Haydn: String Quartet in G Major Op. 76 No. 1; I. Allegro con spirito
Violinists J Freivogel and Sae Niwa, violist Sam Quintal and cellist Rachel Freivogel comprise this quartet hailed by The Strad as “expressively compelling and sonically delightful” and as having played “brilliantly with excellent interplayer communication.” The communication comes naturally as J and Rachel are married and all four members are close friends, living within a block of each other in New Haven, CT.
Winners of the Grand Prize at the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the Grand Prize at the 2008 Coleman Competition, First Prize at Chamber Music Yellow Springs 2008, the Silver Medal at the 2009 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the 2010 Astral Artists Auditions, the Jaspers are currently the graduate quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music and the 2009-2010 Ernst C. Steifel String Quartet-in-Residence at Caramoor.
The Jasper Quartet is the first group invited by Caramoor to extend its residency for a second year. When they started out four years ago at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jaspers intended to teach, so the community work of a second year at Caramoor is very important to them. “When we formed the quartet, our goal was to do outreach, go into the schools and teach all different ages” explains Rachel Freivogel, the Jasper’s cellist.
After becoming the graduate quartet-in-residence at Rice University, their professional career expanded and they began performing throughout the U.S. and Canada and in Europe and Japan.
The Quartet’s repertoire ranges from Haydn and Beethoven through Ligeti, Webern and Ades. This season they are introducing a series of programs called Understanding through music! These programs will aim to explore a country, time or event through its music by connecting the repertoire with the historical happenings of the era.
Highlights of this season include a return to Japan to perform at the Tokyo Spring Festival and the residencies at Caramoor, Naples and Juneau. This past summer they performed Mendelssohn’s Octet with the Tokyo String Quartet at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and participated in the La Jolla Summerfest in California.
The Jasper String Quartet is named after Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. Its members come from St. Louis, MO (J), Japan (Sae), Fairbanks, AK (Sam) and Ann Arbor, MI (Rachel).
Artists
