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Photo above: credit Carlin Ma
THE PROGRAMQuartet in D minor, K. 421 MOZART
(1756 - 1791) Quartet in D major BORODIN (1833 - 1887) Quartet in F minor, Op. 80 MENDELSSOHN (1809 - 1847) POST PERFORMANCE NOTESTHINKING IN FOUR PART HARMONY WITH SPECIAL LADIES ON THEIR MINDS....
Once again, our Quartet in Residence, the Dover Quartet drew a unanimous verdict at the Historic Courthouse. A resounding “Well Done!” echoed throughout the room! Never a doubt whatsoever or further evidence needed, this concert was one for the books! From the moment Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, Joel Link, Bryan Lee, and Camden Shaw took center stage the audience knew and felt a musical energy would rule. Each of the three selections performed had a special feminine influence or relationship to each composer. The Mozart Quartet in D minor was said to have been composed while Constance, Mozart’s wife, was in labor with their first child. The Borodin Quartet in D major was written as an anniversary present for the Chemist/Composer’s wife. The Mendelssohn Quartet in F minor was written as an exegesis of the composer’s broken and grief stricken heart over losing his beloved sister, Fanny. Diverse pieces with a powerful flare of emotion, passion, and fury came to life right before our ears and eyes. The Dover Quartet, working as four -playing as one, presented an epic sized testimony of compelling and beautiful music. At times, leaving we the audience stunned with the surging effects of this well chosen and presented program. Truly, I can say it was a concert so very well performed and so greatly enjoyed. I rest my case. Emma Mills Bledsoe |
PERFORMINGDOVER QUARTET
JOEL LINK, VIOLIN BRYAN LEE, VIOLIN MILENA PAJARO-VAN DE STADT, VIOLA CAMDEN SHAW, CELLO CONCERT SPONSORSSPONSORED IN PART BY
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT OF STATE DIVISION OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS AND THE FLORIDA COUNCIL ON ARTS AND CULTURE CBC NATIONAL BANK - SEASON SPONSOR PAT CLEGG BUD AND MAXINE TANIS |
WHAT'S NEW WITH OUR QUARTET IN RESIDENCE
On Heels of Best-selling Cedille Album, Voices of Defiance 1943 1944 1945, Dover Quartet Plays NYC Peoples’ Symphony Concert, Makes Debuts at Library of Congress & Carnegie Hall Mainstage Learn More
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Smetana - String Quartet No. 1 ("From My Life") - Dover Quartet
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The Dover Quartet Performing Ellington
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ABOUT THE DOVER QUARTET
The Dover Quartet’s rise to the top of its field has been “practically meteoric” (Strings). Catapulted to prominence after sweeping the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the group has become a major presence on the international scene. With its burnished warmth, incisive rhythms, and natural phrasing, the quartet’s distinctive sound – together with an adventurous spirit and infectious joy in music-making – has confirmed has confirmed the Dovers’ status as “the very model of a modern young classical ensemble” (Washington Post). The group was named as Cleveland Quartet Award winner for 2016-17 and 2017-18, and has also won the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Hunt Family Award (one of the inaugural Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards), and top prizes at the Fischoff Competition and Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.
The quartet launches the season with the release of its second recording on the Cedille label, taking listeners on a powerful, often harrowing, journey through three searing works written during World War II. Titled Voices of Defiance 1943 1944 1945, the album comprises Viktor Ullmann’s String Quartet No. 3 (1943), Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 2 (1944), and Simon Laks’s String Quartet No. 3 (1945). All three composers feature in the Dovers’ 2017-18 concert lineup, with Ullman’s quartet forming the centerpiece of their first performance at Washington’s Library of Congress. Other 2017-18 season highlights include their debut at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, with a program of Haydn, Zemlinsky, and Mozart, and their first mainstage appearance at Carnegie Hall, where they join Janine Jansen and Jean-Yves Thibaudet for Chausson’s haunting Concerto in D for violin, piano, and quartet. They return twice to the Kennedy Center, first collaborating with the Emerson String Quartet on Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and the Mendelssohn Octet, and then playing new music by Missy Mazzoli, Ted Hearne, and Derek Bermel in the trailblazing KC Jukebox series. They showcase additional contemporary works by William Bolcom, at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and by Richard Danielpour, during engagements that include a weeklong residency at Canada’s Lunenburg Academy of Music. The Dovers also return to the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts of New York and a host of other U.S. presenters in repertoire ranging from Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Bartók to Duke Ellington. In the third year of their specially created, multi-season faculty residency at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, they give multiple performances throughout the season, including an appearance in the conservatory’s Winter Chamber Music Festival. They also complete work on a feature-length documentary by filmmaker Bruce Broder, which follows them to Salzburg, the Kennedy Center, and other recent stops on their musical journey.
