The Skyros Quartet, currently the Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the Glenn Korff School of Music, has been admitted to the Aspen Music Festival and School's Center for Advanced Quartet Studies this summer.
The Aspen Music Festival and School only admits three quartets into the program each summer, and the members of the admitted quartets each receive a full fellowship, room, and board, for no charge. The Center for Advanced Quartet Studies is this country's premier training program for emerging string quartets. Alumni of the center are among today's more celebrated young quartets and have won numerous prestigious chamber music awards and competitions.
The Skyros Quartet members (Sarah Pizzichemi, James Moat, Justin Kurys and William Braun) are all pursuing Doctor of Music Arts degrees in performance (chamber music focus) under the guidance of the Chiara String Quartet. Founded in 2010, Skyros received Master's in Chamber Music Performance from the University of Texas at Austin Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music, mentored by the Miró Quartet and Sandy Yamamoto. Skyros also been mentored by the Penderecki and Muir String Quartets and composer Joan Tower. They will complete residency with the Chiara Quartet and their doctoral work at UNL in 2015. The Chiara String Quartet was an Aspen Fellowship recipient quartet in 1996 and 2001.
"We are so proud that UNL's resident graduate string quartet, the Skyros Quartet, has been awarded a full fellowship for study at the prestigious Aspen Center for Advanced Quartet Studies for the summer of 2015,” said Chiara member Jonah Sirota. “It is especially edifying to see them heading to work with some of the same luminary mentors that the Chiara Quartet got to study under when we were Aspen fellowship recipients. Working with this gifted young quartet is a pleasure; this honor speaks to their hard work and dedication, as well as to the amazing things that students at the Glenn Korff School of Music are achieving on a regular basis."
Dr. John W. Richmond, Professor and Director of the Glenn Korff School of Music, noted that, “Selection to the Aspen Festival is among the most coveted appointments an aspiring collegiate quartet can achieve. We are simply thrilled with the progress the Skyros has made here and look forward to tremendous successes from them as individual artists/scholars and as a professional quartet in the years ahead."
The Center for Advanced Quartet Studies was established by Claus Adam and Gordon Hardy through the generosity of Mrs. Jane W. Kitselman. The program offers eight weeks of intensive study devoted exclusively to quartet repertoire and performance practice. Instructors and coaches include members of the world's most prestigious string quartets: Earl Carlyss (Juilliard Quartet), James Dunham (Cleveland Quartet), and Sylvia Rosenberg, plus members of the American String Quartet, Takács Quartet, Jupiter String Quartet, and Pacifica Quartet.
In addition, each quartet member may receive weekly private lessons with a member of the Aspen Music Festival and School artist-faculty. Public performances occur as part of the AMFS, and quartets have the opportunity to participate in the spectrum of musical activities offered at Aspen.
"Attending the Aspen Music Festival as part of a string quartet has been a lifetime goal of mine since I was 13. I am so honored and excited that Skyros will be in Aspen this summer,” Pizzichemi said.
Braun added, "We are so thrilled to be working with some of the top chamber musicians in the world in Aspen!"
“Aspen will be a beautiful setting to get some truly inspired work accomplished,” Kurys said.
Moat added, “Listening to and performing for some of the best musicians in the world will be an absolutely unforgettable experience.”
To hear the Skyros Quartet in a recent performance, visit http://go.unl.edu/faka
--Brian Reetz, Glenn Korff School of Music