Program

Dolphin Miniatures for String Quartet

​The collaboratively written “Dolphin Miniatures” for String Quartet was conceived from musical musings on the Dolphins’ cherished memories from their time in Blue Hill, Maine - the birthplace of the Dolphins. Although it is a string quartet, it occasionally turns to the unlikely percussion instruments of wooden frog and cowbell.

Wynton Marsalis At the Octoroon Balls

​Renowned jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis was invited to compose a string quartet for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1995. The product, Marsalis’ At The Octoroon Balls is inspired by his life in New Orleans. Marsalis explains the piece, “At The Octoroon Balls explores the American Creole contradictions and compromises - cultural, social, and political - exemplified by life in New Orleans. The piece’s seven movements evoke people, places, and events in the Crescent City”. He continues, “A ball is a ritual and a dance - Everybody was in their finest clothing. At the Octoroon Balls there was an interesting cross-section of life. People from different stratum’s of society came together in pursuit of pleasure and fulfillment. The music brought people together.” The juxtaposition of jazz and chamber music clarifies just how similar the musical mediums are - collaborative artistry elevated by the human condition.

Beethoven Late Quartet Op. 132.

​A poem by Dylan Thomas begins: Your pain shall be a music in your string / And fill the mouths of heaven with your tongue. Art has the capacity to take on the burdens of existence and lend to them in reflection beauty and nobility which both console and edify. Ludwig van Beethoven was a man within whom the trials and triumphs of being resonated loudly.