Last season, the quartet made its recording debut with Tribute, an all-Mozart program on Cedille that recalls the 1965 debut album of the Guarneri Quartet, whose founding violist, Michael Tree, joins the group on the disc. The first Beethoven quartet cycles of the Dovers’ career included performances at SUNY Buffalo, where they followed in the footsteps of the Budapest, Guarneri and Cleveland Quartets by performing the master composer’s complete quartet output in the university’s famous “Slee Cycle” series. In New York City, besides continuing a three-year tenure as the first Ensemble-in-Residence in the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts’ 116-year history, the Dovers performed at downtown hotspots SubCulture, the Greene Space, and Le Poisson Rouge, where they celebrated the relaunch of the hit TV series Twin Peaks with an all-contemporary program showcasing music from its iconic score. The quartet also undertook a pair of North American tours, first with double-bassist Edgar Meyer and then with mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital; made debuts in eleven cities across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; and performed at the Kennedy Center and in Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and two dozen more U.S. cities. Their account of selections by Samuel Barber was broadcast on the celebrated national radio show A Prairie Home Companion, and, highlighting a ten-day residency at Oregon’s Chamber Music Northwest, the quartet gave the world premiere performances of two new commissions: Daniel Schlosberg’s Twin Peaks Fantasy and Chris Rogerson’s Commission.
During the 2015-16 season, the Dover Quartet performed more than 120 dates around the world, including debuts at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Yale University, the Lucerne Festival, and as part of the Lincoln Center “Great Performers” series. Other career highlights include world premiere performances of new commissions by David Ludwig and Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw, and tours of the U.S., Canada, Israel, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Great Britain, where they have made multiple appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall. They have also performed at festivals including Germany’s Rheingau Musik Festival, and America’s Bravo! Vail, Chamber Music Northwest, Music at Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Artosphere, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, and Caramoor, where they served as 2013-14 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence. Among the group’s world-class collaborators are pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Marc-André Hamelin, and Jon Kimura Parker; mandolinist Avi Avital; violists Roberto Díaz and Cynthia Phelps; bassist-composer Edgar Meyer; and the Pacifica Quartet.
While passionately committed to the great chamber literature, the Dovers delight in championing less traditional fare as well, reaching hundreds of thousands of new fans with their YouTube videos of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and the music from Twin Peaks. All four quartet members are consummate solo artists: first violinist Joel Link took first prize at the Menuhin Competition; violinist Bryan Lee and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt have appeared as soloists with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic, respectively; and cellist Camden Shaw released a solo album debut on the Unipheye Music label. As Strad magazine observes, “With their exceptional interpretative maturity, tonal refinement, and taut ensemble,” the Dovers are “pulling away from their peers.”
Hailed as “the next Guarneri Quartet” (Chicago Tribune), the Dover Quartet draws from the lineage of that distinguished ensemble, as well as those of the Cleveland and Vermeer Quartets; its members studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where they were mentored extensively by Shmuel Ashkenasi, James Dunham, Norman Fischer, Kenneth Goldsmith, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Peter Wiley. It was at Curtis that the quartet first formed, and its name pays tribute to Dover Beach by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber. The group has since returned to the schools for residencies: to Rice in 2011-13, and to Curtis, where it became the conservatory’s first Quartet-in-Residence, in 2013-14.
