Erinys Quartet Roberto Díaz, viola Peter Wiley, cello

About This Performance The Alexander Schneider Concert With roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, the U.S., and Finland, the Erinys Quartet is an international ensemble that currently serves as Quartet-in- Residence at the Curtis Institute. Violist and Curtis President Roberto Díaz and Grammy-nominated cellist Peter Wiley join this emerging quartet for a program featuring Brahms’s richly inventive G Major Sextet and a world premiere by Andrea Clearfield. Beethoven: Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6 Clearfield: Quartet* World Premiere/PCMS Commission Brahms: String Sextet in G Major, Op. 36 *This piece was commissioned as part of the Chamber Music for All (CMFA) project, which seeks to broaden the audience for contemporary chamber music. Co-sponsored by PCMS and Diane and Lawrence Blum, CMFA engages composers to write works that are accessible to large audiences, with as consonant a harmonic language as they feel comfortable writing, and at a technical level that allows them to be played by capable amateur musicians as well as professionals. Diane and Larry hope that listeners who play instruments will want to acquire the scores while the ink is barely dry, and to get together and have fun playing some new music. Watch the livestreamed concert via the video player below. Help Us Keep the Music Playing PCMS livestreams are offered on a pay what you wish basis. These performances are possible only because of the generous support of friends like you. We thank you for contributing as generously as you can when watching these events. Gifts of any size are deeply appreciated. Please use the form below to give or text PCMS to 44321. If you encounter any technical issues while donating, please try refreshing the page or donating via PayPal . Special thanks to Susan Giesecke Bloom and A. Charles Winkelman with support from The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Theodore Presser Foundation, Dot and Rick Nelson, Sid Kaplan, and the American Philosophical Society for their support of our livestream series, and for helping us deliver world-class artistry to audiences around the globe. The Artist(s) Erinys Quartet Named for the Erinyes (a.k.a. the Furies) from the Greek tragedy Oresteia by Aeschylus, and with roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, the United States, and Finland, the Erinys Quartet was founded in 2018 at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki where they worked closely with cellist Marko Ylönen. Since Autumn 2023 Erinys has been the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia,… Read More × Artist’s website Erinys Quartet Named for the Erinyes (a.k.a. the Furies) from the Greek tragedy Oresteia by Aeschylus, and with roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, the United States, and Finland, the Erinys Quartet was founded in 2018 at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki where they worked closely with cellist Marko Ylönen. Since Autumn 2023 Erinys has been the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA (USA). The Erinys Quartet has performed throughout Finland, the rest of Europe, and in the United States. They have been featured at festivals and concert series including Indiana University Summer Music Series (USA), Mimir Chamber Music Festival (Texas, USA), and Festival Groba (Ponteareas, Spain). They have also taken part in the inaugural Dover Quartet Workshop at the Curtis Institute of Music as well as the Professional String Quartet Seminar with the Pacifica Quartet and Atar Arad (Cleveland Quartet) at Indiana University. At the Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition in 2023 they were awarded the Audience Prize Award of the City of Bad Tölz, as well as the Esterházy Foundation Special Prize for best interpretation of a Haydn string quartet. Since 2021 Erinys Quartet has been supported by Le Dimore del Quartetto where they are also a part of the European Union-sponsored MERITA platform. In the 2023-2024 season the Erinys Quartet will present concerts around the world, including the United States, Spain, Austria, and Finland. In addition to their studies at Curtis with the Dover Quartet, Erinys is pursuing a diploma in chamber music at Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain under the tutelage of Professor Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartett). Roberto Díaz, viola A violist of international reputation,RobertoDíazis president and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music, following in the footsteps of renowned soloist/directors, such as Josef Hofmann, Efrem Zimbalist, and Rudolf Serkin. As a teacher of viola at Curtis and former principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, hehas already had a significant impact on American musical life,… Read More × Artist’s website Roberto Díaz, viola A violist of international reputation,RobertoDíazis president and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music, following in the footsteps of renowned soloist/directors, such as Josef Hofmann, Efrem Zimbalist, and Rudolf Serkin. As a teacher of viola at Curtis and former principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, hehas already had a significant impact on American musical life, and continues to do so in his dual roles as performer and educator. As a soloist,Mr.Díazcollaborates with leading conductors of our time on stages around the world. He has also worked directly with important 20th- and 21st-century composers, including Krzysztof Penderecki, whose viola concerto he has performed numerous times with the composer on the podium, and whose double concerto he premiered in the United States; Edison Denisov, who invited himto Moscow to work on and perform his viola concerto; and Ricardo Lorenz and Roberto Sierra, both of whom have written concertos for him. Most recently,Jennifer Higdon composed her 2018 Grammy Award-winning viola concerto forMr. Diaz. A frequent recitalist and chamber musician,RobertoDíazhas performed with major string quartets and pianists in chamber music series and festivals worldwide. Hehas also toured Europe, Asia, and the Americas as a member of theDíazTrio with violinist Andrés Cárdenes and cellist AndrésDíaz. TheDíazTrio has recorded for the Artek and Dorian labels. Mr.Díaz’srecordings on the Naxos label with pianist Robert Koenig include the complete works for viola and piano by Henri Vieuxtemps and a Grammy-nominated disc of viola transcriptions by William Primrose. Also on Naxos are Brahms sonatas with Jeremy Denk and Jonathan Leshnoff’s Double Concerto with violinist Charles Wetherbee and the Iris Chamber Orchestra led by Michael Stern. RobertoDíaz’snumerous awards include an honorary doctorate from Bowdoin College, honorary membership by the national board of the American Viola Society, and membership in the prestigious American Philosophical Society founded by Benjamin Franklin. As a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra, he was selected by Music Director Christoph Eschenbach to receive the C. Hartman Kuhn Award, given annually to “the member of the Philadelphia Orchestra who has shown ability and enterprise of such character as to enhance the standards and the reputation of the Philadelphia Orchestra.” Prior to his decade-long tenure as Principal Viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he performed the entire standard viola concerto repertoire with the orchestra, including a number of Philadelphia Orchestra premieres,Mr. Díazserved as Principal Viola of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, was a member of the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and a member of the Minnesota Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Burton Fine, and a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where his teacher was Joseph de Pasquale, his predecessor at the Philadelphia Orchestra. Healso has a degree in industrial design. RobertoDíazplays the ex-Primrose Amati viola. Peter Wiley, cello Celebrated for his “accurate intonation