UWM Fine Arts Quartet to Perform Antheil, Zimbalist 4/11

The distinguished Fine Arts Quartet concludes its 2009-2010 concert season on Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 3:00 pm in the Helene Zelazo Center of the Performing Arts, 2419 East Kenwood Boulevard. Violinists Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, cellist Wolfgang Laufer, and violist Nicolò Eugelmi will perform George Antheil's String Quartet No.3, Efrem Zimbalist's String Quartet in E minor and César Franck's String Quartet in D Major.

Dr. Timothy Noonan, music historian and graduate advisor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts, will provide an informal talk about the concert beginning at 2:15 pm in Room 280.

Ticket and Parking Information
Tickets are $20 general admission and $12 for students, seniors and UWM alumni, faculty and staff. For tickets, please call (414) 229-4308 or stop by the Box Office in the Zelazo Center. Box Office hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 am-5 pm and one hour prior to performances. Short-term parking spaces are available for those purchasing tickets. On concert days, ample free parking is available in the Zelazo Center lot (to the south of the building) and in the UWM Union Parking Garage, 2200 East Kenwood Boulevard.

About the Fine Arts Quartet
The Fine Arts Quartet is one of the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success and an extensive recording legacy. Founded in Chicago in 1946, and based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 1963, the Quartet is one of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for over half a century. Three of the Quartet's current artists, violinists Ralph Evans, Efim Boico, and cellist Wolfgang Laufer, have now been performing together for over 25 years. Violist Nicolò Eugelmi joined the Quartet in 2009. Each season, the Fine Arts Quartet tours worldwide, with concerts in such musical centers as New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Mexico City, and Toronto.

The Quartet has recorded over 200 works, 70 of them with Evans, Boico, and Laufer. Their latest releases on Naxos include: three Beethoven String Quintets; the Franck String Quartet and Piano Quintet; Fauré Piano Quintets; complete Bruckner chamber music; complete Mendelssohn String Quintets; "Four American Quartets" by Antheil, Herrmann, Glass, Evans; complete Schumann Quartets; and the Glazunov String Quintet and Novelettes. Aulos Musikado released their complete Dohnányi String Quartets and Piano Quintets, and Lyrinx released both their complete early Beethoven Quartets and complete Mozart String Quintets in SACD format. Releases planned for 2010 include the two Saint-Saëns Quartets on Naxos, and three Shostakovich quartets on Lyrinx.

The Quartet's recent recordings have received many distinctions. Their Franck CD was named "Editor's Choice" by Gramophone Magazine (February, 2010), and their Glazunov, Mendelssohn, and Fauré CD's were each named a "Recording of the Year" by Musicweb International (2007-2009). In addition, their "Four American Quartets" album was designated a "BBC Music Magazine Choice" in 2008, their Schumann CD was named "one of the very finest chamber music recordings of the year" by the American Record Guide in 2007, and their Mozart SACD box set was named a "Critic's Choice 2003" by the American Record Guide. Many of their CD's were also selected for Grammy® Awards entry lists in the "Best Classical Album" and "Best Chamber Music Performance" categories. The Quartet's Fauré CD with pianist Cristina Ortiz was among the recordings for which musical producer Steven Epstein won a 2009 Grammy® Award ("Producer of the Year, Classical"). Special recognition was given for the Quartet's commitment to contemporary music: a 2003-2004 national CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, given jointly by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

The Quartet members have helped form and nurture many of today's top international young ensembles. They have been guest professors at the national music conservatories of Paris and Lyon, as well as at the summer music schools of Yale University and Indiana University. They also appear regularly as jury members of major competitions such as Evian, Shostakovich, and Bordeaux. Documentaries on the Fine Arts Quartet have appeared on both French and American Public Television. For more information on the Quartet, please visit: www.fineartsquartet.org.

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