The Dover Quartet is dedicated to sharing its music with under-served communities and is actively involved with Music for Food, an initiative enabling musicians to raise resources and awareness in the fight against hunger.
www.doverquartet.com
https://www.facebook.com/DoverQuartet/
twitter.com/DoverQuartet
www.youtube.com/channel
The Dover Quartet’s rise to the top of its field has been “practically meteoric” (Strings). Catapulted to prominence after sweeping the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the group has become a major presence on the international scene. With its burnished warmth, incisive rhythms, and natural phrasing, the quartet’s distinctive sound – together with an adventurous spirit and infectious joy in music-making – has confirmed has confirmed the Dovers’ status as “the very model of a modern young classical ensemble” (Washington Post). The group was named as Cleveland Quartet Award winner for 2016-17 and 2017-18, and has also won the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Hunt Family Award (one of the inaugural Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards), and top prizes at the Fischoff Competition and Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.
The quartet launches the season with the release of its second recording on the Cedille label, taking listeners on a powerful, often harrowing, journey through three searing works written during World War II. Titled Voices of Defiance 1943 1944 1945, the album comprises Viktor Ullmann’s String Quartet No. 3 (1943), Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 2 (1944), and Simon Laks’s String Quartet No. 3 (1945). All three composers feature in the Dovers’ 2017-18 concert lineup, with Ullman’s quartet forming the centerpiece of their first performance at Washington’s Library of Congress. Other 2017-18 season highlights include their debut at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, with a program of Haydn, Zemlinsky, and Mozart, and their first mainstage appearance at Carnegie Hall, where they join Janine Jansen and Jean-Yves Thibaudet for Chausson’s haunting Concerto in D for violin, piano, and quartet. They return twice to the Kennedy Center, first collaborating with the Emerson String Quartet on Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and the Mendelssohn Octet, and then playing new music by Missy Mazzoli, Ted Hearne, and Derek Bermel in the trailblazing KC Jukebox series. They showcase additional contemporary works by William Bolcom, at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and by Richard Danielpour, during engagements that include a weeklong residency at Canada’s Lunenburg Academy of Music. The Dovers also return to the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts of New York and a host of other U.S. presenters in repertoire ranging from Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Bartók to Duke Ellington. In the third year of their specially created, multi-season faculty residency at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, they give multiple performances throughout the season, including an appearance in the conservatory’s Winter Chamber Music Festival. They also complete work on a feature-length documentary by filmmaker Bruce Broder, which follows them to Salzburg, the Kennedy Center, and other recent stops on their musical journey.
Last season, the quartet made its recording debut with Tribute, an all-Mozart program on Cedille that recalls the 1965 debut album of the Guarneri Quartet, whose founding violist, Michael Tree, joins the group on the disc. The first Beethoven quartet cycles of the Dovers’ career included performances at SUNY Buffalo, where they followed in the footsteps of the Budapest, Guarneri and Cleveland Quartets by performing the master composer’s complete quartet output in the university’s famous “Slee Cycle” series. In New York City, besides continuing a three-year tenure as the first Ensemble-in-Residence in the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts’ 116-year history, the Dovers performed at downtown hotspots SubCulture, the Greene Space, and Le Poisson Rouge, where they celebrated the relaunch of the hit TV series Twin Peaks with an all-contemporary program showcasing music from its iconic score. The quartet also undertook a pair of North American tours, first with double-bassist Edgar Meyer and then with mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital; made debuts in eleven cities across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; and performed at the Kennedy Center and in Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and two dozen more U.S. cities. Their account of selections by Samuel Barber was broadcast on the celebrated national radio show A Prairie Home Companion, and, highlighting a ten-day residency at Oregon’s Chamber Music Northwest, the quartet gave the world premiere performances of two new commissions: Daniel Schlosberg’s Twin Peaks Fantasy and Chris Rogerson’s Commission.
During the 2015-16 season, the Dover Quartet performed more than 120 dates around the world, including debuts at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Yale University, the Lucerne Festival, and as part of the Lincoln Center “Great Performers” series. Other career highlights include world premiere performances of new commissions by David Ludwig and Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw, and tours of the U.S., Canada, Israel, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Great Britain, where they have made multiple appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall. They have also performed at festivals including Germany’s Rheingau Musik Festival, and America’s Bravo! Vail, Chamber Music Northwest, Music at Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Artosphere, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, and Caramoor, where they served as 2013-14 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence. Among the group’s world-class collaborators are pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Marc-André Hamelin, and Jon Kimura Parker; mandolinist Avi Avital; violists Roberto Díaz and Cynthia Phelps; bassist-composer Edgar Meyer; and the Pacifica Quartet.
