Photo of the Telegraph Quartet by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet

Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

Sunset Center | San Carlos St. | Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA

Tickets and Information at:

www.chambermusicmontereybay.org/concert/telegraph-quartet

“….rhythmic acuity, rapid tempos and intense lyricism is stunning…” — Audiophile Audition

www.TelegraphQuartet.com

Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA — The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group the San Francisco Chronicle describes as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape,” will be presented by Chamber Music Monterey Bay on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. Telegraph Quartet will perform a program featuring String Quartet No. 4 (1951) by Grażyna Bacewicz, String Quartet No. 1 (1941) by Benjamin Britten, and String Quartet No. 6 in E minor Op. 35 (1946) by Mieczysław Weinberg. A pre-concert talk will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet brings a concert program to Chamber Music Monterey Bay that’s steeped in the mystery, tension, and global turmoil of World War II. Intricate and stylistically intense compositions intertwine with the feelings and perceptions imparted into each work by their respective composers, as a result of the unique but highly charged circumstances all three faced during the war. These works channel a dark era in human history but give Telegraph Quartet an exciting opportunity to display their performative precision and unified musical expression through works that beautifully blend compositional complexity with many strong emotions..

The Telegraph Quartet’s new release, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths was released on Aug. 25 via Azica Records. The first album in a three record series focused on string quartets of the era, Divergent Paths offers a glimpse into the beginning of the 20th century. The Telegraph Quartet explores this time bewildering and unbridled creativity through the work of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. The works the Telegraph Quartet is performing for Chamber Music Monterey Bay make up the program that will be recorded on the second volume in the series.

“All of the works on this program and future album reflect each composers’ emotional state as they wrestled with the consequences of these traumatic times. While foreboding, anger, uncertainty and longing pervade the works, each one finds its own way to a life-affirming optimism, whether defiant or joyous. We’re very excited to share this searingly brilliant program with Chamber Music Monterey Bay and their community!”

Grażyna Bacewicz’s String Quartet No. 4 was composed in 1951, several years after the end of World War II. During this time, Bacewicz lived through the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. The work opens with a kind of sorrow-tinged hope that builds to a joyous third movement.

Benjamin Britten and his future partner Peter Pears fled England in 1939 with the rumblings of war with Germany on their heels, in part to avoid their inevitable jailing if war broke out due to their pacifist beliefs. War did break out shortly and by 1941, the homesick Britten was writing his first quartet, with a nostalgia for his island home that is reflected in the wave-like motions of the work’s third movement.

During World War II Weinberg fled his homeland of Poland and having failed to convince his family to come with him, almost all of them would be murdered in the concentration camps. His String Quartet No. 6 (1946) contains an innocent mundanity that erupts throughout the work into desperation, sorrow, and tragic indignation as he dealt with the ramifications of his exile and learned to live warily in his newfound home of the Soviet Union.

About Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “…an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

The Quartet has performed in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger. In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The Telegraph Quartet released its new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths –– which features Ravel’s renowned quartet and Schoenberg’s first quartet –– on Aug. 25 via Azica Records.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence and has given master classes at the SFCM Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan and in fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet.

For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.

Chamber Music Monterey Bay: Chamber Music Monterey Bay enriches the cultural life of the community by promoting high-quality chamber music through a world-class concert series and community education programs. This will be the 57th season of Chamber Music Monterey Bay.

Founded in 1966, Chamber Music Monterey Bay has its roots in an organization begun by Hazel Watrous and Dene Denny — two pioneers of early California history who brought music performances to the Monterey Peninsula in the mid-1920s (often featuring new works by local composers).

For Calendar Editors:

Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as having "tonal warmth and communicative urgency,” is presented in concert by Chamber Music Monterey Bay on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. The Bay Area ensemble will perform a program highlighting works of the mid 20th century, including Grażyna Bacewicz’s String Quartet No. 4, Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No. 1, and Mieczysław Weinberg’s String Quartet No. 6 in E minor Op. 35 (1946).

Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, described as having "tonal warmth and communicative urgency” (San Francisco Chronicle), is presented by Chamber Music Monterey Bay on Oct. 14, 2023, for a performance featuring the music of Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg.

Concert details:

Who: Telegraph Quartet

Presented by Chamber Music Monterey Bay

What: Music by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg, preceded by a free pre-concert talk

When: Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.; Pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Sunset Center, San Carlos St., Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA

Tickets and information: www.chambermusicmontereybay.org/concert/telegraph-quartet