Miró Quartet with Masumi Per Rostad, Chamber Music at the Clark 30th Anniversary

New this season: All Chamber Music at the Clark tickets will be sold by the UCLA Central Ticket Office. Tickets may be purchased online, via telephone, or in person. 

Ticket prices: General $55; Senior (age 55+) $45; UCLA student (valid student ID required for each ticket) $15. Tickets are non-refundable.

Tickets for this concert will go on sale Tuesday, April 15 at 12:00 noon.

Seating at the Clark Library is limited, and tickets are likely to sell out within a few minutes. Online: https://tinyurl.com/3mevyppr Telephone: (310) 825-2101 In person: Central Ticket Office windows located on the UCLA campus at 325 Westwood Plaza (ground level, across from Pauley Pavilion). If any tickets for this concert remain unsold, they will be available for purchase at the Clark Library on the day of the event. Any available day-of tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis by a Central Ticket Office representative beginning at 1:00 p.m. Payment will be accepted via credit card only. For inquiries, please call or email the Central Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101 or cto@tickets.ucla.edu, Monday–Friday 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

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Program Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Viola Quintet No. 1 in F major, op. 88, "Spring" Viola Quintet No. 2 in G major, op. 111 The Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated and dedicated string quartets, having been labeled by The New Yorker as “furiously committed” and noted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer for its “exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity.” For over twenty-five years the Quartet has performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from critics and audiences alike. Based in Austin, TX, and thriving on the area’s storied music scene, the Miró takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music. In their 2023-24 season, the Miró Quartet embarked on a new performance and recording project with pianist Lara Downes: Here on Earth features musical depictions of planet Earth, its evolution, and the lives of its inhabitants, with works spanning a century of cultural shift that begins with Darius Milhaud’s La Création du Monde, performed in a new arrangement for piano and string quartet. Upcoming performances include the premiere of a new version of Kevin Puts’s Credo with the Naples Philharmonic, as well as performances for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and Premiere Performances in Hong Kong. Formed in 1995, the Miró Quartet was awarded first prize at several national and international Competitions, including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. Deeply committed to music education, members of the Quartet have given master classes at universities and conservatories throughout the world, and since 2003 the Miró has served as the quartet-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music. In 2005, the Quartet became the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. Having released many celebrated recordings, the Miró recently produced an Emmy Award- winning multimedia project titled Transcendence. A work with visual and audio elements available on live stream, CD, and Blu-ray, Transcendence encompasses philanthropy and documentary filmmaking and is centered around a performance of Franz Schubert’s Quartet in G Major on rare Stradivarius instruments. The Miró records independently and makes its music available on a global scale through Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube. The Miró Quartet took its name and its inspiration from the Spanish artist Joan Miró, whose Surrealist works—with subject matter drawn from the realm of memory, dreams, and imaginative fantasy—are some of the most groundbreaking, influential, and admired of the twentieth century. Visit www.miroquartet.com for more information. The Miró Quartet is represented by MKI Artists www.mkiartists.com Masumi Per Rostad Praised for his “burnished sound” (The New York Times) and described as an “electrifying, poetic, and sensitive musician,” the Grammy Award-winning, Japanese-Norwegian violist Masumi Per Rostad hails from the gritty East Village of 1980s New York. He was raised in an artist loft converted from a garage with a 1957 Chevy Bel Air as the remnant centerpiece in their living room. Masumi began his studies at the nearby Third Street Music School Settlement at age three and has gone on to become one of the most in-demand soloists, chamber musicians, and teachers. In addition to maintaining an active performance schedule, he serves on the faculty of the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Masumi regularly tours internationally and has performed at many of the most prominent festivals, including Marlboro, Spoleto USA, Music@Menlo, Caramoor, Music in the Vineyards, Bowdoin, and the Aspen Music Festival. His guest violist collaborations include programs with the St Lawrence, Ying, Pavel Haas, Miró, Verona, and Emerson String Quartets, as well as with the Horszowski Trio. He toured and recorded extensively as a former member of the International Sejong Soloists. He can be heard on the Cedille Records, Naxos, Hyperion, Musical Observations, Bridge, and Tzadik record labels. As a member of the Pacifica Quartet for almost two decades (2001-2017), Masumi regularly performed in the world’s greatest halls, including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Sydney’s City Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Munich’s Herkuleshaal, Paris’s Louvre and Cité de la Musique, and Berlin’s Konzerthaus, among many others. He was full professor of viola and chamber music as quartet-in-residence at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. In 2006, the ensemble was awarded the coveted Cleveland Quartet Award, Avery Fisher Career Grant, and they were also named Musical America’s 2009 Ensemble of the Year. Masumi is an ardent advocate for the arts, and often sought after as a contributing writer to such publications as the Huffington Post, Strings, and Gramophone magazines as well as The Guardian. Passionate about breaking down barriers that prevent people from enjoying Classical music, Masumi was the founder of DoCha, a chamber music festival in Champaign, Illinois that produced innovative events with a focus on engaging new audiences through fun and inventive programming. DoCha-hosted events featured unique collaborations between members of the University and multi-genre presentations from Classical chamber music to contemporary dance, the spoken word, and much more. All programs were free of charge and took place at a beautiful former community Opera House. Other activities of DoCha included ”in-reach” performances for elementary school students as well as master classes, competitions, and performance opportunities for local music students. Masumi has served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, The University of Chicago, Longy School of Music, and Northwestern University. He has given master classes at The Colburn School, Cleveland Institute of Music, The Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Interlochen, and San Francisco Conservatory, among many others. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School. There, he studied with legendary violist and pedagogue Karen Tuttle from the age of seventeen and was made her teaching assistant just three years later at the age of twenty. At Juilliard, he was awarded the Lillian Fuchs Award for the most outstanding graduating violist. He also won the Juilliard School Concerto Competition and performed the world premiere of Michael White's Viola Concerto in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, with conductor James DePreist. That same year he gave the New York premiere of Paul Schoenfield's Viola Concerto with the Juilliard Symphony to critical acclaim. In 2008 he was awarded the Rising Star Award’ by the Third Street Music School Settlement for his musical achievements Masumi lives in Rochester, NY with his wife Sonia—a concert pianist—and their daughter, Ling. He is professor of viola and chamber music at the Eastman School of Music. He is a D’Addario Artist and has used their strings since 1999. Celebrating a four-hundred-year birthday in 2019, his Amati viola was crafted in Cremona, Italy in 1619. www.masumirostad.com

