Isidore String Quartet
     Adrian Steele, violin
     Phoenix Avalon, violin
     Devin Moore, viola
     Joshua McClendon, cello 

Dinuk Wijeratne: Disappearance of Lisa Gherardini
Aida Shirazi: umbra
J.S. Bach: Selections from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080
—
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 

As 2022 Winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition, these up-and-coming artists are on track for worldwide success on the concert hall stage. In tribute to the legendary Juilliard String Quartet, the Isidore String Quartet is “approaching the established as if it were new, and the new as if it were firmly established” with an electrifying program. 

The Isidore String Quartet offers selections by two cornerstone composers: excerpts from one of Bach’s final works, in which he demonstrated his unequalled genius in the fugue, and one of Beethoven’s visionary “Late” String Quartets; his final compositions, in which he summarizes the genre’s past and points ahead to its future. Beethoven is said to have considered using the main theme of Op. 132’s finale in the last movement of his Ninth Symphony in early drafts.  

These fine musicians also explore contemporary examples of the repertoire: Disappearance of Lisa Gherardini was inspired by the theft of the famous painting, the Mona Lisa, from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911. Sri Lankan born Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne is a JUNO award-winning composer, conductor, and pianist who has been described in the New York Times as “exuberantly creative.”   

Rounding out the program is a sublime work by Aida Shirazi, whose work has been hailed as “well-made and affecting” in the New Yorker. In umbra, she describes creating a “shadow-like quality; a sonic umbra. The work emerges from a dark and quiet state and after several dynamic and textural swells and contractions fades into the void.”  

With a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertoire, the Isidore String Quartet is not to be missed in their highly anticipated Toronto debut. 

This concert is presented in honour of the late Geoff Nuttall.

Thank you to our Walter Hall venue sponsor, Sheffield Moving and Storage.

Isidore String Quartet’s appearance is supported, in part, by the Career Development Program of the Banff International String Quartet Competition. For more information, please visit bisqc.ca.