St. Lawrence String Quartet celebrates 25th anniversary season with three world premieres at Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall

To commemorate its 25th anniversary this season, Stanford’s prized St. Lawrence String Quartet – violinists Geoff Nuttall and Mark Fewer, violist Lesley Robertson and cellist Christopher Costanza – has commissioned a trio of new works from John Adams and Stanford-based composers Jonathan Berger and Jaroslaw Kapuscinski to be premiered at Bing Concert Hall.

The series, presented by Stanford Live, will kick off Oct. 19 at 2:30 p.m.in a performance also featuring special guest cellist David Finckel.

On that upcoming program, the Grammy-nominated ensemble will perform Haydn and Schubert, but the highlight will be the unveiling of Berger’s most recent string quartet, titled Swallow. This is the fourth he has written for SLSQ, and he composed this five-movement work with their musicianship in mind.

Berger also happened to serve as chair of the Stanford search committee that originally selected SLSQ to become the university’s resident ensemble in 1998. “In addition to being absolutely stellar musicians,” he says, “they have the ability to communicate and to transmit their passion of what they do in ways that are electrifying to any type of audience.”

On Jan. 18, 2015, Stanford audiences will be the first to hear the latest fruits of the ongoing collaboration between SLSQ and John Adams, one of America’s foremost contemporary composers. Their history with Adams began when he heard them play his first full-scale string quartet at Stanford, John’s Book of Alleged Dances. He was suitably impressed to write String Quartet for the group, and they premiered it in 2009. “We’ve played John’s quartet 70 times in public by now,” says founding member Geoff Nuttall. “He’s a rock star in our world.”

And finally, coming on April 12 is a new piece combining the string quartet with percussion by Stanford composer Jaroslaw Kapuscinski. In between, SLSQ will give another free Good Friday performance of Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross on April 3, and in February they’ll participate in Stanford’s Haydn – Patronage and Enlightenment project, which includes a collaborative series of concerts, classes and symposia.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that SLSQ is the jewel in the crown of Stanford’s Music Department,” says Stanford Live Executive Director Wiley Hausam. “While there are wonderful string quartets in residence at a number of American universities, to my knowledge, none of them does what SLSQ offers at Stanford. In addition to an exemplary annual season of concerts in Bing Concert Hall, they teach a heavy load while maintaining a significant touring career, and have nurtured a true community of chamber music makers.”

The Sundays with the St. Lawrence series is presented in partnership with Music at Stanford.

While the St. Lawrence String Quartet’s concert on Oct. 19 is currently at capacity, a sign-up form to be notified about last-minute tickets is available at live.stanford.edu/go/notifylist.

Tickets are still available for the performances on Jan. 18 and April 12, and range from $30 to $75 for adults; Stanford student tickets are $15. Tickets can be purchased at the Bing Concert Hall Ticket Office, by phone at (650) 724-2464 or online at live.stanford.edu. The box office is at 327 Lasuen Street. Regular hours are Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m.