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Arianna String Quartet to perform tonight

By Kari VanDerVeen
April 16, 2008

The Arianna String Quartet, one of America's finest chamber ensembles, will perform at St. Olaf College on Friday, April 18.

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The Arianna String Quartet
The performance will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Urness Recital Hall, Christiansen Hall of Music. It is free and open to the public.

Formed in 1992, the Arianna String Quartet garnered national attention by winning the Grand Prize in the 1994 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and First Prize in both the Coleman and Carmel Chamber Music Competitions. They were also Laureates in the 1999 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition.

Members of the ensemble include violinists John McGrosso and David Gillham, violist Robert Meyer and cellist Kurt Baldwin. The Chicago Tribune said this about the ensemble: "The Arianna Quartet makes music with the tonal warmth, fastidious balance and heightened communication skills of groups many years its senior ... the silken refinement of the playing was achieved with no loss of expressive vitality or spontaneity. Quartet playing doesn't get much better than this."

The Arianna String Quartet has performed throughout the United States, Mexico, Japan, Canada and France, including critically acclaimed performances at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and Tokyo's Suntory Hall. They have collaborated with artists such as Gilbert Kalish, Bernard Greenhouse, Richard Stoltzman, and members of the Vermeer Quartet, Tokyo Quartet, and Cleveland Quartet.

The Arianna String Quartet has been heard on nationally broadcast performances in Osaka, Japan, and on Canada's CBC radio, several times as part of Chicago's prestigious Dame Myra Hess Series, and on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" program.

Recognized for their innovative educational programs, the Arianna String Quartet was awarded Chamber Music America Residency Grants in 1996 and 2003 and has given more than 700 educational outreach performances.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.