Wednesday, February 2, 2011

It has been too long...

and we miss you. Please don't take our silence personally - it's not you, it's us. We have been BUSIER than ever rehearsing, performing, plotting our future and eating airport food, and somehow our poor blog has suffered gross neglect. This humble little journal even received a shout out in a review by Luke Quinton in the Austin American Statesman, so it's about time to live up to those "nicely-curated" standards.

First things first. Our CD is out!!!!!!! Released on Longhorn Records and distributed by Naxos, this project has been a labor of love, and we are so thankful to everyone at the university and in the studio who helped make it possible. This CD would not exist without the support of Dr. Glenn Chandler or the assistance of Kathryn Hutchison. And the album art by Nathan Russell is awesome! Please go to Amazon.com and admire it.

We are also excited to announce that we will be serving as the Quartet in Residence for the 2011 Austin Chamber Music Center Workshop! This is a very special opportunity, because the four of us trace our love of chamber music and some of our fondest childhood memories back to summer chamber music camps just like this one. The chance to be mentors and role models in such a comprehensive program as the one designed by the Austin Chamber Music Center is truly an honor. We will be performing several concerts over the course of the festival, which will be added to the 'schedule' page on our website, including a program to be shared with the beloved Tokyo Quartet! Check back for more on that in the next few weeks.

Speaking of honors... we recently met and played a concert with clarinetist Håkan Rosengren in a fundraising event for his Fayetteville Chamber Music Festival. An absolutely wonderful musician and person - definitely check him out. We performed in a beautiful turn-of-the-century home in rural Fayetteville, TX for a lively and supportive audience. This event was unique also in that it marked our first performance in conjunction with the auctioning of a live longhorn calf, among many other desirable items. We have officially achieved Texan status as a quartet :)

More soon! I promise. Thanks for reading!