Jupiter String Quartet

Music can provide a profound lifeline for those struggling through times of unrest. The composers in this program grapple with the realities of a world full of upheaval and uncertainty, attempting to provide a path to greater understanding. The Irish-English composer Elizabeth Maconchy was an avowed socialist who supported the Republican forces fighting off Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Her hauntingly beautiful third quartet emerged out of the shadows of 1930s Europe. Carlos Simon’s heartbreaking Elegy memorializes the Black American victims of police violence, while Nathan Shields' new quartet, Medusa, composed for the Jupiter Quartet for Shields’ Guggenheim Fellowship, uses the paintings of Caravaggio as an inspiration for exploring the effects of various types of political and social violence. Beethoven’s epic eighth quartet is one of the many works he wrote during a time of immense political turmoil.

Upheaval