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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

The Chiara String Quartet (Julliard alumni Rebecca Fischer and Julie Hye-Yung Yoon, violins; Jonah Sirota, viola; and Gregory Beaver, cello) is known for its respectful yet exciting performances of traditional string quartet literature and creative interpretations of contemporary compositions. Chiara has appeared in major concert venues throughout the United States (including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Aspen Music Festival, to name only a few) and internationally, but its motto, “chamber music in any chamber,” was coined for its penchant to perform in nightclubs and art galleries, away from the traditional concert hall setting. They have played at the Hideout in Chicago, Galapagos Art Space in New York, the Tractor Tavern in Seattle, and the Brick in Kansas City, among others.

Artists-in-residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Harvard University, Chiara has been honored with important awards and grants from Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, the Aaron Copland Foundation, and the Amphion Foundation. The Quartet regularly participates in competitions and has won several including the Astral Artistic Services National Audition, the Paolo Borciani International Competition, and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

Chiara’s discography currently consists of five albums, including Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets, first things first with violist Nadia Sirota, and the group’s self-produced New Voice Singles series recordings of Robert Sirota’s Triptych (written for Chiara in 2002) and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout (written for Chiara in 2001). Its latest album includes Jefferson Friedman’s String Quartet No. 3, which was recently nominated for the 2011 Best Contemporary Classical Composition Grammy Award.

Deeply committed to new music, Chiara has commissioned and premiered many new works throughout its existence. In 2010 Chiara established its Creator/Curator program in four cities, which commissions composers and engages them on a greater level by having them curate and program the concert on which their commissioned work will receive its premiere. Commissioned composers for the project this year are Nico Muhly, Huang Ruo, Daniel Ott, and Gabriela Lena Frank.

Chiara’s concert at the Lied Center includes Schubert’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 29; Brahms’s String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 67, and its commissioned Creator/Curator work by Gabriela Lena Frank, Milagros. Milagros (“miracles”) celebrates the decade-long partnership between Frank and Chiara, and was inspired by the sounds and people of the Andean lands. This concert concludes a four-day residency at KU which consists of concerts for pre-school children, working with KU students, and a performance at the Signs of Life in Lawrence.

PREVEW:
Lied Center of Kansas
Chiara String Quartet
Sunday, January 29, 2012, 2 p.m.
Lied Center of Kansas, KU Campus
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS
For more information, visit www.lied.ku.edu

Top Photo: Chiara String Quartet (Photo by Christian Steiner)

By Kristin Shafel Omiccioli

Editorial Assignments Executive Editor; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Kristin Shafel Omiccioli, a native of Madison, WI, holds composition degrees (M.M., B.M.) from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. Kristin's compositions have been performed at national and regional new music festivals and conferences throughout the United States. During her time at UMKC, Kristin also focused on double bass performance and arts administration. She was a student leader and performer in many of the Conservatory's student organizations and ensembles, including Musica Nova, Composers' Guild, the Conservatory Student Association, the orchestras, and Wind Symphony. Her composition instructors were James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long, and Chen Yi, and her bass instructor was Sue Stubbs. Formerly a guitarist, Kristin performed with big bands and her own jazz combo in Madison, WI, having studied jazz guitar and theory with Roger Brotherhood in Madison and jazz voice and theory with Hal Melia in Kansas City at UMKC.

Kristin enjoys being active in the performing arts community. She has volunteered with the Chamber Music Society of Kansas City and Charlotte Street Foundation, and has played in the bass section of the Northland Symphony Orchestra, among other bass gigs around the metro. Kristin currently serves as principal bass for the Kansas City Civic Orchestra and Heritage Philharmonic, and is a section bassist for Kinnor Philharmonic. She joined the writing staff of KCMetropolis.org in February 2010 and has been KCM’s executive editor since July 2011. Read her blog at mylittleheartmelodies.com.

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