The annual Bessie Bartlett Frankel Festival of Chamber Music at Scripps College will feature the Colorado Quartet on Sunday, October 5, at 3 p.m. in Balch Auditorium on the Scripps campus. The diverse event program includes Franz Josef Haydn’s Quartet in F Major, Op. 74, No. 2, Joan Tower’s In Memory, and Brahm’s Quartet in C Minor, Op. 51, No. 1. The performance is free and open to the public. For more information about The Bessie Bartlett Frankel Festival of Chamber Music, please call 909-607-9164 or 909-607-3266.
Known for their impassioned playing and lyrical finesse, the all-women Colorado Quartet is comprised of musicians Julie Rosenfeld and Deborah Redding on violin, Marka Gustavsson on viola, and Diane Chaplin on cello. The Colorado Quartet celebrated its 20th Anniversary in the 2002-2003 season and has, since its inception, appeared regularly in venues around the world. In recent years, the Quartet appeared in more than 20 countries, performing concerts at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, and more. The Quartet has also released CDs including performances of Brahm’s Quartets and the works of Henry Cowell.
The members of the Colorado Quartet are well-respected teachers and inspiring musicians. The Quartet is currently Quartet-in-Residence at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. They have held residencies at the Oberlin College Conservatory, Swarthmore College, Skidmore College, Amherst College, and Philadelphia’s New School of Music. The Quartet founded and are the artistic directors of the Soundfest Chamber Music Festival and Institute of String Quartets in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
The Colorado Quartet is at home performing standard literature or newer works, and has premiered compositions by leading composers such as Ezra Laderman and Karel Husa. To commemorate their 20th anniversary, the Colorado Quartet released a CD, a unique rendition of Beethoven’s Op. 59 and Op. 74.