While passionately committed to the great chamber literature, the Dovers delight in championing less traditional fare as well, reaching hundreds of thousands of new fans with their YouTube videos of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and the music from Twin Peaks. All four quartet members are consummate solo artists: first violinist Joel Link took first prize at the Menuhin Competition; violinist Bryan Lee and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt have appeared as soloists with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic, respectively; and cellist Camden Shaw released a solo album debut on the Unipheye Music label. As Strad magazine observes, “With their exceptional interpretative maturity, tonal refinement, and taut ensemble,” the Dovers are “pulling away from their peers.”
Hailed as “the next Guarneri Quartet” (Chicago Tribune), the Dover Quartet draws from the lineage of that distinguished ensemble, as well as those of the Cleveland and Vermeer Quartets; its members studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where they were mentored extensively by Shmuel Ashkenasi, James Dunham, Norman Fischer, Kenneth Goldsmith, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Peter Wiley. It was at Curtis that the quartet first formed, and its name pays tribute to Dover Beach by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber. The group has since returned to the schools for residencies: to Rice in 2011-13, and to Curtis, where it became the conservatory’s first Quartet-in-Residence, in 2013-14.
The Dover Quartet is dedicated to sharing its music with under-served communities and is actively involved with Music for Food, an initiative enabling musicians to raise resources and awareness in the fight against hunger.
www.doverquartet.com
https://www.facebook.com/DoverQuartet/
twitter.com/DoverQuartet
www.youtube.com/channel
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
JOEL LINK
VIOLIN
From a young age, violinist Joel Link has met much success both as a soloist and chamber musician. As a top prize winner of numerous competitions including the Johansen International Competition in Washington D.C. and the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in England, Link’s playing has received accolades for being both highly refined and captivatingly passionate. The Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote of a concert, “After Joel played, the audience rose, one at a time, seemingly pulled out of their seats by the richness of his sound and the authority of his musical ideas.” As a result of his prize at the Menuhin Competition, Link was featured in The Strad magazine and has also appeared on numerous radio shows, including NPR’s “From the Top.”
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he studied with renowned violinists Joseph Silverstein and Pamela Frank, and served as the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster for the 2009-2010 season. Joel’s love of chamber music has taken him to highly regarded music festivals across the globe, including the Ravinia and Marlboro music festivals, as well as Music from Angelfire. As a member of the Dover String Quartet, (formerly the Old City String Quartet) Joel has received the Grand Prize as well as the Gold Medal from the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and concertizes with the ensemble to great critical acclaim.
BRYAN LEE
VIOLIN
Bryan Lee has performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Delaware, Lansdowne, and Temple University Symphony Orchestras, among others. Bryan was awarded the Bronze Medal at the 2005 Stulberg International String Competition and won second prize at the 2004 Kingsville International Young Performers Competition. He was featured on America's National Public Radio station on the show “From the Top”, and has attended Ravinia's Steans Institute for Young Artists, La Jolla Summerfest, Music from Angel Fire, Encore School for Strings, Sarasota Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and the Perlman Music Program.
Serving as Associate Concertmaster of both Symphony in C and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and as a substitute for the Philadelphia Orchestra, Bryan has performed under the batons of such renowned conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Rossen Milanov, Otto-Werner Mueller, Alan Gilbert, Christoph Eschenbach, and Sir Simon Rattle, and has collaborated in chamber music with Peter Wiley, Ida Kavafian, Roberto Diaz, Anne-Marie McDermott, Carter Brey, and the Tokyo String Quartet. Bryan is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Pamela Frank and Victor Danchenko. His previous studies were with Choong-Jin Chang and Soovin Kim.
MILENA PAJARO-VAN DE STADT
VIOLA
Praised by Strad Magazine as having "lyricism that stood out...a silky tone and beautiful, supple lines", violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt has already established herself as one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. In addition to appearances as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, she has performed in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe, including an acclaimed 2011 debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall, which was described in Strad as being "fleet and energetic...powerful and focused".
Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt is the founding violist of the Dover Quartet, First Prize winner and sweeper of every special award at the Banff International String Quartet Competition 2013 and winner of the Gold Medal and Grand Prize in the 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Her numerous awards also include First Prize of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and top prizes at the Tokyo International Viola Competition and the Sphinx Competition. Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt's summer festival appearances include Marlboro, Bowdoin, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Sarasota, Strings, Bravo! Vail Valley, and La Jolla Summerfest, as well as Italy's Emilia Romagna Festival. Among the conductors with whom she has worked are Seiji Ozawa, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Charles Dutoit, and Otto-Werner Mueller.
A violin student of Sergiu Schwartz and Melissa Pierson-Barrett for several years, she began studying viola with Michael Klotz at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in 2005. Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Roberto Diaz, Michael Tree, Misha Amory, and Joseph de Pasquale. She then received her Master's Degree in String Quartet with the Dover Quartet at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, as a student of James Dunham. Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt performs on a 2004 copy of the Primrose Amati, originally made for Roberto Diaz by Gabrielle Kundert.
CAMDEN SHAW
CELLO
Cellist Camden Shaw has captivated audiences across the United States and Europe as an artist of unique and sincere vision. His playing has been described as “Wonderfully rich” (Kansas City Star), “dynamic and brave” (Stereo Times), and possesses a fluidity and flair that is truly unique. As cellist of the prizewinning Dover Quartet, he has appeared all over the world to great acclaim, being called a “phenomenal instrumentalist, who [seems] to have no technical difficulties.” (Rheinpfalz Ludwigshafen.)
Shaw has also collaborated in chamber music with such renowned artists as Daniel Hope, Leon Fleischer, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and maintains an active career as a soloist: highlights from recent years include a performance of the Beethoven Triple concerto with the highly-acclaimed Artosphere Festival Orchestra, where Shaw also holds the principal chair, and the release of his solo album by the audiophile label Unipheye Music. The Album met with much critical praise, and a review in the STRAD magazine said of Shaw’s Kodaly sonata: “There is a raw earthiness to Shaw’s playing, an interplay of passion and plaintive lyricism, and a courageous contempt for [its] horrific demands that is utterly gripping.”
Shaw graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2010, where he studied with Peter Wiley. Other major teachers include Norman Fischer, David Finckel, and Steven Isserlis. Shaw performs on an instrument made in 2010 by Sam Zygmuntowicz of Brooklyn, NY.
VIOLIN
From a young age, violinist Joel Link has met much success both as a soloist and chamber musician. As a top prize winner of numerous competitions including the Johansen International Competition in Washington D.C. and the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in England, Link’s playing has received accolades for being both highly refined and captivatingly passionate. The Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote of a concert, “After Joel played, the audience rose, one at a time, seemingly pulled out of their seats by the richness of his sound and the authority of his musical ideas.” As a result of his prize at the Menuhin Competition, Link was featured in The Strad magazine and has also appeared on numerous radio shows, including NPR’s “From the Top.”
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he studied with renowned violinists Joseph Silverstein and Pamela Frank, and served as the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster for the 2009-2010 season. Joel’s love of chamber music has taken him to highly regarded music festivals across the globe, including the Ravinia and Marlboro music festivals, as well as Music from Angelfire. As a member of the Dover String Quartet, (formerly the Old City String Quartet) Joel has received the Grand Prize as well as the Gold Medal from the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and concertizes with the ensemble to great critical acclaim.
BRYAN LEE
VIOLIN
Bryan Lee has performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Delaware, Lansdowne, and Temple University Symphony Orchestras, among others. Bryan was awarded the Bronze Medal at the 2005 Stulberg International String Competition and won second prize at the 2004 Kingsville International Young Performers Competition. He was featured on America's National Public Radio station on the show “From the Top”, and has attended Ravinia's Steans Institute for Young Artists, La Jolla Summerfest, Music from Angel Fire, Encore School for Strings, Sarasota Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and the Perlman Music Program.
