UCSB Arts & Lectures presents the Isidore String Quartet with cellest Sterling Elliott, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 14 at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall, 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara.
Winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Isidore String Quartet “brings fresh insight and expressive intensity to the chamber repertoire,” according to Arts & Lectures.
The quartet is joined by Juilliard classmate and fellow Avery Fisher honoree Sterling Elliott, a cellist whose star power and soulful artistry have earned international acclaim, organizers said.
“This probing program traces a path from the soft, sustained glow of Haydn’s ‘Sunrise’ quartet through Ligeti’s surging dissonances to its culmination in Schubert’s luminous Cello Quintet, a masterpiece of emotional unity and complexity,” Arts & Lectures said.
Isidore String Quartet members are Adrian Steele, violin; Phoenix Avalon, violin; Devin Moore, viola; and Joshua McClendon, cello.
The program includes: Haydn: String Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 76, no. 4 (“Sunrise”); Ligeti: String Quartet No. 2; and Schubert: String Quintet, D. 956.
The New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover and reinvigorate the repertory.
The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of “approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.” organizers said.
Over the past several years, the quartet has developed a strong connection to the works of composer and pianist Billy Childs, performing his Quartets No. 2 and 3 throughout North America and Europe. In February they premiered a new Childs quartet written expressly for them.
Both on stage and outside the concert hall, the Isidore Quartet is invested in connecting with youth and elderly populations, and with marginalized communities who otherwise have limited access to high-quality live music performance.
“They approach music as a ‘playground’ and attempt to break down barriers to encourage collaboration and creativity,” organizers said.
The name Isidore recognizes the ensemble’s musical connection to the Juilliard Quartet: one of that group’s early members was legendary violinist Isidore Cohen.
Additionally, it acknowledges a shared affection for a certain libation – legend has it a Greek monk named Isidore concocted the first genuine vodka recipe for the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
Elliott is the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. Still in his mid-20s, he has appeared with orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic.
In 2024, Elliott was named a BBC New Generation Artist. He is an ambassador of the Young Strings of America, a string sponsorship operated by Shar Music.