CARAMOOR INTERNATIONAL
MUSIC FESTIVAL 

"Quintet of Quartets" 

Featuring Three World Premieres Commissioned by Caramoor:

John Musto's A New Work for String Quartet
Lera Auerbach's Findings
Shih-hui Chen's Mei Hua for String Quartet

Katonah, New York - The Caramoor International Music Festival will feature five award-winning string quartets this summer in a concert series called "Quintet of Quartets."  The series opens on June 28 with a performance by the Formosa Quartet, and continues with the Pacifica Quartet on July 6, the Jupiter String Quartet on July 12, the Parker String Quartet on July 19, and the Mendelssohn String Quartet with pianist Jonathan Biss on July 22. 

In addition to highlighting great masterworks from the string quartet repertoire, "Quintet of Quartets" will feature three world premieres commissioned by Caramoor from some of today's most sought-after composers.  John Musto's String Quartet will be given its world premiere by the Jupiter String Quartet; the Parker String Quartet will premiere Lera Auerbach's Findings, and the Formosa Quartet will give the first performance of Shih-hui Chen's Mei Hua for String Quartet. 

Formosa Quartet's June 28 recital will take place in the Spanish Courtyard of Caramoor's House Museum at 7:30 p.m.  This marks the Caramoor debut for the Quartet (Jasmine Lin and Joseph Lin, violin; Che-yen Chen, viola; and Jacob Braun, cello), which won the First Prize and Amadeus Prize at the Tenth London International String Quartet Competition in 2006.  Their program includes the world premiere Shih-hui Chen's Mei Hua for String Quartet, commissioned by Caramoor, as well as Debussy's Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 and the Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 67 by Brahms.

"Quintet of Quartets" continues in the Spanish Courtyard on Friday, July 6 at 8:00 p.m. with the Pacifica Quartet, Caramoor's 2001-02 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence.  Violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Masumi Per Rostad, and cellist Brandon Vamos will perform a program featuring staples of the quartet repertoire - Bartok's Quartet No. 4 and Beethoven's Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 - and Dutilleux?s luminous composition for string quartet, Ainsi la nuit.

The world premiere of John Musto's String Quartet, commissioned by Caramoor, will be the centerpiece of the Jupiter String Quartet's performance on Thursday, July 12 at 7:30 pm in the Spanish Courtyard.  The Jupiter - Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violin; Liz Freivogel, viola; and Daniel McDonough, cello - is a recent winner of the Cleveland Quartet Award, recipient of a three-year residency with Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two, and Caramoor's 2005-06 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence.  Their program also includes Beethoven's Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1 and Mendelssohn's Quartet in F minor, Op. 80.

The summer's fourth "Quintet of Quartets" concert will feature Caramoor's current 2006-07 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence, the Parker String Quartet.  Their program on Thursday, July 19 at 7:30 pm in the Spanish Courtyard will include Ligeti's Andante and Allegretto for string quartet, Smetana's Quartet No. 1 in E minor (From My Life), and the third world premiere in this summer's string quartet series -  a work commissioned by Caramoor from composer Lera Auerbach called Findings/16 Inventions.  Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; and Kee-Hyun Kim, cello are the members of the Parker String Quartet.

"Quintet of Quartets" concludes in Caramoor's Venetian Theater on Sunday, July 22 at 4:30 pm with a performance by the Mendelssohn String Quartet - Miriam Fried and Nicholas Mann, violin; Daniel Panner, viola; and Marcy Rosen, cello - and young piano sensation Jonathan Biss.  The program will be Haydn's Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 76, No. 6; Bolcom's Quartet No. 11; and Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 by Brahms.
  
ARTISTS

Lera Auerbach
Lera Auerbach is one of the most widely performed composers of her generation.  A virtuoso performer, Ms. Auerbach continues the great tradition of pianist-composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Born in Chelyabinsk, near Siberia, Lera Auerbach became one of the last artists to defect from the Soviet Union during a concert tour in 1991 while still in her teens.  In addition to performances at Caramoor, Auerbach's compositions have been commissioned and performed at leading Festivals throughout the world including Lucerne, Lockenhaus, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein.

