Formosa Quartet
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The Formosa Quartet is a string quartet based in the United States. The quartet won the First Prize and the Amadeus Prize at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in 2006.[1]
History
Formosa Quartet formed in 2002 when four friends came together for a concert tour of Taiwan.
Career
Formosa Quartet is committed to championing the indigenous music of under-represented cultures and to stretching the boundaries of string quartet expression.
The Quartet premiered Taiwanese-American composer Shih-Hui Chen’s Returning Souls: Four Pieces on Three Formosan Amis Legends in 2014,[2] and the Quartet’s recording of its first commission from Ms. Chen, Fantasia on the Theme of Plum Blossom, was released on the New World Records label in 2013.[3]
In the 2014-2015 season, Formosa Quartet began a two-year residency with Art of Élan, a San Diego arts-presenting organization.[4] As ensemble-in-residence, the Quartet worked with UCSD professor of composition Lei Liang to create a new piece based on the indigenous music of Taiwan. The culmination of the two-year project was the premiere performance of the commission and a 2019 critically-acclaimed record album of music inspired by Hungarian and Taiwanese folk traditions, From Hungary To Taiwan.
Formosa Quartet is passionate about working with next-generation musicians, and helped found the annual Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Hualien, Taiwan — a two-week intensive chamber music training program. The Quartet also became the faculty quartet-in-residence at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2014, and has been a returning collaborator with Taiwan Studies / Taiwan Lecture Series at UCSD, with composer Shih-Hui Chen at Rice University, and in week-long residencies of educational and artistic outreach at Eastern Michigan University and The University of California, Los Angeles.
The Quartet has appeared at venues including the Ravinia Festival, Caramoor Festival, Library of Congress, Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, Chicago Cultural Center, Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Rice University, San Francisco State University, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Kammermusiksaal at the Berliner Philharmonie, and the Korean Cultural Center in Brussels.
Formosa Quartet is represented by BesenArts LLC.
Members
- Jasmine Lin, violin
- Wayne Lee, violin
- Che-Yen Chen, viola
- Deborah Pae, cello
Discography
- Formosa Quartet. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy, Hugo Wolf (EMI Classics)[5]
- Returning Souls. Shih-Hui Chen. (New World Records)
- Gernsheim/Brahms Piano Quintets. Formosa Quartet and Reiko Uchida. (Delos Productions)
- Luminous. Lei Liang. (New World Records)
- From Hungary To Taiwan. Formosa Quartet. (Bridge Records)
References
- ^ "Wigmore Hall". London String Quartet Competition. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ^ "Art of Élan sets season of 'reflections'". U-T San Diego. August 13, 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ^ "New World Records: Album Details". New World Records. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ^ "Ensemble-In-Residence". Art of Elan. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ^ "String Quartet Recital". 16 January 2007 – via Amazon.