Home CAS News ArtSci News Drake pianist teams up with Euclid Quartet for concert in Sheslow Auditorium

Drake pianist teams up with Euclid Quartet for concert in Sheslow Auditorium

The Euclid Quartet will perform a free concert with Professor of Piano Nicholas Roth on Sunday, April 30, in Drake’s Sheslow Auditorium.

Nicholas Roth, professor of piano, will join forces with the internationally acclaimed Euclid Quartet in a performance of the monumental Romantic masterpiece, Quintet for Piano and Strings, Op. 34 by Johannes Brahms. The esteemed string ensemble will also perform a quartet by Josef Haydn and The Octoroon Balls – String Quartet No. 1 by Wynton Marsalis. This free concert begins at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 30, in Sheslow Auditorium.

The Euclid Quartet is:
Jameson Cooper, violin
Luis Enrique Vargas, viola
Brendan Shea, violin
Jacqueline Choi, cello 

Celebrating its 18th anniversary season, the Euclid Quartet enjoys one of the most highly regarded reputations of any chamber ensemble of its generation, with its members’ constituting a multinational mix representing four continents: violinist Jameson Cooper (Great Britain), violinist Brendan Shea (United States), violist Luis Enrique Vargas (Venezuela), cellist Jacqueline Choi (South Korea). Captivating audiences and critics ranging from Carnegie Hall to school classrooms to radio and television broadcasts, the quartet consistently performs to enthusiastic acclaim throughout the country.

Formed in Ohio in 1998, the Euclid Quartet takes its name from the famous Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, home to a wealth of renowned artistic and cultural institutions. Within three years, the ensemble was awarded the String Quartet Fellowship of the Aspen Music Festival, where it was invited to return for the subsequent summer’s concert season. The quartet was also invited to study with the Emerson String Quartet at the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop.

Nicholas Roth, professor of piano at Drake University

Highlights of the Euclid Quartet’s career include significant global recognition as the first American string quartet to be awarded a top prize at the prestigious Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. Prior to its Japanese laurels, the quartet also won awards in numerous United States competitions, including the Hugo Kauder International Competition for String Quartets, The Carmel Chamber Music Competition and the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. In 2009, the Euclid Quartet was awarded the esteemed “American Masterpieces” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Euclid is a frequent guest ensemble at American and Canadian music festivals, among them those of Aspen, Great Lakes, Kent/Blossom and Orford, while expanded programs have included collaborations with internationally renowned artists, including James Dunham, Gregory Fulkerson, Warren Jones, Paul Katz, Joseph Silverstein and Alexander Toradze.

In 2007, the Euclid Quartet was appointed to the prestigious string quartet residency at Indiana University South Bend, where its members teach private lessons and coach chamber music. Passionately devoted to presenting the highest quality chamber music to young audiences, these seasoned teaching artists have performed for thousands and thousands of students and young adults, in part through support from the National Endowment for the Arts and collaborations with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association.

Active in the recording studio, the Euclid Quartet issued, most recently, a pair of CDs, comprising the six string quartets of Béla Bartók on Artek Recordings. The American Record Guide raved about these discs, “rarely has a group found such meaning and vision.” Their debut CD, on Centaur records, features the first four quartets of Hugo Kauder, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria who fled to the United States in the 1940s. He defied the atonal trend of his generation with his uniquely harmonic, contrapuntal style.

For more information, contact Nicholas Roth at 515-321-5947 or nicholas.roth@drake.edu