Dover Quartet
Joseph Conyers, double bass
The Howard Family Concert & The Reiko T. and Yuan C. Lee Fund for Outstanding String Performers
Location: Shriver Hall
“Few young American ensembles are as exciting an accomplished as the Dover Quartet,” raves The New Yorker. An alum of SHCS’s Discovery Series, this stunning group returns to Baltimore with Philadelphia Orchestra double-bassist Joseph Conyers, “a lyrical musician who plays with authenticity that transcends mere technique” (Grand Rapids Press). Following string quartets by Haydn and Pulitzer Prize winner George Walker, the Quartet and Conyers unite for Dvořák’s lush, richly textured Op. 77 Quintet.
“Meticulously balanced, technically clean-as-a-whistle and intonationally immaculate.” —The Strad
About the sponsor
A member of Shriver Hall Concert Series' Board of Directors from 1987 to 2012, Dr. J. Woodford Howard, Jr. is the Thomas P. Stran Professor Emeritus at The Johns Hopkins University where he taught in and chaired the Department of Political Science. At SHCS, Dr. Howard, or "Woody," was for many years Chair of the Music Committee. In his capacity as Chair, Woody used his encyclopedic knowledge of chamber music to help select artists and repertoire. Mrs. Howard has also assumed an active role in volunteering for many SHCS projects. The Howard Family concert, established in 2001 by Woody and Jane, with their daughter and son-in-law, Elaine and Jeffrey Christ, is designated for performances by string quartets.
Drs. Reiko T. and Yuan C. (“Ed”) Lee, faculty in The Johns Hopkins University Department of Biology endowed this annual concert in 2005. Biochemists and amateur string players, the Lees have been subscribers since SHCS’s first season. The Lee Fund supports concerts by the world’s greatest string players. The first concert supported by this gift was the 2005-06 appearance by Pinchas Zukerman and was dedicated to Reiko’s father, Tomotake Takasaka, Professor of Agricultural Engineering at National Taiwan University and an avid self-taught amateur string player. He was also one of the first musicians to bring Western music to Taiwan. He held weekly gatherings of chamber music lovers at his home and it was at one of these that Reiko and Ed, who played viola, met. They came to the U.S. in 1958, earning their Ph.D.s in biochemistry at the University of Iowa. After three years at U.C. Berkeley, they arrived in Baltimore in 1965 to start their Hopkins—and Shriver Hall Concert Series—careers.