QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO

QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO

QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO | [email protected] PO Box 27553, Oakland, CA 94602 | 510.282.1880 | quartetsanfrancisco.com

QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO biography Multiple Grammy nominees, Quartet San Francisco expresses itself in its agility and standout virtuosic playing. QSF was founded in 2001 by celebrated Bay Area violinist and composerarranger Jeremy Cohen. With violinist Matt Szemela, violist Keith Lawrence, and cellist Kelly Maulbetsch, these crossover specialists excel in multiple styles—jazz, tango, pop, blues, bluegrass, gypsy swing, big band. Since its concert debut in 2001, QSF has offered its exclusive and groundbreaking literature to local, national, and international audiences in tango and concert halls, jazz festivals, museums, and classrooms. In 2002 the quartet began its on-stage collaborations with tango dancers, Sandor and Parissa. In the 2004–06 academic years the quartet was in residence at Mills College in Oakland, California.

QSF has been featured on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday. They have toured China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Guam, performing in Seoul, Tokyo, Hyogo, Osaka, Istanbul, Hagatna, and throughout central and eastern China. As winners of the Argentine Consulate’s 2004 International Tango Competition in New York, they performed tangos for an Argentine audience at the historic Café Tortoni in Buenos Aires. United States appearances include New York's Le Poisson Rouge, Yoshi's Jazz Clubs in San Francisco and Oakland, the Brubeck Room in the Wilton Library (at the invitation of Dave Brubeck), the Mendocino Music Festival, in concerts with the Marin Symphony and the Tulsa Symphony, and guest appearances with numerous chamber orchestras. They have appeared on series produced by Music at Trinity Wall Street, Corning Museum of Glass, Troy Music Hall, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Portland Friends of Chamber Music, La Jolla Music Society, Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society Summer, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, University of Vermont Lane Series, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Dumbarton Concert Series in Washington, D.C., The Jazzschool in Berkeley, Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, and Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival. They have been visiting artists at Manhattan School of Music and Berklee College of Music, and they have appeared at the University of the Pacific’s Brubeck Festival at Mills College where they performed Jeremy Cohen’s arrangements of Time Out selections for Dave and Iola Brubeck. More info available at www.quartetsanfrancisco.com. QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO | [email protected] PO Box 27553, Oakland, CA 94602 | 510.282.1880 | quartetsanfrancisco.com

QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO news QSF opens the season | October 2012 Marin Symphony’s 60th Season Gala Opening and subscription concerts featuring a world premiere performance of Jeremy Cohen’s Concerto Grosso for String Quartet and Orchestra

QSF | Dec 2012 L@TE: Friday Nights at BAM/PFA Berkeley Art Museum, University of California

QSF Korea tour | October 2012 Korea Exhibition Center (KINTEX), Seoul

marinsymphony.org

NightLife at the Academy QSF | December 2012 California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park, San Francisco www.calacademy.org/events/nightlife

violin

His electrifying jazz violin performances have earned him nationwide accolades. Classically-trained and a student of Itzhak Perlman and Anne Crowden, Cohen’s eclectic style reflects his respect for a wide range of violinists from early music to contemporary styles.

composer | arranger| founder jeremy cohen


QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO press Quartet San Francisco disintegrates the traditional mold and creates a brand new crucible that is pleasing to the ear. One listen and it is quite apparent that a musical marriage has been consummated. Donald V. Adderton, HERALD NEWS/NEW JERSEY MEDIA GROUP There was not a bandoneon in earshot or sight. Nor any caballero, one foot propped on a chair, whooshing baleful cadences from his baby accordion. But, by god, here was the DNA of tango – its authenticity in sound and expression and musicality . . . the San Franciscans really stood on their own – especially arranger/composer Jeremy Cohen, who also held forth with easygoing, unself-conscious, informative patter introducing the program items. Donna Perlmutter, LOS ANGELES CITY BEAT The musicians played with breezy wit, fine technical finish and a genuine feeling for musical idiom. Joe Banno, THE WASHINGTON POST You don’t often get to see chamber musicians have that much fun onstage. And in the final accounting, isn’t that what chamber music is really all about? Edward Ortiz, SACRAMENTO BEE ARTS CRITIC … what could easily be the most cheerful and brilliantly-executed release of 2007. Judith Schlesinger on Whirled Chamber Music (CD), ALL ABOUT JAZZ

violin Praised by the New York Times for his “outrageous fiddling,” Matt hails from Maine and Mannes College.

