Afiara String Quartet
The Juilliard School's Graduate Resident String Quartet
 |
As part of their Arnhold residency at Juilliard, the Afiara String Quartet is presented in a full Lincoln Center recital during the season, and Afiara members have lessons with members of the Juilliard String Quartet. They assist the JSQ with their ensemble and chamber music instruction, as well as the School's first-year string quartet survey course. Juilliard's Arnhold Fellowship residencies are one year in length; quartets are eligible to return once, for a maximum residency of two years.
The Juilliard School has offered residency to graduate string quartets since 1981, when the Colorado Quartet became the first to complete a two-year residency. Since the advent of the program, the quartets-in-residence have included the Avalon, Biava, Calder, Cassatt, Chiara, Corigliano, Essex, Lark, Maia, Magellan (now renamed the Whitman String Quartet), Miró, St. Lawrence, and Shanghai, quartets.
Winner of the 2008 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the Afiara String Quartet claimed a top prize at the prestigious Munich ARD International Music Competition in the same year. They were the Morrison Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence at San Francisco State University's International Center for the Arts, and served as teaching assistants to its mentor ensemble, the world-renowned Alexander String Quartet. One of the two fellowship quartets at the 2008 Aspen Music Festival's Advanced Quartet Studies Program, the Afiara Quartet also served as artists-in-residence at Lake Tahoe Music Festival's Education and Outreach Program and were an affiliate of San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music.
In the 2008-09 season, the Quartet performed for the San Jose Chamber Music Society, Sierra Chamber Society Chamber Music in Occidental, Old First Church Concerts and in Canada with the Calgary ProMusica Series, and the Montreal International Chamber Music Festival. They also appeared on San Francisco Performances at Herbst Theatre with pianist Stephen Prutsman in San Jose and at Nevada City's Music in the Mountains, as well as with cellist (and Juilliard faculty member) Bonnie Hampton at the Starcross Festival. This spring, the Afiara String Quartet released its debut CD featuring quartets by Mendelssohn and Schubert, and the Mendelssohn Octet with the Alexander Quartet, on the Foghorn Classics label. They gave the world premiere of Brett Abigana's Une Grande Messe and Jason Bush's Visions in San Francisco (the latter of which was written for the Afiara), and the East Coast premiere of Peteris Vasks' String Quartet in New York.
Formed in 2006, the Afiara String Quartet takes its name from the Spanish fiar, meaning "to trust," a basic element vital to chamber music players and to the depth and joy of the ensemble's music-making. The ensemble is committed to education, connecting with diverse audiences. They have served as faculty at Chamber Music of the Rockies and Canada's Southern Ontario Chamber Music Institute. Bringing urban elements into its outreach activities, the ensemble bridges the gap between Haydn and hip-hop.
The members
of the Afiara String Quartet are graduates of Juilliard, Peabody Conservatory,
New England Conservatory,
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, McGill University, and Mannes College, and
the Quartet has worked with members of the American, Cavani, Emerson, Kronos,
Takacs, and Ying String quartets, Earl Carlyss,
James Dunham, Henk Guittart,
Bonnie Hampton, Geoff Nuttall, Barry Shiffman, and Scott St. John, and at the
San Francisco Conservatory with Paul Hersh, Mark Sokol, and Ian Swensen.
The Afiara String Quartet is represented by Concert Artists Guild management. For further information, call (212) 333-5200, ext. 16 or go to www.concertartists.org.
Printer Friendly