The Forbes Library is delighted to announce the Quark Quartet as our Musicians in Residence for 2020. In our fifth Musical Residency we’ll feature classical chamber music in programs for both children and adults. We are excited to present concerts for all ages in this year’s Musician in Residence program!
The Quark Quartet is comprised of four trained musicians who do not perform for a living, but who are energized by and committed to performance. The Quark musicians are Naomi Lesley and Marijo Sherrill (violins), Jessica Corwin (viola), and Sally Greenebaum (cello). In the winter of 2018, they formed a quartet with the goal of offering high quality, engaging, and welcoming chamber music concerts for the Pioneer Valley public. Since their relatively recent founding, they have performed for benefit concerts, library recitals — including at Forbes –, children’s concerts, and retirement communities. After their second concert cycle, they made a commitment to seek out and perform works by under-represented composers–women and composers of color.
On February 1, the Quark Quartet will perform Beethoven’s early String Trio in C minor, Op. 9; George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1, which includes the lush, gorgeous Lyric for Strings; and Jessie Montgomery’s exciting, upbeat “Strum.”
On April 21, they will present a concert specifically designed for children ages 3 to 12. Additional concerts will be announced later in the year.
The Musical Residency program began in 2015 when The Well Tempered Ukes conceived the idea and developed it in collaboration with Arts & Music Librarian Faith Kaufmann and then-Assistant Director Lisa Downing. This residency, the first of its kind for the library, aimed to support artist process and program development by providing time, space and opportunity for teaching, performance, and conversation.