News Release

Note: For artist photos and contact information, see end of story.

Brentano String Quartet, UNC's Tsong
to perform Nov. 2 in Memorial Hall

CHAPEL HILL - Now in its second year in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Brentano String Quartet will perform with UNC pianist Mayron Tsong on Nov. 2 as part of the Carolina Performing Arts series.

The 7:30 p.m. concert in Memorial Hall's Beasley-Curtis Auditorium will include Schubert's quartet movement in C minor ("Quartettsatz"); Brahms' String Quartet in C minor, Op. 51, No. 1; and Shostakovich's Piano Quintet, Op. 57.

UNC music professor and violinist Richard Luby called the quartet "perhaps America's most impressive assemblage of chamber music brains and talent."

Last year Brentano became the university's first resident string quartet. Its members have visited classes in 20th-century music, composition and classical repertoire. They also have coached chamber music ensembles, solo cellists, violinists and violists; they have participated in seminars on classical style and shared their expertise in 20th-century performance techniques.

Previously, the quartet was in residence at Princeton and New York universities and at London's Wigmore Hall. Its members have received the Cleveland Quartet Award, Naumburg Chamber Music Award, Martin E. Segal Award and Great Britain's Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for the most outstanding debut. The quartet comprises Misha Amory (viola), Serena Canin (violin), Nina Lee (cello) and Mark Steinberg (violin).

Founded in 1992, the quartet is named after Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars believe to have been Beethoven's mysterious "Immortal Beloved," to whom he wrote his famous love confession. The quartet maintains a strong interest in contemporary music and has commissioned and premiered several works.

UNC assistant professor of music Dr. Mayron Tsong, a prize-winning Canadian pianist, has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician. She has collaborated with renowned artists including the Miró String Quartet. Tsong played Memorial Hall's recently acquired Hamburg Steinway D concert grand piano at a debut unveiling ceremony last year.

The quartet's performance is made possible by the William R. Kenan Jr. Trust, which last year awarded a $5 million challenge grant to the university, to be matched dollar for dollar, to establish a new endowment for the Carolina Performing Arts series.

Tickets for the Brentano String Quartet's performance, $24-$50, are available online at www.carolinaperformingarts.org; by calling (919) 843-3333; or from the Memorial Hall Box Office on Cameron Avenue, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Tickets for Carolina students are $10. Tickets also are on sale for other performances. For more information, visit www.carolinaperformingarts.org.

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Note: For artist media kits and downloadable photos, visit www.carolinaperformingarts.org/media. For a photo of Tsong playing the Hamburg D, http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/obj/piano_1.JPG

Carolina Performing Arts contacts: Don Smith, (919) 843-3119, donsmith@email.unc.edu or Jennifer Warner, (919) 966-3834, jenniferwarner@unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589