This weekend, the Amphion String Quartet joins with clarinetist David Shifrin for a concert at the Coronado Performing Arts Center in Rockford.
The Amphion String Quartet won the 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and joined the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two Program in fall 2013. They’ve received a number of other honors, performed at music festivals around the world, collaborated with some of the stars of the classical music world and, last fall, released an album of works by Wolf, Grieg and Janá?ek. Not bad for an ensemble that only got together in 2009.
Violinists Katie Hyun and David Southorn, violist Wei-Yang Andy Lin, and cellist Mihai Marica first joined together for a performance at Sprague Hall at the Yale School of Music in February, 2009. Southorn says the quartet was formed almost by chance.
“We came together actually for Katie’s graduation recital. She had a chamber music requirement and she had already known us from playing in different groups.”
That might have been it. But Southorn says the response to their performance was hugely positive, including from his teacher and Hyun’s: renowned violinist Ani Kavafian.
“She was very encouraging afterwards. She told us that she’d kill us if we didn’t stay together. (laughs) And we went our separate ways for the rest of that year – the school year – we had our own things to do, but after the summer we got back together and making it a serious thing, and applying to competitions and started learning the repertoire together, and one thing led to another.”
For their appearance in Rockford, the quartet will be joined by clarinetist David Shifrin. Shifrin is one of only two wind players to have been awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. Shifrin has appeared in concert halls around the world and regularly collaborates with some of the top orchestras and chamber ensembles.
Amphion cellist Mihai Marica says the veteran Shifrin has been more than a collaborator to the young ensemble.
“Mr. Shifrin also helped us by giving us long-term goals. He was one of the first to hire us for his festival in Portland, Oregon -- Chamber Music Northwest -- and he has been a great supporter of ours ... and guide.”
The Rockford program includes classical, with Mozart’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings; romantic, in Wolf’s Italian Serenade; jazz- based, with Alan Shulman’s Rendezvous with Benny, and even popular music, in David Shiff’s piece ‘Echoes of Seasons,’ as violinist Katie Hyun explains:
“The last movement is ‘Summer,’ and it’s actually an arrangement of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime.’ ‘Spring’ is based on ‘It Might as Well Be Spring’ by Richard Rogers. So it’s actually very accessible and something people will be familiar with.”
Southern says the program is not atypical. He says the members of the quartet enjoy exploring all kinds of music
“Generally, we like to mix it up. There’s just so much wonderful repertoire.”
More, he says, than they can possibly hope to get to. But they’ll try.
The Amphion String Quartet performs with clarinetist David Shifrin on Sunday, March 29th at 3 P.M. at the Coronado Performing Arts Center.
