News and Events : News 03-04

Press Release March 26, 2004

Portland String Quartet to perform World Premiere at Northfield Mount Hermon School 

NORTHFIELD, Mass.—The world-renowned Portland String Quartet will perform a concert at the Northfield Mount Hermon School on Friday, April 30 at 8 pm. A highlight of the concert will be the debut performance of the String Quartet no. 2 by Steven Bathory-Peeler, director of the NMH string and orchestra programs. 

The Portland String Quartet has been performing worldwide for over two decades. Tours have taken them to Japan, Russia, Norway, Rio de Janiero and New York’s Alice Tully Hall. Hailed by Colby College (where they are Artists in Residence) as “Maine Treasures,” the four have also taught string quartet workshops in Venezuela through the United Nations educational division. Their repertoire covers the widest expanse of quartet literature, including composers such as Bach, Schubert, Kreiseler, Piston, and Chadwick. They have recorded several CDs, including one featuring Ernest Bloch’s five quartets that the Washington Post hailed as “the chamber music release of the year.” 

The concert will feature the String Quartet in F major, op. 96 (“American”) by Dvořák, the Quartet in G major, op 54, no. 1 by Haydn, and Bathory-Peeler’s String Quartet no. 2. Bathory-Peeler has received the ASCAP award for emerging composers for each of the last three years and recently released his first CD, Music of Steven Bathory-Peeler. 

The concert, to be performed at Memorial Chapel on the Mount Hermon campus in Gill, is open to the public. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, and may be purchased at the door, or at Stamell String Instruments in Amherst, the World Eye Bookstore in Greenfield, and Maple Leaf Music in Brattleboro.

Contact: Jim Snedeker, 413-498-3357, jsnedeker@nmhschool.org

Top of Page