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(04/28/12 5:00am)
The Attacca Quartet played for an intimate audience at The Johns Hopkins Evergreen Museum & Library on Saturday, Apr. 21, wowing attendees with their performance of Leo?? Jan??cek's "Intimate Letters." The praise- and prize-ridden chamber group, which hails from Julliard, performed three pieces that were the d??nouement of this year's Music at Evergreen series: Joseph Haydn's String Quartet No. 67 in F major, Op. 77, No. 2, "Lobkowitz," Jan??cek's String Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters," and Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132. Each piece was written at the end of its composer's life, setting the tone of closure. The Music at Evergreen series is sponsored by the Evergreen House Foundation as part of an effort to continue Alice Warder Garrett's tradition of supporting and hosting contemporary musicians and artists in her home. The chamber concert series has existed since 1952, bringing more than 200 young artists to the Garretts's doorstep over the past 60 years. The four young musicians of Attacca Quartet took their places on the small stage and immediately began the Haydn piece, which began monotonously but picked up color as the movements progressed. Violinist Amy Schroeder's grace is immediately apparent, as is cellist Andrew Yee's dedication to the performance aspect of his art. Emotion moves from the staff lines straight to his fingers and face, showing itself in his varied expressions and bouts of air-vibrato. The group, which formed in 2003 at the Julliard School, consists of violinists Schroeder and Keiko Tokunaga, violist Luke Fleming and cellist Andrew Yee. They made their professional debut just five years ago in 2007, and they have quickly made a name for themselves at international festivals, concerts and competitions. After the Haydn, the Attacca Quartet spoke up. Yee addressed the crowd - "Hello, everybody" - and then introduced the next piece, Jan??cek's "Intimate Letters." "I'm going to tell you the story of this quartet as [Jan??cek] told it to us through his writing," Yee said. "When people talk about Jan??cek, they usually focus on the fact that when he got a little older, he was infatuated with a younger woman," he said, then paused. "Which was a little creepy." "I'm going to tell you a different story." With clips from "Intimate Letters" as the soundtrack, Yee began to retell the last 20 years of Jan??cek's life. At 63, Jan??cek vacationed in a small village near his home - a melodic line from viola set the scene - where he saw a young woman, sitting on the grass. Her name was Kamila, and she was 25. He fell in love at once - a frenzied tremolo emerged from the group - and, the more time they spent together, the more his love for her grew. Cue crescendo. The string quartet's attempt to renew the marriage of music and storytelling can only be applauded; it helps bridge the composer and the listener in a way that benefits both. Yee related a sweet love story instead of the overplayed old-man-pines-for-young-woman retelling.Jan??cek sent over 700 letters to Kamila over the next 11 years, expressing his love for her over and over again. "You know, we dream about paradise, about heaven, and we never get to it. So I dream about you and I know that you're the unattainable sky . . . You are entire in my soul; so it's enough for me to want you always," Jan??cek writes in a letter from 1924. He understood that their relationship could never be realized or consummated, and wrote the third movement of "Intimate Letters" as a lullaby dedicated to their impossible unborn child. The Attacca Quartet's performance of "Intimate Letters" was the undeniable star of the show. The violist received well-deserved attention, and the four instruments played with harmonics. Other layering effects made it seem as though the group was in a rapid state of mitosis, transforming into a chamber orchestra and then a symphony, before a sudden collapse back into the body of a small string quartet. The concert concluded with Beethoven's String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, one of the last pieces he ever composed. Because it was written at the end of his life, Beethoven's health problems and struggles are mirrored in the emotional mood and timbre of the work. The piece gifted a solo to Schroeder and was a victorious finish to the concert.
(04/22/12 5:00am)
This past weekend, junior Tamar Nachmany debuted her interpretation of Teibele and Hurmizah at Hopkins as part of her Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. Written by Isaac Bashevis Singer, the play is based on a Polish erotic fable and is rife with sexual exploration and deviancies: characters consort with demons, fantasize about adultery and arrange threesomes.
