TESSERA QUARTET MAKES ITS NY DEBUT AT THE HISTORIC "SCHNEIDER CONCERTS" SERIES
13 December 2009
The Tessera Quartet is honored to make its official New York debut at the Schneider Concerts series at The New School. Founded in 1957 by artistic director Alexander "Sasha" Schneider, this historic series presented the New York debuts of such acclaimed ensembles as the Guarneri and Cleveland String Quartets. The Tessera Quartet was selected for this series by a panel of distinguished music advisors: Pamela Frank, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Arnold Steinhardt, and Michael Tree. To learn more about the Schneider Concerts series, click here. The Tessera Quartet's debut celebrates Felix Mendelssohn's bicentennial with his first published quartet, the youthful Quartet in E-flat, Op. 12, alongside Jean Sibelius' "Intimate Voices" and Lowell Liebermann's Quartet No. 4.

When: Sunday, 13 December at 2 PM
Where: Tishman Auditorium, The New School, 66 W. 12th St, New York, NY
Tickets: Tickets are available at the door ($17.50 General / $5 Students).

 

 

 

Alexander "Sasha" Schneider

HAROLD BROWN CENTENNIAL CONCERT SHOWCASES MODERN PREMIERES OF TWO NEGLECTED GEMS
31 October 2009
The Tessera Quartet was featured in a historic centennial concert, celebrating the life and work of Harold Brown (1909-1979 - an influential conductor and scholar of Renaissance music, and a longtime teacher at the New York High School of Music and Art. The list of Brown's former pupils is a veritable "who's who" of the music scene, and includes such figures as composer Ned Rorem, early music pioneer Noah Greenberg, and Brahms expert Styra Avins, among many others. Yet many of Brown's former students and close musical companions were unaware that he was also an accomplished composer, having studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1930-31, as well as with Aaron Copland, Bernard Wangenaar and Rubin Goldmark. His diverse compositional output includes works for symphonic and string orchestra, string chamber works, vocal music, as well as several transcriptions and arrangements of early music. To read more about Harold Brown, click here.

In October 2009, on the occasion of Brown's centennial, the Tessera Quartet participated in a festival Harold Brown celebration sponsored by The Renaissance Choral Association - an association spearheaded by Brown's indefatiguable disciple Sigmund Rosen. The celebration comprised three concerts showcasing Brown's music, attended by Brown's former students from across the country and around the globe. The Tessera Quartet performed the modern premieres of two compositions: Brown's String Quartet (1932) and his String Quintet (1935), with guest violist Louise Shulman. The Tessera Quartet and the Renaissance Choral Association are currently pursuing opportunities to record these and other works by Harold Brown, to celebrate the legacy of this remarkable musician.