The Calder Quartet will Return to San Francisco Performances Next Week

Next week San Francisco Performances (SFP) will conclude its Chamber Series with the last of its four scheduled concerts. The Calder Quartet, whose members are violinists Benjamin Jacobson and Andrew Bullock, violist Jonathan Moerschel, and cellist Eric Byers, made its SFP debut when its was selected to perform the annual gift concert in 2005. The group was formed by students in the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. They then continued their studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music with Ronald Leonard. The ensemble was then named Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School, where the members received Artist Diplomas in Chamber Music Studies. This will be the quartet’s second SFP appearance.

The group has prepared a program that reflects its focus on contemporary composers. The first half of the program will consist almost entirely of music by Thomas Adès. It will begin with the suite The Four Quarters, which was written for the Emerson String Quartet in 2010. It will also perform Adès’ first work for string quartet, his Opus 12, which is another suite, this one entitled Arcadiana. The seven movements provide different reflections on the pastoral concept of an idealized Arcadia. These two selections will be separated by “Sabina,” which Andrew Norman composed in 2006 as a reflection on the Santa Sabina basilica in Rome. The second half of the program will be devoted to the second (in E minor) of the three Opus 59 quartets that Ludwig van Beethoven composed for Count Andrey Razumovsky.

This recital will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12. It will take place in Herbst Theatre, located on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Tickets are being sold for $40 in the balcony, $55 for most of the Dress Circle, and $65 for premium seating. They may be purchased in advance through a City Box Office event page, which shows the Herbst floor plan and which prices apply to which sections. Tickets can also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545, as well as at the Herbst Box Office on the evening of the performance.