-Atlantic Guitar Quartet
Friday, October 9
7:00 p.m.| The Hill Theater in the Scott Center | Free
The Atlantic Guitar Quartet will present a program of new music by living composers featuring works by Ronald Pearl, Benjamin Verdery, Douglas Lora, Olga Amelkina-Vera, Fred Frith, and Judah Adashi.
The program includes Benjamin Verdery’s acclaimed Ellis Island, newly revised for the Atlantic Guitar Quartet; Olga Amelkina-Vera’s Seaglass, which received its premiere by the quartet and musically depicts the ocean’s gradual shaping of sea glass over time; Douglas Lora’s virtuosic Atlantic Variations, composed for the quartet in 2024; and Fred Frith’s The As Usual Dance Towards the Flight Towards What Is Not, adapted from its original version for electric guitar quartet. Also featured are two additional works written for the Atlantic Guitar Quartet: Judah Adashi’s Broken Hallelujah, a deconstructed homage to Leonard Cohen’s classic song, and Ronald Pearl’s title work, Together Apart, a three-movement reflection on making music while separated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biography
Founded in 2010, the Atlantic Guitar Quartet is a contemporary music ensemble dedicated to promoting the music of living composers.Through virtuosic performances, innovative programming and collaborations with other visual and performing artists, AGQ has broadened the repertoire for – and the definition of – the classical guitar quartet.
Each of the four members, Mark Edwards, James Keretses, Matthew Slotkin and Zoë Johnstone Stewart have enjoyed extensive solo and chamber performing careers prior to joining the ensemble.As a group AGQ has performed as part of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society concert series, Ulster Chamber Series, Evolution Contemporary Music series, and at Salisbury University, York College of Pennsylvania, Loyola University, Marshall University and the Peabody Institute.They have been artists-in-residence at the Engineers Club of the Garret-Jacobs Mansion in Baltimore since 2010 and members of the Maryland State Arts Council Touring Roster since 2017.In addition to their performances, the quartet has also been invited to teach master classes and workshops at the Peabody Summer Guitar Intensive, Salisbury University, Bloomsburg University and the Mid Atlantic Guitar Ensemble Festival.
AGQ has been proactive in expanding the repertoire of the classical guitar quartet by commissioning new works.With major institutional support by the Presser Foundation and the Peabody Conservatory, AGQ has premiered pieces by American composers Vid Smooke, Christopher Gainey and Ronald Pearl.Several of these works, along with music by composer Olivier Bensa and Arvo Pärt, are featured on the quartet’s debut CD (released in November of 2013).
The quartet’s other world premieres include performances of works by Douglas Lora, Benjamin Verdery, Judah Adashi, Olga Amelkina-Vera and many others.