Program

Program 1, October 29
BARTÓK: String Quartet No. 1
KODÁLY: String Quartet No. 1

Program 2, December 3
BARTÓK: String Quartet No. 2
KODÁLY: String Quartet No. 2

Program 3, December 10
BARTÓK: String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4

Program 4, December 17
BARTÓK: String Quartet Nos. 5 and 6

About This Performance

Béla Bartók’s six string quartets are considered one of the two most important sets composed during the 20th century. These masterful and imaginative quartets meld the folk music of his native central and eastern Europe and his western European training. Join us for a survey of the complete string quartets of Bartók and those of his friend and Hungarian compatriot (and partner in collecting folk songs) Zoltán Kodály.

Artist Biography

The Alexander String Quartet has performed in the major music capitals of five continents, securing its standing among the world's premier ensembles over nearly three decades. Widely admired for its interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, and Shostakovich, the Quartet has also established itself as an important advocate of new music through over 25 commissions and numerous premiere performances. The Alexander String Quartet is a major artistic presence in its home base of San Francisco, serving there as directors of the Morrison Chamber Music Center at the School of Music and Dance in the College of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University and ensemble-in-residence of San Francisco Performances.

The Alexander String Quartet’s annual calendar of concerts includes engagements at major halls throughout North America and Europe. The quartet has appeared at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y and the Metropolitan Museum in New York City; Jordan Hall in Boston; the Library of Congress and Dumbarton Oaks in Washington; and chamber music societies and universities across the North American continent. Recent overseas tours have brought them to the U.K., the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Greece, the Republic of Georgia, Argentina and the Philippines. The many distinguished artists to collaborate with the Alexander String Quartet include pianists Menahem Pressler, Gary Graffman, Roger Woodward, Jeremy Menuhin and Joyce Yang; clarinetists Eli Eban, Charles Neidich, Joan Enric Lluna and Richard Stolzman; cellists Lynn Harrell, Sadao Harada, and David Requiro; violist Toby Appel; and soprano Elly Ameling. Among the quartet’s more unusual collaborations has been numerous performances of Eddie Sauter’s seminal Third Stream work, Focus, in collaboration with Branford Marsalis, David Sánchez and Andrew Speight.

The Alexander String Quartet's 25th anniversary as well as the 20th anniversary of its association with New York City's Baruch College as Ensemble in Residence was celebrated through a performance by the ensemble of the Shostakovich string quartet cycle. Of those performances at the Baruch Performing Art Center Engelman Recital Hall, The New York Times wrote, “The intimacy of the music came through with enhanced power and poignancy in the Alexander quartet’s vibrant, probing, assured and aptly volatile performances.…Seldom have these anguished, playful, ironic, and masterly works seemed so profoundly personal.” The Alexander was also awarded Presidential Medals in honor of their longstanding commitment to the Arts and Education and in celebration of their two decades of service to Baruch College.

Highlights of the 2010–11 season included a two multiple concert series for San Francisco Performances, one presenting the complete quartets of Bartók and Kodály and the other music of Dvořák; the conclusion of a Beethoven cycle for Mondavi Center; and a continuing annual series at Baruch College in New York City. The quartet also performs an all-Beethoven program at the Lied Center of Kansas, two tours of Spain (including the inaugural performances of a new festival in Godella), and a second tour of Argentina. They also continue their annual residencies at Allegheny College, Lewis & Clark College, and St. Lawrence University.

Over the past decade the Alexander String Quartet has added considerably to its distinguished and wide-ranging discography. Currently recording exclusively for the FoghornClassics label, the Alexander’s most recent release (June 2009) is a complete Beethoven cycle. Music Web International has described the performances on this new Beethoven set as “uncompromising in their power, intensity and spiritual depth,” while Strings Magazine described the set as “a landmark journey through the greatest of all quartet cycles.” The FoghornClassics label released a three-CD set (Homage) of the Mozart quartets dedicated to Haydn in 2004. Foghorn released a six-CD album (Fragments) of the complete Shostakovich quartets in 2006 and 2007, and a recording of the complete quartets of Pulitzer prize-winning San Francisco composer, Wayne Peterson, was released in the spring of 2008. BMG Classics released the quartet's first recording of Beethoven cycle on its Arte Nova label to tremendous critical acclaim in 1999.

In celebration of the Alexander String Quartet's 30th anniversary this season, San Francisco Performances has commissioned a new work for string quartet and mezzo-soprano from Jake Heggie; the work will be premiered in a performance in collaboration with Joyce DiDonato in February 2012 at the Herbst Theater. Other recent Alexander premieres include Rise Chanting by Augusta Read Thomas, commissioned for the Alexander by the Krannert Center and premiered there and simulcast by WFMT radio in Chicago. The quartet has also premiered String Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 by Wayne Peterson and works by Ross Bauer (commissioned by Stanford University), Richard Festinger, David Sheinfeld, Hi Kyung Kim, and a Koussevitzky commission by Robert Greenberg.

The Alexander String Quartet was formed in New York City in 1981 and the following year became the first string quartet to win the Concert Artists Guild Competition. In 1985, the quartet captured international attention as the first American quartet to win the London International String Quartet Competition, receiving both the jury’s highest award and the Audience Prize. In May of 1995, Allegheny College awarded Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees to the members of the quartet in recognition of their unique contribution to the arts. Honorary degrees were conferred on the ensemble by St. Lawrence University in May 2000.

