UCSB Arts & Lectures will present Danish String Quartet The Doppelgänger Project, Part I, 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14 at Rockwood, 670 Mission Canyon Road, Santa Barbara. They will perform music developed through an ambitious four-year project supported by Arts & Lectures and a variety of international partners.
The performance is part of the Chamber Arts series, featured in the 2021-22 CREATING HOPE programming initiative.
The project pairs world premieres from four renowned composers with chamber music masterpieces by Schubert, including “Death and the Maiden” and the “Rosamunde” quartet. On each program, the quartet will perform a premiere with its doppelgänger — the Schubert quartet or quintet that inspired it.
Learn more about The Doppelgänger Project at https://danishquartet.com/danish-string-quartet-presents-sublime-schubert-and-sorensen-pairing/.
The program includes Schubert: String Quartet in G major, D. 887; Bent Sørensen: Doppelgänger; Schubert (arr. Danish String Quartet): Der Doppelgänger.
Danish String Quartet find themselves at the core of the classical music world. They delve daily into works by great masters such as Beethoven and Mozart, but they also play the occasional folk music gig. Over the years they have studied in different places, in masterclasses with renowned teachers, and have had opportunities to perform in major concert halls, attend competitions and record their music.
The quartet is composed of three Danes, Rune, Asbjørn, Frederik, and one Norwegian, cellist Frederik, making this a truly Scandinavian endeavor. Being relatively bearded, they are often compared to the Vikings.
The three Danes met arly in their lives in the Danish countryside at a summer camp for enthusiastic amateur musicians. Not yet teenagers, they were the youngest players, so they hung out all the time playing football and chamber music together. They were regular kids with an above average interest in classical chamber music and quickly became, and still are, best friends.
In 2001, professor Tim Frederiksen of The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen started coaching the boys on a regular basis. Suddenly, at the ages of 15 and 16, they were a serious string ensemble; it happened so fast that none of them seemed to notice the transition. Time passed and they grew up; grew beards. None have any memory of their lives without the string quartet.
In 2008 Fredrik, a Norwegian cellist, joined the group. He looked like a character from Game of Thrones, and the three Danes thought he was a perfect match.
Ticket prices are $50, general public; $10 for UCSB students with current ID. For tickets and more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures, 805-893-3535 or visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
Proof of full vaccination must be presented for entry to the event, and masks must be worn at all times inside the venue. Visit https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/SeasonFAQs/ for updates and further details. The presentation is part of the UCSB A&L Speaking with Pico series.