The South Bend Tribune published a nice article about our return to the Fischoff Competition last week, and you can view it by CLICKING HERE.

The program will include Haydn's Op. 20 No. 2, Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet, and Schubert's "Death and the Maiden."  Hope to see you there!

MAY 8th

Grusin Hall, Imig School of Music

7:30 pm

FREE

As you have probably heard, we just returned from the London International String Quartet Competition at Wigmore Hall as the 3rd Prize winners!  

We are thrilled about our success, and we've had a lot of positive fallout, including a wonderful review in one of the London papers.  If you would like to read that, then click here. We are looking forward to our resulting concerts and grateful for all the great contacts we made in the last two weeks.  We're also very grateful for all of you, who have made us feel so supported and cheered on.  Your emails, facebook messages, and phone calls go a long way to help us, so thank you. They will also help as we decide what path to take in our near future, as our time in Boulder comes to an end this May.  We have a lot of great things to look forward to, including the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in May, so stay posted!  We'll keep the updates coming.

The Teslas

Born in Munich, Germany in 1982 and raised in South Korea since the age of 6, Yeun Hae Michelle Lie did not start playing the violin until the age of 14. While some may consider this a late start for a violinist, Ms. Lie has combined dedication and talent to achieve many successes in her musical career. After graduating from the prestigious Seoul Arts High School in 2000 Ms. Lie studied at Dankook University in Seoul, Korea with DaeShick Kang. While she was getting her Bachelor’s degree Ms. Lie was awarded First prize in the 250^th anniversary of J.S. Bach Competition and was the winner of Dankook University’s 2004 Concerto Competition. Ms. Lie has performed as a soloist with various orchestras in Korea. After she graduated with academic and performance honors in 2004 with a Bachelor’s Degree of Music, Ms. Lie went on to earn her Master’s degree at The New England Conservatory, studying with Eric Rosenblith. During this time, Ms. Lie gave solo recitals in Seoul as well as in Boston at the New England Conservatory. Ms. Lie made various appearances in the solo and chamber settings at the 2005 and 2006 IMAI (International Music and Art Institute) summer festival in Fryeburg, Maine. From 2004 to 2006, Ms. Lie has performed as a member of the Boston Philharmonic, led by Benjamin Zander, as well as the Bangor Symphony.

She continued her studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music where she finished a Professional Studies program with William Preucil. During her time in Cleveland, Ms. Lie was also a member of the Iannis String Quartet, which was awarded the ‘Special Recognition award’ from the 2007 Plowman Competition in Missouri. As first violinist of the Iannis Quartet, Ms. Lie participated in The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival studying with the Tokyo String Quartet and the Vermeer String Quartet in 2007. In the same year, the Iannis Quartet was honored by invitation to the Mimir Chamber Music Festival studying with members of the Chicago Symphony. Ms. Lie was invited to the 2008 Perlman Music Program where she worked with Itzhak Perlman, Don Weilerstein, Merry Peckham, Paul Katz, and Roger Tapping. As an orchestra player she has worked with the Cleveland Orchestra as a substitute member with whom she recently performed in Carnegie Hall in New York City. As a local musician, Ms. Lie joined the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra while working as a concertmaster with Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra. She is currently attending Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music, studying with Mark Kaplan and pursuing a Doctoral degree in Music while teaching as an Associate Instructor.    

Click here to read the article.

Strings - June, 2010: News & Notes

From left: Megan, Kevin Bennett, Kim, Bob Rashid, Ross. Xian had to cut out for a gig before we took this picture.

Joseph Rashid, who passed away in March of 2009, was a prolific, if relatively unknown, maker in northern California who produced over 100 violins, five violas and two cellos over the course of his lifetime.  What's remarkable is that he never sold a single instrument - while violin making was his passion, it was not his profession.  By trade, Rashid was an aeronautical engineer and worked for the Northrop Corporation for 22 years, but violin making was his true calling.  He kept his instruments in order to study and improve upon them and was constantly tweaking his methods in search of the finest results.

While he never sold any instruments, Rashid often lent them to prominent musicians so that the instruments' sounds could develop and he could get feedback on their qualities and playability.  Notable violinists who have played on his violins include Glenn Dicterow and Joseph Gingold.

We are very excited for these new additions to our group, and we're looking forward to discovering the imstruments' personalities as they develop over the coming months.  These instruments have been played very little, if at all, having been made between 1973 and 1991, but we can tell already that their sounds are well matched and complemetary to each other.

If you'd like to learn more about Joseph Rashid and his instruments, check out the website dedicated to the Rashid Collection:

http://www.jour.unr.edu/goldbaum/studentWork/S05/draper/

Finally, we'd like to thank the Rashid family for their generosity in lending out these special pieces of their family's history, Kevin Bennett who curates the collection, the University of Colorado School of Music for helping to facilitate the loan, and Geri Walther of the Takács Quartet for instigating our meeting.