Isidore String Quartet
Jeremy Denk, piano
Location: Shriver Hall
With their “polished sonority and well-balanced, tightly synchronized ensemble” (Chicago Classical Review), the young Isidore Quartet has swiftly soared to prominence, winning the 2022 Banff Competition and a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Now, they present a new work written for them by foremost American composer and Grammy-winning jazz pianist Billy Childs. Jeremy Denk, “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs” (The New York Times) joins them for Schumann’s expansive Piano Quintet.
"A focus and command beyond their years…the sweeping coherence and blazing virtuosity of [the Isidore String Quartet's] narrative had the audience leaping to their feet at the end." —Violinist.com
"An unerring sense of the music's dramatic structure and a great actor's intuition for timing, Denk was the provocateur who urged his colleagues to dar all, to unleash every calorie of emotional heat." —Boston Globe
What You'll Hear
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.
Barbara and the late David Kornblatt always had a passion for contemporary art and the creative process. From 1975 to 1992, Barbara owned an art gallery that specialized in contemporary American painting, sculpture and works on paper, and she helped numerous artists create and sustain lasting careers. Over 50 years ago, David and a partner founded what would become the Kornblatt Company—a real estate development, brokerage, and management firm culminating in the building and management of Saint Paul Plaza. Passionate concertgoers, Barbara joined SHCS’s Board of Directors in 1998. Her and David's generous contribution establishing this fund in 2014 enabling SHCS to regularly commission and premiere new works. This gift was made in honor of their parents Harry & Rebecca Kornblatt and Isidore & Sarah Rodbell.
Isidore String Quartet
Adrian Steele, violin
Phoenix Avalon, violin
Devin Moore, viola
Joshua McClendon, cello
Winners of the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, the New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The group is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of “approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.”
The members of the Quartet began as an ensemble at The Juilliard School, and following a break during the global pandemic reconvened at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 2021 under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick. In addition to Mr. Krosnick, the ISQ has coached with Joseph Lin, Astrid Schween, Laurie Smukler, Joseph Kalichstein, Roger Tapping, Timothy Eddy, Donald Weilerstein, Atar Arad, Robert McDonald, Christoph Richter, Miriam Fried, and Paul Biss, while performing in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, and at the Ravinia Festival.
Its Banff triumph brings extensive tours of North America and Europe, a two-year appointment as the Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University in Dallas beginning in 2023-24, performances at Haydn Hall in Eisenstadt (in spring 2023) and the Lucerne Festival, plus a two-week residency at Banff Centre including a professionally produced recording, along with extensive ongoing coaching, career guidance, and mentorship.
The Isidore Quartet’s 2022-23 season features debut appearances in Pittsburgh, PA; Durham, NC; Burlington, VT; Kalamazoo, MI; Evanston, IL; San Antonio, TX; Laguna Beach, CA (with pianist Jeremy Denk and violinist Stefan Jackiw); and Seattle, WA (with violinist James Ehnes). ISQ returns to Washington's Kennedy Center as part of the Fortas Chamber Music Concert Series, and will also perform for Schneider Concerts at the Mannes School of Music. In Europe it performs at Esterhazy Palace in Austria, and spends time at the Britten Pears Arts Institute.
ISQ is working as a resident ensemble with PROJECT: MUSIC HEALS US providing encouragement, education, and healing to marginalized communities – including elderly, disabled, rehabilitating incarcerated and homeless populations – who otherwise have limited access to high-quality live music performance. An ensemble actively dedicated to pushing the boundaries of music-making, ISQ is the resident ensemble for the Contemporary Alexander School/Alexander Alliance International. In conjunction with those well-versed in the world of Alexander Technique, as well as other performers, ISQ explores the vast landscape of body awareness, mental preparation, and performance practice.
The name Isidore recognizes the ensemble’s musical connection to the Juilliard Quartet: one of that group’s early members was legendary violinist Isidore Cohen. Additionally, it acknowledges a shared affection for a certain libation – legend has it a Greek monk named Isidore concocted the first genuine vodka recipe for the Grand Duchy of Moscow! The group's website is www.isidorestringquartet.com.
“Powerhouse new ensemble. Invigorating. Intoxicating. The new face of outstanding chamber music.” —The Violin Channel
Jeremy Denk
Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists, proclaimed by the New York Times as "a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs". Also a New York Times bestselling author, Jeremy is the recipient of both the MacArthur 'Genius' Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In the 2024/25 season, Jeremy continues his collaboration with longtime musical partners Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis, with performances at the Tsindali Festival and Wigmore Hall, following on from his multi-concert artist residency at the Wigmore in 2023/24. He also returns to the Lammermuir Festival in multiple performances, including the complete Ives violin sonatas with Maria Wloszczowska, and a solo recital featuring female composers from the past to the present day. He performs this same solo programme on tour across the US, as well as continuing his exploration of Bach in ongoing performances of the complete Partitas. Jeremy is known for his interpretations of the music of American visionary Charles Ives, and in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, Nonesuch Records will release a collection of his Ives recordings later this year.
Highlights of Jeremy's 2023/24 season included premiering a new concerto written for him by Anna Clyne, co-commissioned and performed by the Dallas Symphony led by Fabio Luisi, the City of Birmingham Symphony led by Kazuki Yamada, and the New Jersey Symphony led by Markus Stenz. He also reunited with Krzysztof Urbański to perform with the Antwerp Symphony, and with the Danish String Quartet for their festival Series of Four.
Jeremy has performed frequently at Carnegie Hall, and in recent years has worked with such orchestras as Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony. Meanwhile, he has performed multiple times at the BBC Proms and Klavierfestival Ruhr, and appeared in such halls as the Köln Philharmonie, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Boulez Saal in Berlin. He has also performed extensively across the UK, including recently with the London Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Denk is also known for his original and insightful writing on music, which Alex Ross praises for its “arresting sensitivity and wit.” His New York Times Bestselling memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine was published to universal acclaim by Random House in 2022, with features on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s Fresh Air, The New York Times, and The Guardian. Denk also wrote the libretto for a comic opera presented by Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, and the Aspen Festival, and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New Republic, The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung and on the front page of the New York Times Book Review.
Denk’s latest album of Mozart piano concertos was released in 2021 on Nonesuch Records. The album, deemed “urgent and essential” by BBC Radio 3. His recording of the Goldberg Variations for Nonesuch Records reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Charts, and his recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 111 paired with Ligeti’s Études was named one of the best discs of the year by the New Yorker, NPR, and the Washington Post, while his account of the Beethoven sonata was selected by BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library as the best available version recorded on modern piano.
"An unerring sense of the music's dramatic structure and a great actor's intuition for timing, Denk was the provocateur who urged his colleagues to dare all, to unleash every calorie of emotional heat." —Boston Globe
