University of Nebraska–Lincoln School of Music in the
Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts

presents

CHIARA STRING QUARTET as Chamber-String-Quartet-in-Residence

Playing "Chamber Music in Any Chamber," the *Chiara String Quartet
*(Rebecca Fischer, Julie Yoon violin; Jonah Sirota, viola; Gregory
Beaver, cello) reaches from the concert hall into clubs, bars and
galleries, expanding the places to hear live classical music while
returning chamber music to its roots in intimate spaces. Described by
the /Seattle Post-Intelligencer/ as "vastly talented, vastly
resourceful, and vastly committed to the music of their time," the
Chiara is also continually finding new meaning within pieces from the
well-established quartet canon. Their style is best described as a
nonstop journey to the edge of expressive possibility: "luminous,"
"searing," (/New York Times/) "soulful," "biting," and possessing a
"potent collective force" (/Strings Magazine/).

The Chiara Quartet was recently named the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence
at Harvard University, a post they begin in the fall of 2008, in
addition to their ongoing artist residency at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln. Recently awarded with the Guarneri Quartet Residency
Award for artistic excellence by Chamber Music America, the Quartet's
other honors include a top prize at the Paolo Borciani International
Competition, winning the Astral Artistic Services National Audition, and
winning First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

In addition to performing in concert halls such as Lincoln Center's
Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Philadelphia's
Kimmel Center, and Harris Hall in Aspen, Colorado, the Chiara devotes
much of its performance season to reaching new audiences through
concerts in non-classical venues. The Quartet has performed at Caffe
Vivaldi in New York's West Village, Kansas City's The Brick, Houston's
Mucky Duck, and Chicago's The Hideout, among many others.

Internationally, the Chiara Quartet has performed at the American
Academy in Rome, and recently completed a critically-acclaimed
eight-city tour of Sweden with clarinetist Hakan Rosengren. In May 2009
they will make their debut in Munich, performing /Different Trains /by
Steve Reich at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität as part of
"Crosscurrents: American and European Music in Interaction, 1900-2000."
Other highlights of the current season include four concerts in Boston
and Cambridge as part of their Harvard residency, including a
performance of music banned in the former U.S.S.R. with soprano Lucy
Shelton; several concerts at Columbia University's Miller Theater in New
York, performing Mozart's Six "Haydn" String Quartets; and concerts in
Chicago, Houston, and St. Paul.

Recent collaborators of the Chiara Quartet include Joel Krosnick, Roger
Tapping, Todd Palmer, Simone Dinnerstein, Norman Fischer, and Paul Katz,
as well as members of the Orion, Ying, Cavani, and Pacifica Quartets.
The ensemble has premiered works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Jefferson
Friedman, Michael Wittgraf, Randall Snyder, and Nico Muhly, among others.

The Chiara discography includes the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets
with Hakan Rosengren for SMS Classical, and the world premiere
recordings of Robert Sirota's /Triptych/ and Gabriela Lena Frank's
/Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout/ for the Quartet's own New Voice Singles
label. In 2007 the Chiara recorded Jefferson Friedman's Second and Third
Quartets, and they are currently at work recording the complete string
quartets of Brahms for SMS Classical.

The Chiara Quartet has been artists-in-residence at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln since 2005. In the summer, they are in residence at
Greenwood Music Camp, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Chamber Music Institute, and the Red River Chamber Music Festival, a summer study and performance festival founded by the Chiara Quartet in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

The Chiara trained and taught at The Juilliard School, mentoring for two
years with the Juilliard Quartet, as recipients of the Lisa Arnhold
Quartet Residency from 2003-2005.

/Chiara/ (key-ARE-uh) is an Italian word, meaning "clear, pure, or
light." More information about the Chiara Quartet can be found online at
chiaraquartet.net and on MySpace at myspace.com/chiarastringquartet