The quartet, which features violinists Ruth Lenz and Sarah Coyle, violist Dustin Budish, and cellist Eileen Brownell, will play music by Jonathan Sokol, Jason Fromme, and Maxwell Lafontant, all of whom have lived and worked in the Reno area. Those pieces will be interspersed with colorful folk song arrangements made by the Danish String Quartet.
Eileen Brownell, cellist of the reNEW String Quartet and president of reNEW Music, describes the organization as 'a group of people from our area, mostly performers and some composers, who grouped together because we wanted to create an organization that made opportunities for making new music that is rooted in this area.' This involves local composer and musicians, and pieces that 'tell stories that are local stories.'
To date, reNEW Music has commissioned nearly 80 pieces by local composers. Among them are the String Quartet by Jason Fromme, two movements of which will be played at the KNCJ concert, and the pieces by Maxwell Lafontant, musical illustrations of landscape paintings by Phyllis Shafer. Shafer's work will be on exhibit at Reno's Stremmel Gallery later this year.
Jonathan Sokol describes his Amidst Asphodel Meadows, which will also be played in the concert, as evoking 'a feeling of stillness' in its musical depiction of one of the layers of the underworld of Greek mythology, asphodels being 'the preferred food of the dead … often planted around graves and tombs.' Sokol will have pieces performed by the Reno Pops and Reno Phil in coming months.
For tickets and more information on the KNCJ Biggest Little Concert Series, kunr.org/concert.
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Support for 'Arts on the Airwaves' comes from The Nevada Arts Council… a state agency that provides public funding and support to artists and organizations, that benefit Nevadans in cities and rural communities statewide. More at NVArtsCouncil.org.