Jonathan Biss
Twenty-six-year-old American pianist Jonathan Biss has a flourishing international career established through his orchestral and recital performances in North America and Europe and now through his recordings for EMI.  His recent recording of Schumann's Fantasie in C, Op.17, Arabeske in C, Op.18 and Kreisleriana , Op.16 has been widely and very warmly acclaimed.  Biss has worked with many distinguished conductors such as Alsop, Barenboim, Conlon, Davis, Dutoit, Levine, Maazel, Marriner, Robertson, Slatkin, Tilson-Thomas, Zukerman and Zinman.  He appears with major orchestras throughout Europe and the United States, including the Boston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich Netherland Philarmonic Orchestra, Westdeutschradio Köln, the Helsinki Philarmonic Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Berlin.  He has received numerous awards, including the 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award, Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award and the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust.

Shih-Hui Chen
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Shih-Hui Chen came to the United States in 1982 and received her master's degree from Northern Illinois University and her doctoral degree from Boston University. Her works have been performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.  Her music has also been featured in China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy and Amsterdam.  Recent performances include Fu II by members of Seattle Symphony Orchestra; Moments for Orchestra (Shanghai, China); Jin, Concerto for Pipa and Chamber Orchestra with Wu Man and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Shui by the Fischer Duo (Boston and NY); Four Little Pieces for Wood (Dallas and Houston), and her music was featured in a Composer's Portrait Concert by the Freon Ensemble in Rome, Italy.

Formosa Quartet
Winners of the First Prize and the Amadeus Prize at the Tenth London International String Quartet Competition in 2006, the Formosa Quartet was formed in 2003 when the four founding members came together for a concert tour of Taiwan.  David Soyer of the Guarneri Quartet said the Formosa Quartet is "one of the very best quartets of this generation." They recently received critical acclaim for their debut CD on EMI. With recent performances at Juilliard, the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center, Wigmore Hall, and the Royal Academy of Music, the Formosa Quartet's 2007-08 season will include concerts at the New School in New York, the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., as well as a winner's tour of the UK.  The members of the Formosa Quartet - JASMINE LIN, JOSEPH LIN, CHE-YEN CHEN, and JACOB BRAUN - have already established themselves as leading solo, chamber, and orchestral musicians.

Jupiter String Quartet
Caramoor's 2005-06 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence
The Jupiter String Quartet was recently awarded the Cleveland Quartet Award by Chamber Music America, a prize which "honors and promotes a rising young string quartet whose artistry demonstrates that it is in the process of establishing a major career."  They have also been selected to join Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two for a three-year residency beginning in 2007, and have been awarded the Netherland America Prize, which will sponsor a tour of the Netherlands in the Spring of 2008. In 2004 the quartet captured the Grand Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and First Prize in the 8th Banff International String Quartet Competition, where they were also awarded the Szekely Prize for the best performance of a Beethoven quartet. The Austin Critics Table honored them with the Award for Outstanding Chamber Music Performance in 2006.  The Quartet has performed at such venues as New York's Lincoln Center, Boston's Jordan Hall and London's Wigmore Hall and has been enthusiastically received at major music festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, the Caramoor International Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Honest Brook Music Festival, the Tuckamore Festival, and the Yellow Barn Music Festival. They have collaborated with such artists as Roger Tapping, James Buswell, Paul Katz, Yong Hi Moon, and the Miami String Quartet.  They have been heard on NPR's Performance Today, on WQXR in New York, on WGBH in Boston, and on Chicago's classical station, WFMT 98.7.

Mendelssohn String Quartet
The Mendelssohn String Quartet has established a reputation as one of the most imaginative, vital and exciting quartets of its generation.  The Quartet tours annually throughout North America with regular trips to foreign destinations.  The Mendelssohn Quartet was for nine years the Blodgett Artists in Residence at Harvard University, and has performed at such distinguished venues as Carnegie Hall in New York City, Washington DC's Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Tonhalle in Zurich.  The resident quartet of the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival and formerly resident quartet of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Mendelssohn Quartet has performed at the Caramoor Festival, the Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, France, and makes frequent appearances at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival as well as the Ravinia, Aspen, and Saratoga Music Festivals. They were the first American ensemble invited to appear at the International Dialogues Festival in Kiev, Ukraine.  The Quartet is often heard across the United States on Minnesota Public Radio's Saint Paul Sunday.

