CURTIS ON TOUR
ARCHIVE VIDEO FROM MARCH 13

PROGRAM:

Beethoven: Quartet No. 4 In C minor, Op. 18, No. 4
Bright Sheng: String Quartet No. 4, “Silent Temple”
Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor

Curtis on Tour, a global touring initiative of the one of this country’s most renowned conservatories, features the Vera Quartet, its current Quartet in Residence, along with distinguished faculty pianist Meng-Chieh Liu, in their Detroit debut. 

Winner of the 2018 Astral Artists National Auditions, the Vera Quartet was also Grand Prize winner at recent Plowman and Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competitions, top prize winner at the University of Michigan’s M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, and winner of the St. Lawrence Award from the Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition.  Formed in 2015, the quartet has held residencies at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, Aspen Music Festival, and the Banff Centre, and has toured in Spain and South Korea. In 2017, they were selected as Young Artist in Residence at NPR’s Performance Today.

A recipient of the 2002 Avery Fisher Career Grant, pianist Meng-Chieh Liu first made headlines in 1993 as a 21-year-old student, when he substituted for André Watts at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia with three hours’ notice. He has gone on to appear with orchestras under conductors Christoph Eschenbach, Gustavo Dudamel, and Alan Gilbert, among others, and has collaborated with the Borromeo and St. Lawrence String Quartets. Mr. Liu teaches at the Curtis Institute and the New England Conservatory.

The program features the seldom heard piano quintet by Cesar Franck, plus an early Beethoven quartet and a Bright Sheng’s String quartet No. 4, the Silent Temple.

Curtis on Tour is the Nina von Maltzahn global touring initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music.