Zakarias Grafilo, violin 1: Zakarias Grafilo joined the Alexander String Quartet in July of 2002. Prior to that he served as principal second violinist of the Pacific Symphony, and Concertmaster of the Stockton Symphony. Grafilo was co-founder of the Chamberlain String Quartet, which was assistant quartet-in-residence to the Alexander String Quartet at San Francisco State University. He received his early musical training at the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and was later admitted into the Marin Music Conservatory where he studied with Serban Rusu. He received his early orchestral training with the world-renowned San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra where he was Concertmaster in 1992. Grafilo continued his studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, studying with Alexander Treger, Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Studies from San Francisco State University.

Frederick Lifsitz, violin 2: Frederick Lifsitz studied violin in his native Boston with Marylou Churchill and at Indiana University with Paul Biss. As a member of the Alexander String Quartet he has performed throughout Europe and North America, appearing regularly at halls such as Amsterdam’s Concertgebauw and New York City’s Lincoln Center. He has been an Artist in Residence at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies in Wye, Md. and has held similar positions at St. Lawrence University, Baruch College, and North Carolina School of the Arts. Prior to joining the Alexander Quartet Lifsitz performed over several seasons with the Boston Symphony and taught chamber music and violin at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. Lifsitz continues to perform as soloist and in recital.

Paul Yarbrough, viola: Paul Yarbrough is a native of Clearwater, Fla., and a founding member of the Alexander String Quartet. Yarbrough’s teachers have included Elaine Lee Richey, Lillian Fuchs, Raymond Page and Sally Peck. A frequent soloist with orchestras, he has also given numerous solo recitals throughout the U.S. and was principal violist of the Chamber Orchestra of New England. In 1995, Yarbrough and his quartet colleagues received Honorary Doctorates of Fine Arts from Allegheny College for their service to the arts and education and a Honorary Degree from St. Lawrence University. Mr. Yarbrough serves on the board of the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music.

Sandy Wilson, cello: A native of Northumberland, England, Sandy Wilson completed his graduate studies at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen as a recipient of two Danish Government Scholarships and the Sophus Berendsen Award. While performing as a member of the Royal Chapel Orchestra, he studied composition with Niels Vigo Bentzon and cello with Erling Blöndal-Bengtsson. Wilson was principal cellist at the age of 21 in the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft Orchestra in Lucerne, Switzerland, at which time he also performed extensively in duo recital with Swiss pianist, Hedy Salquin. In 1979 Wilson moved to the U.S., completing a degree at Yale University as a student of Aldo Parisot, Otto Werner Mueller and the Tokyo Quartet. He co-founded the Alexander String Quartet in 1981 and has since lived in this country, devoting most of his energies to the development of the Quartet. Wilson has written and frequently participates on panel debates on the subject of chamber music residency development and presentation. He currently serves as an elected board member of Chamber Music America and is a member of the California Cello Club.

Robert Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1954, and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1978. He received a BA in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1976 where his principal teachers were Edward Cone, Daniel Werts and Carlton Gamer in composition; Claudio Spies and Paul Lansky in analysis; and Jerry Kuderna in piano. In 1984, Greenberg received a Ph.D. in music composition (with distinction) from the University of California, Berkeley, where his principal teachers were Andrew Imbrie and Olly Wilson in composition and Richard Felciano in analysis.

Greenberg has composed over 45 works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles. Recent performances of his works have taken place in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands, where his Child’s Play for String Quartet was performed at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam.

Greenberg has received numerous honors, including three Nicola de Lorenzo Composition Prizes and three Meet-The-Composer Grants. Recent commissions have been received from the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Alexander String Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Strata Ensemble, San Francisco Performances, and the XTET ensemble. He is a board member and an artistic director of COMPOSERS, INC., a composers' collective/production organization based in San Francisco. His music is published by Fallen Leaf Press and CPP/Belwin, and is recorded on the Innova label.

In addition to having performed, taught and lectured extensively across North America and Europe, Greenberg is currently Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994, and is a faculty member of the Advanced Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He has served on the faculties of the University of California at Berkeley, California State University East Bay and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he chaired the Department of Music History and Literature from 1989-2001 and served as the Director of the Adult Extension Division from 1991-1996.

Greenberg has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony (where for ten years he was host and lecturer for the Symphony’s nationally acclaimed “Discovery Series”), the Chautauqua Institute (where he was the Everett Scholar-in-Residence during the 2006 season), the Ravinia Festival, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Van Cliburn Foundation, the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Villa Montalvo, Music @ Menlo, and the University of British Columbia (where he was the Dal Grauer Lecturer in September 2006). In addition, Greenberg is a sought-after lecturer for businesses and business schools, and has recently spoken for such diverse organizations as S.C. Johnson, Canadian Pacific, Deutsches Bank, the University of California/Haas School of Business Executive Seminar, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School Publishing, Kaiser-Permanente, the Strategos Institute, Quintiles Transnational, the Young Presidents’ Organization, the World Presidents’ Organization, and the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.

He has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, INC. Magazine, the Times of London, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the University of California Alumni Magazine, Princeton Alumni Weekly and Diablo Magazine. For many years Greenberg was the resident composer and music historian to National Public Radio's Weekend All Things Considered and presently plays that role on NPR's Weekend edition, Sunday with Liane Hansen. In February 2003, the Bangor Daily News (Maine) referred to Greenberg as the “Elvis” of music history and appreciation, an appraisal that has given more pleasure than any other.

In May 1993, Greenberg recorded a 48-lecture course entitled How to Listen to and Understand Great Music for the Teaching Company/Great Courses Program of Chantilly, Virginia. (This course was named in the January, 1996 edition of Inc. Magazine as one of “The Nine Leadership Classics You've Never Read”.) Formerly associated with the Smithsonian Institute, the Teaching Company is the preeminent producer of college level courses-on-media in the United States. Twelve further courses, including Concert Masterworks, Bach and the High Baroque, The Symphonies of Beethoven and How to Listen to and Understand Opera have been recorded since, totaling over 500 lectures.

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