BY BROOKE JOHNPIER, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The 2023-2024 Friends of Good Music performance season opens Friday at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.
“This is the first concert of our eight concert season,” said Evelyn Penman, interim executive director and senior curator of the Quick Center. “The Quick Center partners with Friends of Good Music, an organization in Olean, to bring classical music to area residents.”
The program, called “For Such a Time as This,” will showcase the Avalon String Quartet playing music while Julia Bentley sings. The performance, composed by Stacy Garrop, is based on the biblical book of Esther.
The Avalon String Quartet, based out of Chicago, has been performing since 1995. The Quartet have played in numerous venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York City and Wigmore Hall in London, England.
The four members of the Quartet are violist Anthony Devroye, cellist Cheng-Hou Lee.and violinists Blaise Magnière and Maria Wang
Wang, the Quartet’s founder, holds an artist diploma in quartet studies from The Juilliard School, where she served as a teaching assistant. Currently, Wang is a professor of violin at NIU.
Magnière, also a founding member of the Quartet, holds the Richard O. Ryan Endowed Chair, a position given to a preeminent scholar in violin at Northern Illinois University (NIU). In 2002, he earned the Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award.
Devroye has been a member of the Quartet since 2004 and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. As well as being an associate professor in the School of Music at NIU, he is also Artistic Director of Rush Hour Concerts in Chicago.
Lee has won seven awards for his cello playing, including the Chi-Mei Foundation Award for Outstanding Talents and the Concerto Competition at the Manhattan School of Music. Lee also holds a doctorate in musical art.
The Quartet has a residency at NIU and presents its own series in downtown Chicago at the city’s own Art Institute. The Quartet has previously showcased Beethoven and Bartok. During the summers, the Quartet plays at festivals, including the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival and the Hot Springs Festival.
Bentley, the group’s singer and a mezzo-soprano, is a frequent performer with Chicago ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Opera Theater. Recently, Bentley also served as an associate professor of Voice and Graduate Art Song Literature at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana.
“The show is expected to be 75 minutes long with an intermission of 15 minutes,” said Penman.
A rarely heard work, “Folk Songs in CounterPoint,” composed by Florence Price will be performed. “Death and the Maiden”, a famous work by Schubert, will be performed as well.
According to Penman, there is no dress code.
“It is always nice to dress up for an evening out, but clothes are not as important as coming and enjoying good music,” said Penman.
An hour before the performance starts, the Quick Center will open its gallery doors.
Concert tickets start at $20, but have been discounted to $16 for senior citizens and Bonaventure employees and to $5 for students.
johnpibl23@bonaventure.edu
