchestra. She also maintains a home studio in Roslindale.
Angela Leidig, violin, received her M.M. from Boston University, her B.A. in Music from Roanoke College and completed post graduate work at the University of Colorado. She is currently on faculty at Longy School of Music Preparatory Program teaching Suzuki violin and group classes. She has studied with Judith Ingolfsson, Ed Dusinberre of the Takacs Quartet, Bayla Keyes, Paul Kantor, Benedict Goodfriend, and Helen Kwalwasser. Angela has participated in numerous chamber ensembles, chamber music festivals, and masterclasses with instructors such as Anne Epperson, Erika Eckert, Judith Glyde, Roger Tapping, Pamela Frank, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, James Buswell, Seymour Lipkin, the Muir Quartet and the Takacs Quartet. Angela most recently was a member of Neftalí, a piano trio that performed versatile programs in and around the Boulder, CO area.
Ashleigh Gordon, Resident Musician (viola), is an active performer of contemporary music and has performed with the Callithumpium Consort in Jordan Hall, the Juventas, Xanthos and Ludovico New Music Ensembles, and on the airwaves of Radio Papesse in Florence, Italy. She has performed with the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra (CO), Atlantic Symphony (MA), Ohio Light Opera Company and Glens Falls Symphony (NY), with whom she has recorded under Mode Record Label. Off stage, Ashleigh maintains an active violin and viola studio at the South Shore Conservatory and North End Music and Performing Arts Center. Ashleigh is a graduate of the New England Conservatory where she studied with Carol Rodland and earned her Master of Music degree.
Kate Jensik, Resident Musician (cello), BM, Ithaca College; MM, The Boston Conservatory; Artists Diploma, Brandeis University; Certified Suzuki Instructor; master classes with Yo-Yo Ma, Benjamin Zander, and others. Performs with New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, Indian Hill Orchestra, and many other ensembles in the greater Boston area. Teaching experience: Ithaca College, Brandeis University, Indian Hill Music, Rivers Music School, and Powers Music School.
To check out BPQ on the web see: www.bostonpublicquartet.org/images/BPQandante.mp3 (may take a minute to load) and www.bostonpublicquartet.org
Michael Norsworthy, an acclaimed soloist (clarinet) and widely sought-after chamber music collaborator, has emerged as one of the most gifted artists of his generation. Michael Norsworthy's performances have taken him to distinguished concert venues throughout the world, including Vienna's Musikverein, Moscow's Tchaikovsky Philharmonie Hall, New York City's Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Metropolitan Opera and Miller Theatre, Boston's Jordan and Symphony Halls, St. Louis' Sheldon Concert Hall, Festival Casals de Puerto Rico and the Aspen Music Festival. Recent seasons have included world premieres of works written for him by Michael Finnissy, Chris Dench and Pozzi Escot, domestic and international recital tours with pianists Marilyn Nonken and Tyson Deaton, radio appearances on Boston's WGBH, multiple performances on the Composer Portraits Series at New York's Miller Theatre, recordings for the Mode, Gasparo, Canteloupe, BMOP Sound, Albany, Nonesuch and Cauchemar labels and performances with leading contemporary music groups, including Klangforum Wien, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Manhattan Sinfonietta, Fromm Players at Harvard, Boston Musica Viva, Callithumpian Consort, Ensemble 21 and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.
Mr. Norsworthy is one of the most celebrated champions of the modern repertoire and has given premieres of over 100 works in collaboration with composers Milton Babbitt, Harrison Birtwistle, Elliott Carter, Chris Dench, Pozzi Escot, Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Finnissy, Lukas Foss, Hans Werner Henze, Magnus Lindberg, Ralph Shapey and Marc Anthony Turnage, among many others. As soloist, Michael Norsworthy has performed an extensive repertoire of concerti, ranging from Mozart to Ferneyhough, with the Manhattan Sinfonietta, Kalistos Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Pottstown Symphony, Soria Chamber Players, Southern Illinois Symphony and Symphony Pro Musica, He has also collaborated with Tony Arnold, Patrick Demenga, Stephen Drury, Aleck Karis, John Zorn, the Borromeo String Quartet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and many players from major orchestras in Boston, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. Conductors he has worked with include Boulez, DePriest, Knussen, Levine, Milarsky, Muti, Robertson, Ozawa, Tilson Thomas and many others. Mr. Norsworthy is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, among them: The John Cage Award, Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award and Southern Illinois University's Chancellor's Research and Creativity Award, grants from the Yvar Mikahashoff Trust for New Music, St. Louis Artist Presentation Society and St. Botolph Club Foundation, as well as a fellowship from the Aspen Music Festival.
Mr. Norsworthy holds advanced degrees from New England Conservatory and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and has attended Michigan State University. His teachers included Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, Eric Mandat, Kalmen Opperman and Richard Stoltzman. He has previously served on the faculty of Columbia University and is currently artist in residence at Harvard University with the Harvard Group for New Music and Professor of Clarinet at The Boston Conservatory.
Michael Norsworthy plays exclusively on Buffet Clarinets and Rico Reserve reeds. He is a performing artist for Buffet Crampon, the Parisian firm that is the world's oldest and most distinguished clarinet maker and Rico International, the world's largest and most popular manufacturer of reeds. For more information, please visit: www.michaelnorsworthy.com
RECENT PRESS FOR MICHAEL NORSWORTHY:
"Norsworthy was a dramatic performer, with beautiful tonal nuances." (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
"There's nothing clarinetist Michael Norsworthy won't play: from Mozart to Carter to world premieres. His work in Michael Finnissy's new concerto [Giant Abstract Samba] for clarinet and wind ensemble (written for Norsworthy) was stunning: his star is clearly on the ascendant." (New England Bay Windows)
"Norsworthy demonstrates amazing tone in each of the clarinet's registers, his melodic lines are sinuous and simply beautiful, and his crescendos are subtle and effective." (Northeast Performer)
"Clarinetist Michael Norsworthy brought his role off with gusto." (The Boston Globe)
"I first heard Michael Norsworthy play my music at Harvard in April 2006 and I was immediately impressed by his musicality, his technical abilities and his capacity to make even the most difficult music sound spontaneous. I am pleased to recommend him as a player." (Magnus Lindberg, Composer)
"Performances were top-shelf wonderful, among the best heard all season. Festival organizers Carol Rodland (viola) and Michael Norsworthy (clarinet), joined by violinist Ariadne Daskalakis, cellist Scott Kluksdahl , and pianist Max Levinson, played as if their very lives depended on it. All aspects of execution -- pitch, tone, technique, pacing, interpretation were flawless, as was chamber interaction and blend." (New Music Connoisseur)