Jupiter String Quartet with Ben Roidl-Ward, bassoon, A New Music Festival Event

As artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois School of Music and Krannert Center, the Jupiter String Quartet has displayed its deep commitment to new music through its programming. For this first of three local concerts, the quartet teams up with School of Music colleagues for the annual New Music Festival of contemporary classical works. The concert features the US premiere of a new quintet for bassoon and strings by the London-based American composer Arlene Sierra, featuring faculty artist Ben Roidl-Ward, named one of 23 artists “changing the sound of classical music” by The Washington Post. Also on the program is Pulitzer Prize winner Shulamit Ran’s Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory, her third string quartet, commissioned by Music Accord for the Pacifica Quartet in 2013. Alban Berg’s six-movement Lyric Suite, written 100 years ago in homage to the composer’s brief, concealed love affair with a married woman, closes the program.