(03/07/12 5:00am)
François Ozon's film Potiche translates to English as "trophy wife," but the term is better understood as a "decorative vase."
(03/02/12 5:00am)
Jim Snidero is a jazz saxophonist who has played for Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and the Mingus Big Band.
(02/23/12 5:00am)
The News-Letter interviews Word Planet, an online undergraduate literary magazine, about how they're creating a virtual literary universe. In an e-mail to The News-Letter, Jacob H. Levin, the Business and Advertising Director, gave insight into the group's work.
(02/09/12 5:00am)
For students looking to get away from the dreary Baltimore winter, Intersession's Italian Renaissance Art and Culture course was the perfect chance to jet off to Europe for a whirlwind class that investigated the rich artistic and cultural treasures of Florence, Italy.
(11/16/11 5:00am)
The Johannes String Quartet played at the Baltimore Museum of Art last Saturday, Nov. 12, as part of the Shriver Hall Concert Series. Consisting of violinist Soovin Kim, violinist Jessica Lee, violist Choong-Jin Chang and cellist Peter Stumpf, the group took to the stage in a filled auditorium. They began by introducing the first piece, "Homonculus," which was written for them by Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2007.
(11/10/11 5:00am)
Michael Longley followed his wife Edna Longley's lecture on Monday, Nov. 7 with his own poetry reading on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Hailing from Ireland, Longley charmed a large audience at Hopkins with his light-hearted humor and short but strong poetry as part two of The Writing Seminars's 2011 Turnbull Lectures. His reading only lasted 50 minutes, but like his poems, was as brief as it was moving.
(10/12/11 5:00am)
Dubstep is overtaking the music scene, reviving electronica and invading Baltimore. There is no better evidence than the sold out show that Skrillex, 12th Planet, Foreign Beggars and Nadastrom played last Wednesday at Rams Head as part of the Mothership Tour.
(10/12/11 5:00am)
Malnutrition is a serious medical condition that kills millions of children every year and affects another 195 million. Médecins Sans Frontieres — Doctors Without Borders — launched a campaign in 2010 called Starved For Attention in an attempt to give those children a voice and a chance.
(09/21/11 5:00am)
Arts and crafts hold a place at Hopkins—not in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, but in Art Brigade!, a community service organization on campus.
(09/14/11 5:00am)
Here in the Arts & Entertainment Section, we like to pride ourselves on being connected to the pulse of Baltimore's music scene (though how apt our pride is, is up for debate).
(09/14/11 5:00am)
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra held their 2011 Gala Celebration last Saturday, Sept. 10.
(09/07/11 5:00am)
The Baker Artist Awards 2011 exhibition opened on Wednesday, Sept. 7th at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
(04/28/11 6:35pm)
In an age where we’re constantly qualifying our favorite television shows with reasons like “the kiss between Kurt and Blaine was so good” and “well Archer is a badass,” it comes as a relief that we don’t need to do much explaining for 30 Rock.
(04/28/11 6:21pm)
Earlier this year, Leanne Gossels asked fellow freshman Craig Bohrson if he wanted to train Krav Maga with her at Krav Maga Maryland, an organization that teaches the self-defense system in locations all over Baltimore.
(04/21/11 5:36pm)
Professor Adrian W. B. Randolph gave a lecture titled Donatello and Sculptural Askesis on Tuesday, April 19th, as part of a graduate student lecture series in the department of the history of art. The talk focused on Donatello’s Mary Magdalene sculpture, a highly texturized portrayal of a starved Mary.
(04/14/11 8:57pm)
“I don’t propose that poetry can make better rulers in the world that we live in, but I wish that were true,” Lyn Hejinian said as she introduced her first poem, which was inspired by Scheherazade’s spellbinding stories.
(03/10/11 9:00pm)
The second week of the Tournées Festival of Contemporary French Cinema began with Claire Denis’s 35 Rhums (35 Shots of Rum).
(02/18/11 2:05am)
A set of unassuming, tinted double doors marks the “Museum Offices” on the west side of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Inside, a receptionist greets guests, signs them in and escorts them into an extensive hallway lined with offices.