We’re really excited about this one! Half of the Arnica Quartet (Charles & Heather) join with two of their oldest friends and former quartet mates: Timothy Schwarz, now of the Serafin Quartet and violin professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania – formerly of the ancient Arcadia Quartet with Charles and Heather; and Denise Dillenbeck (neé Huizenga), formerly a member of the Oregon Symphony and the Ethos Quartet with Charles and Heather, and a regular substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Seattle Symphony. We’re reuniting to play some of our favorite works, including the Shostakovich Quintet for piano and strings in G minor with pianist Susan DeWitt Smith, selections from Antonin Dvorak’s Cypresses for string quartet, and Beethoven’s late, great Op. 127 string quartet in E-flat major.

Tickets are available by calling the Old Church office at 503-222-2031, through their website, or via brownpapertickets.

Our season is done for this year, but already we have plans in place for several concerts next season.

• We’re tentatively set to team up with the amazing new ensemble 45th Parallel to present a concert of string octets – date tba.
• We return to the Camerata Musica series in Salem on November 11th, 2012 at 2:30 p.m. – program tba.
• We also will return to the Liberty Theather McTavish Room – date tba.
• And, we will take part in the 2013 edition of March Music Moderne, playing works by Salonen, Britten, and Beethoven.
• In addition, there are plans afoot to do some really exciting collaborations with instruments that don’t normally partner with a string quartet – stay tuned!

We hope you’ll join us at Jimmy Mak’s on Friday, March 30th from 8 pm to midnight for an evening of great Latin vocals by the fabulous Jessie Marquez. It will be a great night of fun and fabulous music – we hope to see you there!

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Latin Songstress Jessie Marquez Performs ‘Cool Cool Latin’ Concert
Featuring the Arnica String Quartet

Friday, March 30, 8pm-midnight, $12
Jimmy Mak’s, 221 Northwest 10th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209
(503) 295-6542 www.jimmymaks.com

Fans of Latin music are in for a treat on March 30th at Jimmy Mak’s. Vocalist Jessie Marquez brings her ensemble and The Arnica String Quartet together for a night of intoxicating Cuban/Brazilian/jazz/pop. Expect to enjoy lush harmony, richly textured, sexy, cool and inviting music. Marquez has a magnetic stage presence. She weaves together Spanish and English lyrics and compelling stories about her artistic life in Cuba.

Marquez’s latest release, All I See is Sky, was produced and co-written by pianist Clay Giberson (Upper Left Trio, Go By Train) and bassist Phil Baker (Pink Martini, Diana Ross). The Arnica String Quartet is featured on the recording, and creates a lush soundscape alongside the singer’s intimate and understated approach.

BACKGROUND:
Marquez grew up eating her grandmother’s Cuban cooking and hearing stories about the family’s days on the island. She first visited her father’s childhood home in 1996. Right away, she says, “there was something very familiar about it –the way people spoke, their gestures, their attitudes. I felt at home.”

In 2003, members of the Afro-Cuban Allstars heard her sing and offered to arrange and record her first CD. In a Havana home studio, between power outages, they recorded Sana Locura, which reached the top of charts in Latin America, Europe and the United States. Marquez appeared on Cuban television and radio and subsequently spent eight months performing throughout the island.

Her 2007 release, Get the Feeling, recorded with guitarist Mike Denny, explores the Cuban genre known as filin music (a play on the word “feeling”). Filin draws heavily from American jazz and Brazilian bossa nova.

In 2010, Marquez received a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission to develop a small series of high-definition, live music videos. They can be seen on YouTube and at www.jessiemarquez.com.

REVIEWS:
“A musical gem.” Latin Beat Magazine
“So otherworldly, so richly textured, so intimate and humid and spicy.” Half Note
“Her lyricism and impeccable style are absolutely intoxicating…” The Urban Flux
“One of the top Latin jazz vocalist in the business.” EJazz News
“Marquez not only hits it out of the park but circles the bases an extra time just to be sure. Hot
stuff not to be missed.” Midwest Record
“La reina (the queen) of Cuban music in the Pacific Northwest.”Latina Style Magazine
“Great talent is where you find it, and in this case, the blessed zone is Oregon.”Hispanic Magazine

Over at NobleViola, Arnica violist Charles Noble talks about rehearsing the Beethoven Op. 135 string quartet. Read it here.

We’re sorry to announce that, due to a family emergency, this concert has been postponed. Ticket holders have been refunded and emailed. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

We played our matinee concert in Astoria on Sunday the 8th, and it was, like last year, a great success. The audience was at least a third larger than last year (with extra seating needing to be added), and just as enthusiastic. We love playing in Astoria, and are excited to return again next season! Many thanks to Marge Bloomfield, Thron Riggs, Betsey Ellerbroek, Brenda Penner, and Steve Forrester for their dedication to presenting great chamber music in Astoria! We can’t wait for next season’s concert!

If you’d like a head start on our January 8th concert at the Liberty Theater’s McTavish Room, click the link below to download a pdf file (Adobe Reader required to open file). You can order tickets online here.

Download concert notes here.
[PC - right-click on link and Save As... | Mac - control-click on link and Save As...]

The quartet is in the rehearsal process for our semi-regular Astoria appearance, and it’s going to be a wonderful program. The Mozart and Dvorak are well-known gems of the repertoire, while the young Benjamin Britten’s first string quartet will be a delightful surprise to many, even veterans, chamber music aficionados. It’s a concert that you won’t want to miss!

The Liberty Theater is presenting our concert this year, and an added advantage of this is that online ticketing is now available!

Ticketing is through TicketsWest, and you can go directly to our concert’s ticket purchase page by clicking here (will open a new browser window).

We had a great concert last night with all that that implies: great music, great musicians, and a great audience. Thanks for making our concert such an event. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming conerts – like our January 8, 2012 concert in Astoria, Oregon!

Upon opening the score or parts to the Britten String Quartet No. 1, one straight away notices the extremely high tessitura of the two violins and viola. It takes one’s breath away, especially as a performer, to be faced with that right off the bat – it takes a specific type of fine control to get the sound just right at these high pitch levels. The string is so short that the slightest miscalculation can make the sound break or squawk, and Britten asks for molto vibrato, which makes it hard to center the pitch as well. It really is a high wire act, but the effect is stunning and otherworldly when pulled off by a good quartet. It will be our final work on our Sept. 30th concert at the Community Music Center. We hope to see you there – get your tickets while they last!

Information available here.

Opening page of Britten's First String Quartet, op. 25 - Boosey & Hawkes