Cassatt String Quartet announces Spring 2023 Concerts and Residencies
Performances across the United States, residencies at Columbia University, Amherst College, Bennington College, and West Texas
"an extraordinary quartet" – New York Times
The Cassatt String Quartet, formed in 1985, announces its spring 2023 season. Through concerts and residencies, violinists Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower, violist Rosemary Nelis, and cellist Gwen Krosnick perform throughout the year in New England, New York, and Texas. Season details are below.
Violinist Muneko Otani says, “We are thrilled to continue to have opportunities to tour the country, bringing concerts, masterclasses, workshops, and community events to audiences across the United States. Also, two recording projects will be released in 2023: an album of works by Gerald Cohen, and another of music by Daniel S. Godfrey." These new recordings add to the quartet's discography of 40 titles, which includes the 2022 releases Andy Teirstein's Restless Nation, Victoria Bond's Blue and Green Music.
Performance highlights include the world premiere of Passion's Continuum by Anthony De Ritis in Boston on February 19, in a program that includes Daniel S. Godfrey’s Toward Light for Guitar and String Quartet with guest artist Eliot Fisk. The following week, the CSQ and Eliot Fisk head to Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA to record Godfrey’s Toward Light, produced by multi-GRAMMY award-winning producer Judith Sherman.
Also this spring, the quartet is in residence at Columbia University in New York City, culminating in a concert on March 31 at The Italian Academy on Columbia's campus. The spring residency at Amherst College includes a concert on May 7 of works by Amherst professor Dylan Schneider.
The quartet visits West Texas twice in 2023 for its bi-annual residency Cassatt in the Basin. The January visit included programs in Midland and Odessa, and a concert at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Since 2005, Cassatt in the Basin has reached over 20,000 people, enriching the lives of adults and students in the community through concerts, workshops and other music events across the region.
This summer, the quartet returns to the Seal Bay Festival in Maine, where it is in its 20th season as ensemble-in-residence. The festival brings unique exposure to contemporary American chamber music to audiences in coastal Maine.
Hailed for its “mighty rapport and relentless commitment,” the Cassatt String Quartet has performed to critical acclaim across the world since its founding in 1985, with appearances at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, the Kennedy Center, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Centro National de las Artes, Maeda Hall, and Beijing’s Central Conservatory. The group’s discography includes over forty recordings, spanning the Koch, Naxos, New World, Point, CRI, Tzadik, and Albany labels – including three discs that have been named by Alex Ross to his “10 Best Classical Recordings” feature in The New Yorker.
The Cassatt Quartet’s upcoming projects include major performances and recordings of works by Tania León, Dylan Schneider, Shirish Korde, and Daniel S. Godfrey; its annual residencies at the Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music and Cassatt in the Basin!; hometown concerts in the New York area; and appearances at Treetops Chamber Music Society, Maverick Concerts, and Music Mountain.
The CSQ is named for the American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt.