This Week @ MAW: Quartet on Fire

Then-Juilliard graduate student violinist Anthony Chan got quite a shock when he opened an email from the Music Academy of the West in spring 2024 to check on his chamber music assignments for the summer festival. 

“I was just curious where the other fellows I’d be playing with might be studying, and then I saw ‘…Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk, Steven Isserlis, Richard O’Neill and you will perform Fauré’s ‘Quintet No. 2 in C Minor,’” Chan recalled. “It was surreal. I grew up with Joshua Bell’s albums – my parents used to listen to them in the car. Now, it was, wait, what?! I’m going to play with him?”

Chan will be back at MAW for more chamber music this summer, studying and performing with the Prometheus Quartet – his Juilliard-formed string quartet that’s been together in its current configuration for just over 18 months. The foursome has been selected for the new Emerging Artists String Quartet residency, during which the group will study for four weeks under the half-century old Takács Quartet and other teaching artists. The Prometheus Quartet will perform three concerts – including their own recital at Hahn Hall on June 18. 

The quartet – which coalesced to play Korngold in Juilliard’s 2024 Chamber Fest – took their name from the Titan who stole fire from the Greek gods and gave it to humanity. Prometheus is also considered the author of human arts and sciences. 

“We really love that idea of what fire represents for humanity,” Chan said. “It also reflects how we like to push boundaries in terms of our programming and our interpretations, delivering the spark of creativity to our concert audiences.” 

The June 18 program is meant to exhibit the Prometheus Quartet’s versatility, showcasing both classics – Haydn’s “F Minor – Hob. III:35 – Op. 20 No. 5,” and Debussy’s “G Minor, Op. 10,” quartets – and far lesser-known works such as Lei Liang’s “Gobi Gloria” and Elizabeth Maconchy’s “Quartet No. 3, Op. 15.”

“We like to focus on contemporary Asian-American music, which is important to both me and (first violinist) Roger Shao, and actually all of us as we’re a culturally diverse group,” said Chan, who grew up in Australia. “‘Gobi Gloria’ has elements of Mongolian folk song, and there’s also a section that features rhythmic horse riding, which evokes landscape scenes.”

The Elizabeth Maconchy composition represents the quartet’s commitment to “hidden and unknown gems of the classical music world.”

“Maconchy wrote 13 string quartets, but almost no one actually plays any of her works, which I don’t understand,” Chan said. “It’s a gorgeous piece, reminiscent of soundtracks to 1940s or ‘50s film noir.”

The Prometheus Quartet will also perform in the June 26 Teaching Artists showcase at the Lobero, where they’ll play Ravel’s Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé with pianist Denk, mezzo-soprano and Lehrer Vocal Institute co-director Sasha Cooke, two flutists and a clarinetist. “It’s just gorgeous and absolutely magical,” Chan said. 

The quartet will close out the performance part of their residency appearing with percussionist-composer Andy Akiho on steel pan for his “In/Exchange”and “Aka (Red)” for the Composers-in-Context concert on July 2. 

“It’s a great opportunity to both collaborate and expand on our mission to play contemporary music,” Chan said. “I had a quick look at the parts for ‘In/Exchange,’ and they’re insanely difficult, but so fun. It’s such a strange idea – combining the metallic nature of the steel drums and a string quartet – but somehow it just all comes together.”

Once summer is over, the Prometheus Quartet will begin a two-year residency at the University of Delaware studying with the Calidore String Quartet, which should solidify their status and serve as a further springboard for a desired full-time career as a touring quartet. The Prometheus Quartet will also return to Hahn Hall for a concert as part of MAW’s next Mariposa season. 

“We’ll really have a chance to tell a story for that concert,” Chan said.

In between, the violinist said he’s hoping that a local philanthropist might be inspired to help him find a suitable replacement for the 1775 GB Guadagnini violin that Juilliard graciously let Chan continue using – from last year’s Fauréconcert through graduation this spring. 

“Now I’m back to playing on my normal instrument, the one that I used to audition for Juilliard,” said the amiable Aussie. “It’s a nice fiddle, but it’s nowhere near a Guadagnini. So if there are any Santa Barbara sponsors who have a hidden Strad somewhere….” 

TW@MAW

Check this space each week for highlights/Best Bets of public events scheduled for the next seven days at the Music Academy of the West, both on campus at Miraflores and downtown. Note: Programs for master classes are usually not available until the day of the event. For tickets and more information, visit https://musicacademy.org.

Thursday, June 19: The first master class of the summer squeezes 16 string players on the stage at Hahn Hall, as the world-renowned half-century veteran Takács Quartet, MAW’s longtime quartet in residence, coaches not only the Prometheus but also the two other fellow-powered foursomes hand-picked to participate in the annual String Quartet Seminar. The quartets – violinists Matthildur Traustadóttir and Gabriela Salvador Riera, violist Yoona Park & cellist Mia Kim Bernard; and violinists Maria Cherkassova and Shintaro Taneda, violist Yu-Heng Wang and cellist Melanie Chen – will work on pieces by Brahms, Beethoven and Gabriela Lena Frank; compositions they’ll perform back at Hahn next Tuesday, June 24. The Takács will take the stage at the Lobero for their annual MAW concert tomorrow night. (3:30 pm; Hahn Hall; $10)…

Stretching Beyond Strings: The singers show up at Hahn tonight for their annual introductory event – which has morphed over the last few years from a master class slot to an evening performance, now with an extra twist. The 20 Lehrer Vocal Institute fellows who will be seen all summer in events – including the grand opera at the Granada, Opera Scenes, master classes, and a variety of chamber music and other projects – will perform a program called “Origin Stories in Song.” Meant to acknowledge the Academy’s roots as a cultivator of art song, the concert features each vocalist – accompanied by one of the five vocal pianists, who get four slots each – offering a song they selected to reflect their personal journeys. (7:30 pm; Hahn Hall; $40/$45).

Friday, June 13: The superstitious are often wary on Friday the 13th, but for local classical musical lovers of limited means, today might be your lucky day. It’s the annual event when the Music Academy of the West’s Community Access tickets ($10) go on sale for the summer festival. As the program is designed to ensure low-to-moderate income households in Santa Barbara County have access to MAW events, more than 120 performances have set aside tickets for the nominal cost of $10, and as expected demand is high. Tickets are available both online and in person – the gathering outside the ticket office resembles the way people used to line up for rock concerts on sale dates – becoming something of a celebration in itself. The fun begins at 10 am.