[The Tokyo String Quartet playing the fourth movement of Beethoven's string quartet op.59 no. 3.]
The Tokyo String Quartet--Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda (violins), Kazuhide Isomura (viola), and Clive Greensmith (cello)--will be in residence at Centrum June 22-29 as faculty members at the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival.
Membership in the Tokyo String Quartet has changed over the decades, but the group’s trademark ensemble purity and dedication to the classical repertoire—as well as to contemporary work—remains the foundation for the group’s success.
The quartet’s current membership includes violinist Martin Beaver, violinist Kikuei Ikeda, violist Kazu Isomura, and cellist Clive Greensmith, who perform over one hundred concerts annually. And although the group registers tremendous sales, the quartet members don’t find relevancy in numbers, but in the music itself, and in giving back to the next generation of chamber music students.
Playing and commissioning works by modern composers, such as Toshio Hosakawa and Lera Auerbach, are important to the quartet, as well.
“In the Romantic era, with support from the aristocracy, there was much communication between composers and performers. These days, there is often not that level of communication, and so we try to collaborate with composers and try and create new music,” Isomura says. “Obligation is not quite the right word, but it’s a musician’s duty to find wonderful new music and introduce it to the public.”
The Attacca Quartet, along with the Tokyo String Quartet, will be in residence at the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival. The Attacca Quartet was formed at the Juilliard School in 2003, and is comprised of four second year-masters degree students—violinists Amy Schroeder and Keiko Tokunaga, violist Gillian Gallagher, and cellist Andrew Yee. The Quartet has already won multiple national and international awards in their short history and has collaborated with many internationally acclaimed artists.
