July 9, 2008

The Year in Music: Acclaimed Ensemble

The Muir String Quartet, in residence at Boston University

Divas. Conductors. Composers. Virtuosos. The school of music in the College of Fine Arts showcased the talents of its students, faculty, and a few special guests on stages around campus and throughout Boston this year. This week, BU Today looks back at the year in music at Boston University. Click here to watch the Muir String Quartet on BUniverse.

The Muir String Quartet, in residence at Boston University, is one of the world’s most acclaimed ensembles. The quartet performs Mendelssohn’s Quartet in A minor, Op. 13, and Dvorák’s Double Bass Quintet. Edwin Barker joins them on double bass.

Formed in 1979, the Muir String Quartet, comprising Lucia Lin, Steven Ansell, Michael Reynolds, and Peter Zazofsky, has been in residence at the College of Fine Arts since 1983, where each is an associate professor. The quartet runs annual summer workshops at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, which offers a wide range of music programs during the summer for high school and college-age students in association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Mass. The quartet also holds regular open rehearsals, gives master classes, and performs locally and around the country.

February 1, 2008, 6 p.m.
CFA Concert Hall

About the performers:

Lucia Lin, a native of Champaign, Ill., earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois and a master's in music at Rice University. She made her debut performing the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. She has won a number of competitions, including the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Lin is also a founding member of the Boston Trio and the chamber group Innuendo. She joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1985 and served as assistant concertmaster from 1988 to 1991 and 1996 to 1998. During the 1991-92 season, she was the acting concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and during the 1994-96 season, she was joint concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra. She is a College of Fine Arts associate professor.

Steven Ansell joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as principal violist in September 1996. A native of Seattle and a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Michael Tree and Karen Tuttle, Ansell was named a professor of viola at the University of Houston at age 21 and became assistant principal violist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under André Previn at 23. He has received two Grand Prix du Disque awards and a Gramophone Magazine award for Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year. He has appeared on PBS's In Performance at the White House and has participated in the Tanglewood, Schleswig-Holstein, Marlboro, Blossom, Newport, Spoleto, and Snowbird festivals. As principal violist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he is also a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. He is a College of Fine Arts associate professor.

Michael Reynolds is a cellist. The Montana native received his professional training at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was a student of David Soyer and Martita Casals. He continued his studies with Karen Tuttle and George Neikrug and attended Yale University. He received an honorary doctorate from Rhode Island College in 1995. Accolades he has won while with the Muir String Quartet include First Prize at the Evian Competition, a Naumburg Award, two Grand Prix du Disques, and a Gramophone Award. He has appeared on PBS's In Performance at the White House. He is the director the Montana Chamber Music Festival and president of EcoClassic, Inc. He is also artistic director of the Classics for Kids Foundation, which gives quality student instruments to communities and schools around America. He is a College of Fine Arts associate professor.

Peter Zazofsky’s career as a violin soloist, chamber musician, and educator spans more than 25 years and 30 countries. Joseph Silverstein was his first teacher, and he later studied with Dorothy Delay and with Jaime Laredo and Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute. He has received many prizes and awards, including the Grand Prize of the 1979 Montreal International Competition and second prize at the 1980 Queen Elisabeth Contest in Brussels. In 1985 he was honored with an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He has performed with many of the great orchestras in the United States and Europe, including the Boston Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Zazofsky is a College of Fine Arts associate professor of violin and chamber music. He serves as a jury member for violin competitions in Montreal, Brussels, and Denmark.

Edwin Barker is recognized as one of the most gifted bassists on the American concert scene. An accomplished solo and ensemble player, he has performed and recorded with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and with Collage, a Boston-based contemporary music ensemble. Barker is also a frequent guest performer with the Boston Chamber Music Society. He performed the world premiere of James Yannatos' Bass Concerto (which was written especially for him) with ALEA III, BU’s new music ensemble, and subsequently with Collage. He was the featured soloist at the New England premiere of Gunther Schuller's Bass Concerto, conducted by the composer, with the Boston Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. Barker's major teaching affiliations include the Tanglewood Music Center, Boston University, where he is a College of Fine Arts associate professor, and the New England Conservatory of Music. He graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory in 1976, where he studied double bass with Henry Portnoi. At age 22, he was appointed principal bassist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He continues to tour and perform internationally with the BSO and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.

This article originally ran March 7, 2008.