Serving as Associate Concertmaster of both Symphony in C and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and as a substitute for the Philadelphia Orchestra, Bryan has performed under the batons of such renowned conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Rossen Milanov, Otto-Werner Mueller, Alan Gilbert, Christoph Eschenbach, and Sir Simon Rattle, and has collaborated in chamber music with Peter Wiley, Ida Kavafian, Roberto Diaz, Anne-Marie McDermott, Carter Brey, and the Tokyo String Quartet. Bryan is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Pamela Frank and Victor Danchenko. His previous studies were with Choong-Jin Chang and Soovin Kim.
MILENA PAJARO-VAN DE STADT
VIOLA
Praised by Strad Magazine as having "lyricism that stood out...a silky tone and beautiful, supple lines", violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt has already established herself as one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. In addition to appearances as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, she has performed in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe, including an acclaimed 2011 debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall, which was described in Strad as being "fleet and energetic...powerful and focused".
Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt is the founding violist of the Dover Quartet, First Prize winner and sweeper of every special award at the Banff International String Quartet Competition 2013 and winner of the Gold Medal and Grand Prize in the 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Her numerous awards also include First Prize of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and top prizes at the Tokyo International Viola Competition and the Sphinx Competition. Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt's summer festival appearances include Marlboro, Bowdoin, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Sarasota, Strings, Bravo! Vail Valley, and La Jolla Summerfest, as well as Italy's Emilia Romagna Festival. Among the conductors with whom she has worked are Seiji Ozawa, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Charles Dutoit, and Otto-Werner Mueller.
A violin student of Sergiu Schwartz and Melissa Pierson-Barrett for several years, she began studying viola with Michael Klotz at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in 2005. Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Roberto Diaz, Michael Tree, Misha Amory, and Joseph de Pasquale. She then received her Master's Degree in String Quartet with the Dover Quartet at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, as a student of James Dunham. Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt performs on a 2004 copy of the Primrose Amati, originally made for Roberto Diaz by Gabrielle Kundert.
CAMDEN SHAW
CELLO
Cellist Camden Shaw has captivated audiences across the United States and Europe as an artist of unique and sincere vision. His playing has been described as “Wonderfully rich” (Kansas City Star), “dynamic and brave” (Stereo Times), and possesses a fluidity and flair that is truly unique. As cellist of the prizewinning Dover Quartet, he has appeared all over the world to great acclaim, being called a “phenomenal instrumentalist, who [seems] to have no technical difficulties.” (Rheinpfalz Ludwigshafen.)
Shaw has also collaborated in chamber music with such renowned artists as Daniel Hope, Leon Fleischer, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and maintains an active career as a soloist: highlights from recent years include a performance of the Beethoven Triple concerto with the highly-acclaimed Artosphere Festival Orchestra, where Shaw also holds the principal chair, and the release of his solo album by the audiophile label Unipheye Music. The Album met with much critical praise, and a review in the STRAD magazine said of Shaw’s Kodaly sonata: “There is a raw earthiness to Shaw’s playing, an interplay of passion and plaintive lyricism, and a courageous contempt for [its] horrific demands that is utterly gripping.”
Shaw graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2010, where he studied with Peter Wiley. Other major teachers include Norman Fischer, David Finckel, and Steven Isserlis. Shaw performs on an instrument made in 2010 by Sam Zygmuntowicz of Brooklyn, NY.
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Barber: Adagio for Strings, Original Version, Dover Quartet
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Beethoven's Allegro Molto, String Quartet Op. 59, No. 3
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On The Dover...
“Few young American ensembles are as exciting and accomplished as the Dover Quartet.” — The New Yorker
“The Dover Quartet players have it in them to become the next Guarneri String Quartet—they’re that good,” -- The Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein
“Destined for the company of some of the finest string quartets ever assembled.” — The Birmingham News, Michael Huebner
“The Dover Quartet […] was sublime.” — The Strad, Tim Homfray
“The Dover Quartet players have it in them to become the next Guarneri String Quartet—they’re that good,” -- The Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein
“Destined for the company of some of the finest string quartets ever assembled.” — The Birmingham News, Michael Huebner
“The Dover Quartet […] was sublime.” — The Strad, Tim Homfray