John Musto
Award-winning composer and pianist John Musto is regarded as one of the most versatile musicians before the public today.  Mr. Musto was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for his orchestral song cycle Dove Sta Amore.  He has also garnered two regional Emmys and two CINE Awards for his scores written for television.  In 2000 he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship at Bellagio, Italy.  Mr. Musto has been featured on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and the Composer Portrait series at Columbia's Miller Theater.  Mr. Musto's first operatic work, the comedy Volpone, with librettist Mark Campbell was hailed as a masterpiece by the Washington Post when it premiered at Wolftrap in March 2004 under the baton of Michael Barrett.

Pacifica Quartet
Caramoor's 2001-02 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence
Recognized for its virtuosity and exuberant performance style, the Pacifica Quartet has carved out a compelling musical path. Since the ensemble first came together in 1994, it has won top prizes in several leading international competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. In 2002 the Pacifica was appointed to Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two program for gifted young musicians, and it was further honored with Chamber Music America's coveted Cleveland Quartet Award. In May 2006 the Pacifica received a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, only the second chamber music ensemble ever to be selected.  The Pacifica Quartet tours extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and the Far East.  It can also be heard on many of the nation's most prominent radio broadcasts. The Quartet's CD recordings have been praised by critics in the US and abroad.

Parker String Quartet
Caramoor's 2006-07 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence
The Parker String Quartet has quickly established itself as a dynamic young chamber ensemble since its founding in May of 2002.  In March 2005, the quartet was chosen as a winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York, where the group was also awarded numerous performance prize engagements across North America.  Only three months later, the group was awarded First Prize, a recording prize and the Mozart Prize at the 2005 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, along with numerous performance prize engagements throughout Europe.  The quartet's triumphant November 2005 concert at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall helped propel the ensemble very quickly into the chamber music mainstream.  New York appearances in 2006-07 include the quartet's Lincoln Center debut at the Walter Reade Theatre, as well as concerts at Merkin Concert Hall, the CAG/New Works series at Symphony Space's Nimoy Thalia theatre (with CAG pianist Tanya Bannister) and the Brooklyn Public Library/CAG series.  Other featured 2006-07 engagements are: the Wolf Trap Discovery series, the Gardner Museum in Boston, the Jose Iturbi Gold Medal debut series in Cerritos, CA, The Clark Memorial Library at UCLA and Market Square Concerts, among many others, as well as performances abroad in Panama and France.

TICKETS

Tickets for June 28, July 12 and July 19 are $25 and $15; July 6 tickets are $35 and $25; and on July 22 tickets are $45, $35, $25 and $15 and may be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252 or online at www.caramoor.org.

ABOUT CARAMOOR

Caramoor is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures.  Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world.  Their musical evenings were the seeds of the International Music Festival today. Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor - the house with its art collection; the gardens; and the musical programs on summer evenings - the Rosens established a Foundation to open Caramoor to the public in perpetuity.

Lucie Rosen survived her husband by seventeen years. During those years, she expanded the Music Festival: the Spanish Courtyard was used as a setting for musical events, as it is today. Under her direction, the great stage of the Venetian Theater was built.

Caramoor is a Garden of Great Music. "We invite people to come early, explore our beautiful grounds, take a tour of the House Museum, visit our gift shop, enjoy a pre-concert picnic and discover beautiful music in a relaxed setting," advises Paul Rosenblum, Caramoor's Managing Director. With its unique heritage, Caramoor remains a place where magical summer days and nights are shared and enjoyed by thousands. "Caramoor is the loveliest Festival of them all." - The New York Times

Art and Gardens
Concerts take place in two outdoor theaters - the large, acoustically superb Venetian Theater, and the more intimate, romantic Spanish Courtyard.  Caramoor is more than just music - there is beauty at every turn.  The House Museum, the former summer home of Caramoor's founders, Lucie and Walter Rosen, contains a vast collection of Renaissance, 18th-century and Eastern art objects - furniture, tapestries, sculpture, paintings, textiles, porcelain and jade. There are entire rooms that were imported from European palaces and villas.  In fact, Caramoor is one of just five mansions in the country that incorporate entire rooms into its collection, twenty of which are open to the public.  On Thursdays and Fridays, Afternoon Tea is served in the Summer Dining Room, overlooking the charming Spanish Courtyard.

