The Chiara String Quartet performed Wednesday afternoon at One World Café.
The Quartet consists of four faculty members from the University of Nebraska. Violinists Rebecca Fischer and Hyeyung Julie Yoon, violist Jonah Sirota and Gregory Beaver on the cello.
“We love playing for different audiences. We love playing for people who know a lot about this music and playing it for people who don’t know anything and are experiencing it for the first time,” Sirota said.
The group formed in New York City and have been playing concerts across the country ever since.
All four graduated from the Julliard Arts School in NYC and has been playing in the Quartet for 17 seasons.
During their performances, the Chiara String Quartet focuses on creating an experience with the audience and each other.
“One of the things we started doing about five years ago is we started memorizing the pieces that we play. Not having music stands in front of us helps us not only connect with each other but also connect with our audience,” Sirota said.
The Quartet began performing when they received a grant to travel to Grand Forks, North Dakota, where they gained experience playing together. Their mission was to perform as much as possible and take the stage in front of a wide variety of audiences.
“We learned a lot about how to perform and how to connect with people about our music and help people have their own experience as listeners,” Sirota said.
Their current performances are a combination of classical music and string arrangements written specifically for them. One piece to note was written by Jefferson Freedman, the keyboard player from Shudder to Think band for alternative rock. Although it is a classical piece of music, there is a strong resemblance to alternative rock in the introduction number.
The group will then move onto Connecticut, then Massachusetts and make one final stop at the University of Nebraska to complete their winter tour.
More information is available at http://www.uidaho.edu/class/acms
Alec Sullivan can be reached at arg-arts@uidaho.edu