The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble opens the 2010-2011 season with String Quartet Century. 

String Quartet Century features a string quartet masterpiece of the 20th century by the influential Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, alongside two American works -- the world premiere of a new quartet by award-winning American composer Carl Schimmel, and a piece by the celebrated minimalist Terry Riley. Written over the course of a century, each of these three intricate works inhabits an expressive world of its own and celebrates the ‘string quartet’ in distinctive ways. Bartók’s Second String Quartet, composed in 1917, is the centerpiece of the program. “In the three movements of this quartet, Bartók illustrates music’s power to sing, dance, mourn, celebrate and speak, sometimes creating an infectious feeling of momentum, and at others a devastating understanding of loss,” explains Anna Presler, Artistic Director, LCCE.  Carl Schimmel’s new piece composed for the string quartet offers both humor and tenderness to create an appealing new music; and Terry Riley’s minimalist G Song, written in 1980, creates a romantic minimalist sound.

About the Contemporary Composers
Carl Schimmel won the LCCE’s Composition Contest a decade ago for his quartet movement Dempsey and Firpo. Now an established composer, he has written a new piece for string quartet that Left Coast will premiere at this concert. His work has been described in the New York Times as “energetic, inviting and…picturesque.” Recent works include Oblivion Ha-Ha, a setting of poems by James Tate, and Serving Size: Four Bunnies.

Winner of Columbia University’s Joseph Bearns Prize and the 2010 Lee Ettelson Award, Schimmel has received honors and awards from many organizations, including the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Copland House, the Seoul International Composition Competition, and ASCAP.  His works have been performed in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Severance Hall in Cleveland, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, and at other venues throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. He is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at Illinois State University in Normal, IL, where he resides with his wife and two children.

Terry Riley, born in Colfax California in 1935, is one of the originators of the style of music often called “minimalism.” His best-known work, In C, brought the minimalist music movement to prominence. During the 1960s, Riley also held remarkable all-night concerts, during which he performed mostly improvised music from evening until sunrise, using an old organ harmonium and tape-delayed saxophone. G Song was written in 1980 for the Kronos Quartet; it first appeared on the award-winning album Cadenza on the Night Plain.

About Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble is a versatile group of twelve musicians that performs in different combinations. In addition to its regular season, the ensemble performs concerts for other presenters such as the Other Minds Festival, Berkeley Chamber Performances, and Stanford University.

Left Coast concerts feature new music by well-known composers such as Andrew Imbrie, Gyorgy Ligeti, Mario Davidovsky, Jennifer Higdon, and John Adams, plus works by emerging composers including Philippe Bodin, Harold Meltzer, Mei Fang Lin, and Laurie San Martin. Left Coast also presents compositions by ensemble members, including Kurt Rohde (Founding Artistic Director, violist) and Eric Zivian (pianist). To demonstrate the connection between newer music and music of past centuries, Left Coast programs include important chamber works from previous centuries by composers including John Dowland, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Aaron Copland, and Igor Stravinsky.
String Quartet Century features string quartet masterpieces of the 20th century by two Hungarian composers –– György Ligeti and Bela Bartók –– as well as the world premiere of a new quartet by American composer Carl Schimmel. Written over the course of a century, each of these intricate works inhabits an expressive world of its own.

Program:
Bartók· Quartet for Strings, No. 2, Opus 17
Carl Schimmel· Quartet for Strings, No. 2  WORLD PREMIERE 
Ligeti· Quartet for Strings No. 2, Opus 21