Enso Quartet And Guest Baritone

To Be Featured In November 14 Concert

Riding the exhilarating wave of the opening concert of their 27th season last month, Newtown Friends of Music is looking forward to what is sure to be a marvelous second performance of the 2004-05 season with Enso String Quartet on Sunday, November 14, at 3 pm.

The performance will be in the theater of Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street in Newtown.

The quartet will be joined by guest baritone performer Thomas Meglioranza.

Enso String Quartet’s members are drawn from a collective international base of talent. Its artists hold degrees from The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, University of Indiana, Royal Northern College of Music (UK) and the University of Canterbury (New Zealand).

The quartet is made up of cellist Richard Belcher, violist Robert Brophy, and violinists Maureen Nelson and Tereza Stanislav.

The members met while pursuing graduate degrees at Yale University, where they later worked with the Tokyo String Quartet.   The quartet just completed a two-year residency at Northern Illinois University, and it recently held a winter residency at the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme in Aldeburgh, England. The Quartet is currently the graduate quartet-in-residence of music at Rice University.

The November 14 program will include Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach, which will be sung by Mr Meglioranza.

The program will also consist of Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet No. 27 in D Major, Opus 20, No. 4, John Paul Corigliano’s String Quartet, intermission, Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach (joined again by Mr Meglioranza) and Johannes Brahms’ String Quartet in A minor, Opus 51, No. 2.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased in advance or up to one hour prior to the performance. Children between the ages of 5 and 14 are admitted free when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult.

Edmond Town Hall is wheelchair accessible. Plenty of free parking is available behind the building.

A post-performance reception and an opportunity to meet and speak with the artists are an integral part of the afternoon concert.

In addition to its extensive performance and residency components, the Enso String Quartet is committed to bringing classical music into the communities as it mentors and participates in cultural arts education throughout various school systems. In conjunction with Newtown Friends of Music’s outreach program to Newtown’s public school music students, the quartet will follow-up their performance on Sunday by extending its tutelage on Monday, November 15, to music students in Newtown.

For additional information call 426-6470 or visit www.NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org.