The Skyros Quartet, the graduate quartet-in-residence at the Glenn Korff School of Music, has been admitted to the Aspen Music Festival and School’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies.
The Aspen Music Festival and School only admits three quartets into the program each summer, and the members of the admitted quartets each receive a full fellowship, room and board for no charge. The Center for Advanced Quartet Studies is this country’s premier training program for emerging string quartets. Alumni of the center are among today’s more celebrated young quartets and have won numerous prestigious chamber music awards and competitions.
Skyros members — Sarah Pizzichemi, James Moat, Justin Kurys and William Braun — are all pursuing Doctor of Music Arts degrees in performance with a chamber music focus under the guidance of the Chiara String Quartet. Founded in 2010, Skyros received Masters’ in Chamber Music Performance from the University of Texas at Austin Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music, mentored by the Miró Quartet and Sandy Yamamoto. Skyros has also been mentored by the Penderecki and Muir String Quartets and composer Joan Tower. They will complete residency with the Chiara Quartet and their doctoral work at UNL in 2015. The Chiara String Quartet was an Aspen Fellowship recipient quartet in 1996 and 2001.
The Center for Advanced Quartet Studies was established by Claus Adam and Gordon Hardy through the generosity of Jane W. Kitselman. The program offers eight weeks of intensive study devoted exclusively to quartet repertoire and performance practice. Instructors and coaches include members of the world’s most prestigious string quartets: Earl Carlyss, James Dunham and Sylvia Rosenberg, plus members of the American String Quartet, Takács Quartet, Jupiter String Quartet and Pacifica Quartet.
In addition, each quartet member may receive weekly private lessons with a member of the Aspen Music Festival and School artist-faculty. Public performances occur as part of the AMFS, and quartets have the opportunity to participate in the spectrum of musical activities offered at Aspen.
“Attending the Aspen Music Festival as part of a string quartet has been a lifetime goal of mine since I was 13. I am so honored and excited that Skyros will be in Aspen this summer,” Pizzichemi said.
A recent performance by the Skyros Quartet is available online.
