The Ulysses Quartet, GBH’s quartet in residence, performed their exceptional artistry for the Newbury Court Community this week. Their program featured works by Joseph Haydn, Caroline Shaw, Erik Satie, traditional folk music, and a new composition by the quartet’s first violinist, Christina Bouey. This performance was during the second year of the quartet’s community-oriented programming in partnership with GBH Music and 99.5 WCRB Classical Radio Boston.
Newbury Court residents had a wonderful time listening to the program and getting to know the quartet’s musicians. Brian McCreath, producer and host of CRB’s Boston Symphony Orchestra broadcasts from Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, also presented.
Program:
HAYDN: String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 33, No.2 “Joke”
SHAW: Plan & Elevation
BOUEY: Soul
SATIE: arr. Koncz: A New Satiesfaction (Gymnopédie No.1)
About the Ulysses Quartet:
The Ulysses Quartet has been praised for their “textural versatility,” “grave beauty” and “the kind of chemistry many quartets long for, but rarely achieve” (The Strad). Founded in 2015, the group won the grand prize and gold medal in the senior string division of the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and first prize in the 2018 Schoenfeld International String Competition. The quartet’s members hail from Canada, the United States and Taiwan. They have performed in such prestigious halls as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Jordan Hall, the Picasso Museum in Málaga and Washington’s National Gallery of Art among many others. At Juilliard from 2019 to 2022, they were the Lisa Arnhold Fellows, serving as the School’s Graduate Resident String Quartet for 3 years. The group’s name pays homage to Homer’s hero Odysseus and his 10-year voyage home. The members of Ulysses perform on instruments and bows on loan from the Maestro Foundation and private donors.