The Fry Street Quartet Jump-Starts Its 2007-2008 Season
The Fry Street Quartet, Utah State University’s quartet in residence, opens its fall season Friday, Sept. 28, at 7:30 p.m. with a performance in the Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall on campus.
For its first performance of the season, the quartet will play Beethoven’s String Quartets Op. 74 and Op. 131. Tickets for the concert are sold at the door and are free to students with ID. General admission tickets are $5. All are invited, including community members, faculty, staff and students.
The Fry Street Quartet has performed in large cities and throughout the world. It has called Logan its home for the past five years. The members said they love teaching and bringing new audiences into the classical world.
“I first attended a Fry Street performance this summer for my arts symposium class,” said Forrest Purser, a senior majoring in biological and irrigation engineering. “I wasn’t expecting to enjoy myself so much. It was totally a visual experience as well as an auditory one, and the concert just flew by.”
Founded in Chicago in 1997, the quartet has reached audiences in Carnegie Hall, Sarajevo and Jerusalem and has received critical acclaim from “The New York Times” and “Salt Lake Magazine.”
“The Fry Street Quartet does not make you choose between a lush, rich sound and a lean, athletic sound; between soaring melodies and taut counterpoint; between a sense of rhythmic urgency and phrases that seem to stop time,” said Robert Winter, professor of music and presidential chair in music and interactive arts at UCLA. “They do all of it — at just the right moments and with a deceptive ease that makes you forget the commitment and dedication required to reach this level.”
The quartet is preparing to perform all 17 of Beethoven’s string quartets during two weeks in October 2008. A complete Beethoven quartet cycle is a rare feat in the world of music and one that has never been presented in Utah.
“It would be impossible for us to tackle the monumental challenge that is a complete Beethoven cycle were it not for the profound connection the four of us share,” said Anne Francis, cellist. “After more than 10 years of playing and performing together, we have a shared body of wisdom and experience that enables us to be an intuitive blend of four intertwined voices that seem, at times, to be connected by one collective brain.”
All members of the quartet are instructors at USU’s Caine School of the Arts and are based in the department of music. The members include William Fedkenheuer, violin; Rebecca McFaul, violin; Russell Fallstad, viola; and Anne Francis, cello.
For more information about the quartet or upcoming events, visit its Web site.
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The Fry Street Quartet opens its concert season at USU Sept. 28. Members include (left to right) William Fedkenheuer, Rebecca McFaul, Anne Francis and Russell Fallstad.
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