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Cypress string quartet releases two-disc enhanced live recording of its first call & response program

Featuring the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Dan Coleman

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- January 22, 2002) -- Cypress String Quartet has released a two-disc enhanced CD of its first Call & Response Program entitled "The Cypress String Quartet -- Live." The program features Mozart's Quartet in A Major K 464, Beethoven's Quartet Op. 18 No. 5 in A Major and quartetto ricercare, a work commissioned by the quartet from American composer Dan Coleman. Recorded in front of a live audience at Skywalker Sound in December 2000, the CD ROM Enhancement is designed to recreate the live concert experience. It includes performance videos, further information about the project and interviews with the composer and the musicians.

The Cypress String Quartet is Cecily Ward and Tom Stone, violins, Ethan Filner, viola and Jennifer Kloetzel, cello. On the live recording, former violist Ann Gregg performs with the Quartet.

"Cypress String Quartet -- Live" is a recording of the debut "Call & Response" series which took place in the spring of 2000. The acclaimed Call & Response program illustrates how music is an ongoing process of inspiration. Over two hundred years ago, composers including Mozart and Beethoven participated in musical dialogues with one another through their string quartets. Cypress String Quartet's Call & Response continues this dialogue by commissioning new compositions written "in response" to the works of master composers. The program is designed to make apparent the links between past masterpieces and modern inspiration, illuminating the ongoing and fascinating impact of the world's foremost composers on today's listeners and music makers. The video interviews on the enhanced CD-ROM contain composer Dan Coleman's comments on how the Mozart and Beethoven works specifically influenced his own contemporary work.


Beethoven's admiration for Mozart, coupled with his fascination with the K.464 Quartet led him to copy it by hand and use its themes and overall form as inspiration for his Op.18 No.5. Modeled after the Mozart and Beethoven quartets, Dan Coleman's piece mixes elements of the classical style with sounds inspired by music of today. Integrating new with the familiar, "Call & Response" links the present with the past, showing contemporary music as a natural evolution of older works. It demonstrates that music written two hundred years agoi is still inspiring and relevant today.


CYPRESS STRING QUARTET
Formed in 1996, the Cypress String Quartet has amassed an impressive list of concerts, residencies, fellowships and collaborations in six short years. Praised by the Los Angeles Times for their "...musical astuteness and virtuoso resources," the Cypress String Quartet has performed to growing critical acclaim throughout the world. The Quartet has been featured in Chamber Music Magazine as a "Generation X ensemble to watch" and has made regular appearances on National Public Radio's "Performance Today". Since its inception in 1996, the ensemble has toured extensively, including concerts in Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco, Boston, and Tokyo. The Quartet is Visiting Quartet in Residence at the MERIT School of Music in Chicago, and at York and Lebanon Valley Colleges in Pennsylvania.

In the 2000-2001 season, the Quartet forged a relationship with ODC/San Francisco dance company and premiered Jay Cloidt's "Spectral Evidence" in a set of performances. Further collaborations with choreographer Brenda Way and the company are planned for future seasons. The Cypress Quartet also founded "Cypress Quartet and Friends," performing Schubert's Cello Quintet with Joan Jeanrenaud, former cellist of Kronos Quartet, in its debut program. The Quartet was pleased to bring pianist Awadagin Pratt to the series for 2001, continuing last fall's successful collaboration in an "Awadagin Pratt and Friends" concert in Tokyo, Japan. Future collaborations are to include Geraldine Walther, principal violist of the San Francisco Symphony and Donald Weilerstein, founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet.

The 2002 Call & Response program features Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 11, Benjamin Britten's String Quartet No. 3, and String Quartet No. 5, a new work commissioned by California composer Benjamin Lees. Performances are March 3 through April 28 in San Francisco, Berkeley, Burlingame and San Rafael.

Check out the artist's website:
http://www.cypressquartet.com

Track List:
1. DISC ONE: Mozart: Quartet in A Major, K.464, Allegro
2. Mozart: Menuetto; Trio
3. Mozart: Andante
4. Mozart: Allegro non troppo
5. Beethoven: Quartet Op.18 in A Major, Allegro
6. Beethoven: Menuetto; Trio
7. Beethoven: Andante cantabile
8. Beethoven: Allegro
9. DISC TWO: Dan Coleman: quartetto ricercare, 1. Fierce, obsessed
10. Coleman: 2. Variations
11. Coleman: 3. Spirited

Suggested CDs:

• Boston Chamber Music Society
• Clogs
• Innovata

Other Genres:

• CLASSICAL: Contemporary
• CLASSICAL: Traditional
• TYPE: LIVE RECORDINGS