Jupiter String Quartet with Kenneth Olsen, cello

The Jupiter String Quartet—quartet-in-residence at the University of Illinois and the internationally acclaimed winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition—are joined for this concert by Chicago Symphony Assistant Principal Cellist Kenneth Olsen.

A longtime friend of the Jupiter Quartet, Olsen attended the Cleveland Institute of Music. He won the school’s concerto competition while there, and went on to earn prizes in the Nakamichi Cello Competition and the Holland-American Music Competition. Olsen is also a founding member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, a conductorless string orchestra comprised of musicians from orchestras and ensembles all over the country that will perform with the Jupiter String Quartet at Krannert Center on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

For their collaborative performance of Schubert’s Cello Quintet in C major, the five musicians will blend their artistry to deliver the grandiose expression of Schubert’s final completed work, which he composed in 1828 just before his passing in November of that year. Brahms composed his Quartet in A Minor, Op. 51 No. 2 several decades after Schubert’s passing in 1828. The music transitions between melodic turbulence and more serene, legato performance. The calmer movements are bookended by the more volatile beginning and ending “Allegro” movements, ending with a sense of dark exigency reminiscent of Schubert’s final work.

Schubert: String Quintet in C major, “Cello Quintet”

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