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Chamber Music at the Clark Professor Rogers Brubaker, Artistic Director Chamber Music at the Clark will be celebrating its 30th anniversary season in 2024–25. Thanks to the generous support of Friends of the Clark, the series has presented over 175 concerts, featuring some of the world’s finest chamber ensembles, in its uniquely intimate drawing room venue with its superb acoustics. The anniversary season will feature two special tributes. The November 17, 2024 concert will honor the late Peter Hanns Reill, who served for nearly two decades as Center and Clark Director, and who founded the series in 1994. The April 27, 2025 concert will honor Bruce Whiteman, who served as Head Librarian of the Clark from 1996 until 2010, and who has written our wonderful program notes for a quarter of a century. We hope you will be able to join us for another splendid season of music-making. Chamber Music at the Clark is made possible by The Ahmanson Foundation, under the auspices of Lee Walcott; Henry J. Bruman Endowment for Chamber Music; The Colburn Foundation; Ms. Brenda Anderson; Mrs. Martha R. Bardach; Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Ph.D. and Barbara Timmer; Dr. Rogers Brubaker; Dr. Johanna R. Drucker; Dr. Susan S. Harris and Mr. Mark J. Harris; Ms. Judy L. Hellinger; Dr. David E. Lopez; Drs. Martin and Susan Mach; Mr. Bernie and Ms. Elaine Mendes; Mrs. Janet K. Minami; Mr. Jeffrey L. Nagin and Mrs. Bette I. Nagin; Dr. Theodore M. Porter; Dr. Jeanne Robson; Dr. Thomas Rosenthal and Ms. Susan M. Rosenthal; Ms. Carol E. Sandberg; Charles H. and Carol “Jackie” Schwartz; Dr. Patricia Bates Simun and Mr. Richard V. Simun Memorial Fund; Professor Bronwen Wilson; and Roberta and Robert Young. Please see here for more information about our chamber music programs.

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Photograph credit: Tania Quintanilla, courtesy of Miró Quartet. Photograph of Masumi Per Rostad, courtesy of the Artist.