Hello everyone! We have some really great news to share with you. Tesla is one of twelve quartets worldwide to be accepted into the London International String Quartet Competition at Wigmore Hall. We've also been chosen to compete at the Schubert and Modern Music Competition in Graz, Austria. We're very excited for these two events, and we're really grateful to all of you who have been so supportive in our process getting there. In preparation for these competitions, we will be playing several concerts in and around Boulder, and we'd love to see you there. We would also like to take this opportunity to ask for your continuing support, which enables us to continue bringing you new music.
In addition to our regular free concerts, we hope you will consider coming to some special fundraising events that we will be holding so that we will be able to keep up this wonderful forward progress. More information will follow about these special concerts. Thank you so much for your generosity and support!
Well, we have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that our colleague, Xian Meng, is leaving us to pursue other interests. We will miss him terribly, but we wish him all the best. The good news is that Michelle Lie will be joining us as the Tesla Quartet's new second violinist in May, 2011. Michelle is a wonderful musician, and we're excited to continue to bring music to all of you in the coming years. The other good news is that Michelle will be moving here to Boulder, as we have been asked to stay for a third year to continue our studies with the Takacs Quartet. Lots of exciting things happening! And to introduce you to Michelle...
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 250th 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.
This is a bit of old news, but I just came across this little blurb about our little collaboration with the Boulder Laptop Orchestra (BLOrk) last fall.
Click here to read the article.
The June 2010 issue of Strings Magazine has a short article on the Joseph Rashid instrument loan program, which includes a brief mention of the Tesla Quartet as one of its beneficiaries. You can read the article on the Strings website:
From left: Megan, Kevin Bennett, Kim, Bob Rashid, Ross. Xian had to cut out for a gig before we took this picture.Thanks to a generous loan from the Rashid Collection, we are now fortunate to be playing on a set of instruments that were all crafted by the same maker.
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.