2018 - 2019 SAMPLE PROGRAMS
For a complete look at the works offered by the Kontras Quartet, please jump to our repertoire page.
THE OTHER GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK
Two relatively little-known song cycles for string quartet, by African American composers Florence Price and Dr. Frederick Tillis, complement the celebrated "American" quartet by Antonin Dvorak. Price, a composer with long ties to Chicago, employs five folk songs in unexpected and delightful ways, and Tillis inflects classic spirituals with jazz overtones and refreshing harmonic textures.
LOVE LETTERS
Longing, passion, disbelief, and the interplay of fantasy with reality - Love Letters is a concert about love, from different angles. We pair Janacek's fiery second string quartet, the namesake of the program, with Mendelssohn's own second string quartet, his tribute to a hero's passing, after setting the stage with Entr’acte, a haunting work by Caroline Shaw. Come with a curious mind, and an open heart.
PULSE: Music of the People
Folk music celebrates the rhythms, the language, and the pulse of a culture, through participation and preservation of our roots. Kontras explores how four classical composers and musicians - Golijov, Villa-Lobos, Dvorak and Visconti - have brought folk music into their own genre, a trend that goes far back in classical music history and is widely popular today.
Kontras Quartet with the kruger brothers
Composed by Jens Kruger of the Kruger Brothers, these spirited and achingly beautiful works for string quartet, banjo, bass, and guitar celebrate the Appalachian wilderness and the folks who live there. For more information on how to engage the Kontras Quartet and the Kruger Brothers for this program, please contact Kontras or Fleming Artists.