World-Famous Musicians Join the Fry Street Quartet in Concert at USU

Utah State University’s Caine College of the Arts string program and the Fry Street Quartet (FSQ) welcome world-renowned chamber musicians James Dunham, Paul Katz and Pei-Shan Lee to Logan for a residency that includes master classes, seminars and culminates in a concert with the FSQ Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Caine Performance Hall.

Dunham and Katz are known to concertgoers around the world as cellist and violist of the Cleveland Quartet, which made more than 2,500 appearances on four continents in a 26-year career.

“Since the quartet retired in 1996, Dunham and Katz have dedicated themselves to teaching and run two of the most prestigious string quartet training programs in the country at Rice University’s School of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music,” Anne Francis Bayless, cellist in the FSQ, said. “There are deep personal ties that draw these two artists together with the quartet as Dunham mentored Bradley Ottesen, FSQ violist, in graduate school, and Katz did the same for me.”

This Dunham’s first visit to USU and Katz’s third, Bayless said.

“Katz has told me many times that he considers the quartet residency at USU to be part of his legacy as an educator and he is immensely proud of how much our program has grown,” said Bayless. “It goes without saying that it is a rare privilege for our students to work with such remarkable teachers and performers who have such a wealth of experience to share.”

Bayless said Pei-Shan Lee, member of the collaborative piano and chamber music faculty at the New England Conservatory and creator of a new master of music degree in collaborative piano at California State University Northridge, is one of the most gifted collaborative pianists in the country and one of the foremost educators in that field.

“The exceptional pianists in our collaborative program are so fortunate to be able to work with her one-on-one, as well as see her perform,” Bayless said.

The Caine College of the Arts Visiting Artists and Scholars Series is underwritten by the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation—Russell Family, the Tanner Charitable Trust, and Differential Tuition provided by the students of the college.

Tickets for the Oct. 27 Fry Street Quartet performance are $10 general admission, $8 seniors, youth, $5 USU faculty and staff and free for USU students with ID. For more information and tickets, visit the CCA Box Office located in room L101 of the Chase Fine Arts Center on USU’s Logan campus, call 435-797-8022 or see the college’s Production Services website.

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Writer and Contact: Whitney Schulte, 435-797-9203, whitney.schulte@usu.edu