Jupiter String Quartet to Stream Bowdoin Recitals

Jupiter String Quartet players Nelson Lee, Meg Freivogel, Daniel McDonough, and Liz Freivogel (photograph by Elle Logan, courtesy of Jensen Artists)

Those that have been following this site regularly probably know that the Jupiter String Quartet has been particularly productive in preparing performances for Internet streaming. This summer the group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, making him Liz’s brother-in-law), will serve as a Faculty Ensemble at the Bowdoin International Music Festival held on the campus of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. They will supplement their faculty work with two performances in the Studzinski Recital Hall on that campus.

The first performance will take place at 4:30 p.m. (Pacific time) on Monday, July 19. Jupiter will join forces with the Ying Quartet, which will also be performing at the Festival. By adding Ying violist Philip Ying to their ensemble, they will be able to perform the rarely-heard D minor string quintet by Alexander Zemlinsky. This will be followed by the much more familiar D. 956 string quintet in C major composed by Franz Schubert. For this performance Jupiter will be joined by cellist David Ying.

Jupiter will perform as a quartet at 4:30 p.m. (again Pacific time) on Monday, August 2. Those that missed the streaming of their world premiere performance of Stephen Andrew Taylor’s “Chaconne/Labyrinth” will have another opportunity to listen to this music, which was commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. They will also perform selections from Florence Price’s Five Folksongs in Counterpoint. Readers may recall that members of the San Francisco Symphony string section performed this collection in its entirety as a contribution to the streamed Chamber Music Series presented by SFSymphony+ earlier this year. Jupiter will conclude its program with Felix Mendelssohn’s final string quartet, his Opus 80 in F minor.

These are only two of the many streamed performances that will be presented by the Bowdoin Festival. All future events may be viewed through the Concert Series Web page. Each of these events is hyperlinked to a Web page from which one can RSVP for attending that concert. There will be no charge for admission; but, since the “subscription RSVP” is no longer enabled, it will be necessary to RSVP for each performance one wishes to attend. Once the RSVP has been processed, instructions for viewing the streamed performance will be sent through electronic mail.