![]() |
Calidore String Quartet: Left to right: Estelle Choi (cello), Ryan Meehan (violin), Jeffrey Myers (violin) and Jeremy Berry (viola) |
STONY BROOK, NY—August 20 2014— Stony Brook University’s (SBU) Grammy® Award-winning Quartet-in-Residence, the Emerson String Quartet have selected the Calidore String Quartet, hailing from the Colburn School, as SBU’s Quartet-in-Residence for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 academic terms. The Emerson String Quartet will coach members of the quartet as will David Finckel, the former cellist with the Emerson String Quartet. This residency is made possible through the generosity of Erwin and Freddie Staller.
In addition to being coached and mentored by the Emerson Quartet, the Calidore String Quartet will serve as members of SBU’s Faculty as well as take part in outreach programs in Long Island schools funded by the Staller Educational Outreach Endowment and the Barbara N. Wien Endowment for Arts & Education. Performing on campus and in the local community, the quartet will also coach undergraduate chamber ensembles and collaborate with student composers. The University will also sponsor a New York City concert appearance during their second year in residence. The Calidore String Quartet will lead pre-and post-concert talks and Q&A’s, public school classroom and assemblies, traditional master classes and multi-day community residencies.
![]() |
Calidore String Quartet: Left to right: Ryan Meehan (violin), Jeffrey Myers (violin), Estelle Choi (cello) and Jeremy Berry (viola) |
“We are thrilled to welcome the Calidore String Quartet to Stony Brook in a new program for young quartets,” said Emerson Quartet violinist Philip Setzer, “It will be a great joy for us to work with them and it’s exciting to imagine what they will bring to the university and community.”
The award-winning Emerson String Quartet has a long history of mentoring excellent young string quartets at the beginning of their highly successful careers, including the St. Lawrence, Artemis, Avalon, Pacifica, Calder, Ying, Borealis and Escher Quartets.
“The Emerson Quartet has left a legacy of recordings and performances that represent the pinnacle of string quartet playing,” said Perry Goldstein, chairman of Stony Brook’s Department of Music. He continued, “They also have contributed greatly to the future of the string quartet by sharing their wisdom so generously with the most talented young groups that are following in their footsteps.”
David Finckel, artistic co-director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, noted, “This dynamic and intelligent ensemble has already demonstrated skill and maturity beyond their collective years, and they show seemingly endless potential.”
About the Emerson String Quartet:
Formed in 1976 and based in New York City, the Emerson String Quartet which has recorded more than thirty acclaimed recordings, earned nine Grammy Awards, (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize (the only ensemble to receive this prestigious award) and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year” award. The quartet is comprised of Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer on violins, Lawrence Dutton on viola and Paul Watkins on cello. The Emerson String Quartet took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.
About the Calidore String Quartet:
The Calidore String Quartet was formed at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles in 2010 and has amassed several grand prizes in American chamber music competitions including Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs. Internationally, the Calidore captured top prizes at the 2012 ARD Munich International String Quartet Competition and the 2012 Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition. Using an amalgamation of “California” and “doré”, (French for “golden”), the ensemble’s name represents a reverence for the diversity of culture and the strong support it has received from its home base in Los Angeles, California, the “golden state.” The quartet is comprised Ryan Meehan and Jeffrey Myers on violins, Jeremy Berry on viola and Estelle Choi on cello.
About Stony Brook University Department of Music:
Stony Brook University’sDepartment of Music is the State University of New York’s flagship school for graduate education in music among the 64 institutions in the system, offering M.M. and D.M.A degrees in music performance and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history-theory as well as in music composition. The department also offers a rigorous B.A. in music. Amalgamating the best of the conservatory with the resources of an excellent research university, the department’s signature aspiration is the fluent relationship between performance and scholarly and creative pursuits. Performers, composers, and historians work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect, taking courses geared to understanding music from a variety of scholarly and performance practice perspectives. The department offers over 300 student recitals, concerts, lecture-recitals, and colloquia each academic year and is home to approximately 350 students and over 40 faculty members.
# # #
Reporter Contact:
Alida Almonte
University Media Relations Manager
631-632-6310
Follow us on Twitter @sbunewsdesk