Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins
Pei-Ling Lin, Viola | Jeremiah Shaw, Cello

Johannes Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, op. 51

Eleanor Alberga: String Quartet No. 2 (1994)

Each of the composers featured on this program had to make their way out of the shadows of overbearing circumstances that could have eclipsed them. Eleanor Alberga, a Jamaican composer working in England, has made a vital career composing vibrant and colorful works, breaking into the classical scene largely dominated by white European composers of the past. And Brahms, himself one of those European composers of the past, had to overcome his own anxieties created by the legacy of his idol, Beethoven, in order to write this second of three string quartets published in his lifetime. All three composers managed to find a way to allow their voices to be heard clearly despite the pressure bearing down on their personal and professional lives. Each of these works is a poignant testament to the fruits of that struggle, whether the struggle was personal or societal in nature.

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a Shinkoskey Noon Concert