Caramoor's gardens are also well worth the visit. Nine unique perennial gardens - including a Sense Circle for the visually handicapped, a Butterfly Garden, a Medieval Mount and two gardens whose special characteristics are enjoyed primarily at night - may be seen on a guided tour or on one's own.

House Museum
Guided tours of the House Museum are provided from Wednesday through Sunday, 1-4 p.m., with the last tour at 3 p.m. On Saturdays during the Festival, tours are given from 1-5 p.m., with the last tour at 4 p.m. Tickets are $10 (children 16 and under free).

Getting to Caramoor
Caramoor is easy to get to by car, mass transportation or the Caramoor Caravan.

From Manhattan, take the Caramoor Caravan and ride comfortably in a luxurious, air-conditioned coach.  Round trip service is $22 and is available for all Saturday and Sunday performances during the Festival, including the July 22 concert with the Mendelssohn String Quartet and Jonathan Biss.  The Caravan departs from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Upper West Side and East Side locations. Call the Box Office (914.232.1252) for further information and reservations.

By train, take the Harlem Division of the Metro-North Railroad to Katonah, New York. Taxi service from the station to Caramoor (5 minutes away) is available.

By car from the West Side of Manhattan and New Jersey, take the Saw Mill River Parkway north to Katonah.  Exit at Route 35/Cross River.  Turn right, and at the first traffic light make a right turn onto Route 22 south. Travel 1.9 miles to the junction of Girdle Ridge Road. Follow the signs to Caramoor.  (For detailed directions call 914.232.5035 and press 2, or online at caramoor.org).

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.

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Quintet of Quartets

Formosa Quartet

June 28                          Jasmine Lin, violin
Thursday, 7:30 pm        Joseph Lin, violin
Spanish Courtyard        Che-yen Chen, viola
$25, $15                        Jacob Braun, cello

                                      Program:
                                      Debussy ~ Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
                                      Chen ~ Mei Hua for String Quartet
                                                     (World Premiere of a Caramoor commission)
                                      Brahms ~ Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 67

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Pacifica Quartet
2001-02 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence

July 6                           Simin Ganatra, violin
Friday, 8:00 pm           Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin
Spanish Courtyard      Masumi Per Rostad, viola
$35, $25                      Brandon Vamos, cello

                                    Program:
                                    Dutilleux ~ Ainsi la nuit, for string quartet
                                    Bartok  ~ Quartet No. 4
                                    Beethoven ~ Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3

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Jupiter String Quartet
2005-06 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence

July 12                       Nelson Lee, violin
Thursday, 7:30 pm    Meg Freivogel, violin
Spanish Courtyard    Liz Freivogel, viola
$25, $15                    Daniel McDonough, cello

                                  Program:
                                  Beethoven ~ Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1
                                  Musto ~ String Quartet
                                                (World Premiere of a Caramoor commission)
                                  Mendelssohn ~  Quartet in F minor, Op. 80

 
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Parker String Quartet
2006-07 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence

July 19                       Daniel Chong, violin
Thursday, 7:30 pm    Karen Kim, violin
Spanish Courtyard    Jessica Bodner, viola
$25, $15                    Kee-Hyun Kim, cello

                                  Program:
                                  Ligeti ~ Andante and Allegretto, for string quartet
                                  Auerbach ~ Findings/16 Inventions
                                                     (World Premiere of a Caramoor commission)
                                  Smetana ~ Quartet No. 1 in E minor (From My Life)

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Mendelssohn String Quartet
with Jonathan Biss

July 22                     Miriam Fried, violin
Sunday, 4:30 pm     Nicholas Mann, violin
Venetian Theater    Daniel Panner, viola
$45, $35                  Marcy Rosen, cello
$25, $15                  Jonathan Biss, piano

                               Program:
                               Haydn  ~ Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 76, No. 6
                               Bolcom ~ Quartet No. 11
                               Brahms ~ Quintet in F minor, Op. 34

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TICKETS
Tickets may be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252 or online at www.caramoor.org.

# # #
Press Tickets:
Katie Barna
917.339.7189
kbarna@cohndutcher.com