collaborator and improviser with singer-songwriters matt szemela


QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO discography LÁTIGO (2006) JUST PLAIN FOLKS MUSIC AWARDS 2009 Best Classical Chamber Album Nominee, 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards Best Classical Crossover Album Nominee, 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards Best Engineered Classical Album Violinjazz Recordings JCCD104

WHIRLED CHAMBER MUSIC (2007) Nominee, 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards Best Classical Crossover Album Violinjazz Recordings JCCD105

QSF PLAYS BRUBECK (2009) Nominee, 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards Best Classical Crossover Album Nominee, 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards Best Engineered Classical Album Violinjazz Recordings JCCD106

4TET SAN FRANCISCO (2001) Debut recording Violinjazz Recordings VLNJZ3

FIVE BY FOUR (2011) EP Digital only Violinjazz Recordings JCCD107

Hear QSF on Weekend Edition Sunday with Liane Hansen “Quartet San Francisco: Brubeck On Strings,” January 31, 2010


QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO programs

PASSIONATE ENCOUNTER Tangos from Argentina Two formats: chamber music or quartet with orchestra Optional: may be joined by dancers Sandor & Parissa (more about the dancers at sandorparissa.com)

TANGOS AND JAZZ Traditional and modern Argentine tango combined with works by American jazz legends—Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Raymond Scott. Music of the Americas.

NEW CHAMBER MUSIC Works created for QSF by big band and film composers Gordon Goodwin and Patrick Williams. Real string quartet writing, real swing. For performing arts centers seeking traditional programming for their presenting series.

SUMMER OF LOVE Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Queen, Stevie Wonder and more. Features new, engaging arrangements of music from the ‘60s and ‘70s.

DAVE BRUBECK—WEST COAST COOL Featuring selections from QSF Plays Brubeck, the 2009 Grammy-nominated CD celebrating jazz composer Dave Brubeck and his legendary albums, Time Out, Time Further Out, and Jazz Impressions of Eurasia, including Blue Rondo a la Turk, Take Five, and Matthew Brubeck’s arrangement of his father’s homage to Duke Ellington, The Duke. viola Graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and DePaul University Interlochen Art Academy Pittsburgh born, now in San Francisco after a stop in Chicago

three-time participant, the henry mancini institute keith lawrence


QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO educational offerings QSF has performed hundreds of family and children’s concerts as well as college-level demonstrations, workshops, and seminars (in conjunction with concert performances). Each program delivers a wide range of musical information in a participatory, spontaneous format, including classical string quartet fare, original arrangements of jazz, tango, Disney, and cartoon music. Programs are designed to fit the needs of each audience, whether they are introducing stringed instruments to children or improvisation to college students. Quartet San Francisco illustrates how instruments are made and produce sound, and demonstrate techniques for creating a colorful and fanciful variety of sounds and effects. Quartet members reveal how a string quartet puts together a piece of music; demonstrate the diverse techniques for performing tango, Latin, jazz and classical music; and discuss the history of the music they perform. Audience participation is encouraged. QSF also offers workshops in performance techniques for contemporary music composers and performers. Students of composition learn how to create traditional and cutting-edge techniques for stringed instruments, while focusing on works for string quartet in particular. Members of the quartet work with music performance students on chamber music pieces from all genres, collectively culminating their efforts in a semester-end performance. QSF is actively involved with the San Francisco Symphony’s “Adventures in Music” program, and with the “Music in Schools” program sponsored by Music at Kohl Mansion in Burlingame, Calif.

cello Palo Alto roots, graduate of Cleveland Institute of Music Tanglewood and National Repertory Orchestra Festivals American Institute of Musical Studies, Graz, Austria

educator | ensemblist kelley maulbetsch
