From North Iowa Area Community College, www.niacc.edu

Performing Arts Series
NIACC Performing Arts Series Present Quartet San Francisco
Mar 6, 2009

Ref. 2920

North Iowa Area Community College is honored to present Quartet San Francisco. Quartet San Francisco will take the North Iowa Community Auditorium stage on Saturday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. as a part of the 2008-2009 NIACC Performing Arts Series. Tickets are on sale now and cost $18 in advance and $25 at the door.

Nontraditional in their delivery, Quartet San Francisco redefines the sound of chamber music. Grammy® Award nominees for their last two releases and International Tango competition winners, Quartet San Francisco expresses itself in its agility and standout virtuosic playing.  Quartet San Francisco is made up of Jeremy Cohen and Kayo Miki, violinists; Keith Lawrence, violist; and Joel Cohen, cellist. As crossover specialists, they excel in multiple styles - from jazz to tango, pop to funk, blues to bluegrass, gypsy swing to big band and beyond.

Since its concert debut in 2001, Quartet San Francisco has offered its exclusive and ground-breaking literature to local, national and international audiences in a variety of venues that include tango and concert halls, jazz festivals, museums and classrooms.  In 2002, the quartet began its on-stage collaborations with tango dancers.  In the 2004-06 academic years, the Quartet was in residence at Mills College in Oakland, CA.

Their Latin and tango CD, “Látigo” (2006), was honored with Grammy® Award nominations for Best Classical Crossover and Best Engineered, Classical. The Quartet members are Grammy® Award Classical Crossover nominees for “Whirled Chamber Music” (2007), “…what could easily be the most cheerful and brilliantly-executed release of 2007” (Judith Schlesinger, All About Jazz, 22 October 2007 ).

Jeremy Cohen's electrifying jazz violin performances have earned him nationwide accolades. Classically-trained and a student of Itzhak Perlman and Anne Crowden, Cohen's eclectic style reflects his respect for a wide range of violinists from Perlman and Fritz Kreisler to Joe Venuti and Eddie South. Cohen has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Virginia Symphony, the California Symphony and the Reno Philharmonic. His recording credits include motion picture and television soundtracks including "The Dukes of Hazzard" and Jane Fonda’s "Dollmaker,” and as concertmaster on recordings with Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles, Aaron Neville, Howard Keel and Cleo Laine. He appeared on Carlos Santana’s Grammy® Award-winning CD "Supernatural" and the original "Star Wars" compilation CD with John Williams.
Born and raised in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Kayo Miki began studies as a child after catching the “music bug” from her mother who was concertmaster of the local symphony orchestra. As a high school student she attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan where she served as concertmaster. Her principal teachers include Charles Castleman, William Preucil, Denes Zsigmondy and Camilla Wicks. While completing her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, she participated in the Salzburg Music Festival, Heidelberg Castle Festival, Sapporo Pacific Music Festival and Banff Festival of the Arts.

A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Keith Lawrence began playing viola at 11 years old. His study of viola continued at the Creative and Performing Arts Middle and High Schools in Pittsburgh, the Interlochen Arts Academy and The Winchester Thurston School. After graduating from North Allegheny Senior High School in 1999, Lawrence enrolled as a viola performance major at the Oberlin Conservatory under the tutelage of Peter Slowik and Roger Chase where he received his undergraduate degree in 2003. Lawrence completed his graduate studies at the DePaul University School of Music as a student of Rami Solomonow in 2007.

Joel Cohen had his early musical training in the San Francisco Bay area with Irene Sharp and Margaret Rowell. After receiving his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Western Ontario, further studies took him to Holland until his return to the San Francisco Bay area where he served as co-principal cellist with the Oakland Symphony from 1979 to 1985. Cohen lived in Vienna from 1985 to 1997 where he was principal cellist of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. During those years he also performed with the Vienna Radio Symphony (ORF/RSO), the Wiener Kammeroper, the Wiener Akademie (on period instruments) and Quartett Yggdrasil.

For tickets to Quartet San Francisco, call the NIACC Box Office at 1-888-466-4222, ext.4188.  Tickets may also be purchased online at www.niacc.edu.  Platinum sponsors for the 2008-2009 series include NIACC, Globe Gazette Elizabeth Muse Norris Charitable Fund; the Globe Gazette; Alliant Energy; Community National Bank; Henkel Construction; and Principal Financial Group.  Gold sponsors include Diamond Jo Casino; First Citizens National Bank; First State Bank of Belmond; Kraft; Mercy Medical Center – North Iowa; Martin, Cooney, MacNider & Cooney, Financial Consultants of Raymond James and Associates, Inc.; Dr. Gary W. Swenson and Dean A. Genth; and Sukup Manufacturing.  In kind sponsors include Country Inn and Suites; KIMT; and Pepsi.

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