The Parker String Quartet brings the music of the late György Ligeti, Mozart and Schumann to the Memorial Chapel at Union College Friday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. The quartet features Daniel Chong and Karen Kim on violin, Jessica Bodnar, viola, and Kee-Hyun Kim, cello.
Since its founding in May 2002, the quartet has quickly established itself as a dynamic young chamber ensemble on the national and international scene, winning numerous awards, including the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and 2005 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition.
In its Carnegie Hall debut last November, The New York Times raved that the performance “set the group apart as something extraordinary.”
This season, the quartet was chosen by the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts to be the seventh Ernst Stiefel String Quartet in Residence, including three week-long educational residencies, culminating in performances at Caramoor. The quartet also was recently selected for the prestigious Professional String Quartet Training Program at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where the group was founded and selected, in 2002 and 2003, as the NEC's Honors Ensemble.
The Parker String Quartet recorded its debut CD in Paris in June for the Zig Zag label, featuring Bartok's String Quartets Nos. 2 and 5. Its forthcoming CD for Naxos, due in 2007, features the string quartets of György Ligeti.
A native of Southern California, violinist Daniel Chong began the violin at age four, started his solo career at age eight with the Orchestra Da Camera in Los Angeles, appeared as soloist with the Redlands Bowl Symphony Orchestra at 10 and, at age 13, he was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Victor Danchenko.
Karen Kim began her violin studies at age four in La Crosse, Wisc., and at eight became a student of Gerardo Ribeiro in Evanston, Ill. Kim has presented solo performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C. and Steinway Hall in New York City. She has appeared as a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Civic Orchestra and the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra.
Jessica Bodnar has established herself as one of the leading violists of her generation. Her musical studies with the violin began at the age of two in her native Houston; she switched to viola at 12.
As an orchestral musician, Bodnar has been a member of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Germany's Bachfest Leipzig Orchestra and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. She has made numerous soloist appearances on her own and with ensembles.
She is currently a graduate student at the New England Conservatory, where she is studying with Martha Strongin Katz on a Lotte M. Crabtree Scholarship.
Kee-Hyun Kim, a solo cellist and chamber musician from Seoul, Korea, plays on an 1844 Giacomo Rivolta from Milan and has performed in Korea, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, England, Israel, the United States, Canada and Central and South America.
Kim received his bachelor's at NEC as a student of Laurence Lesser. He is currently pursuing his master's under Paul Katz as a recipient of the Gregory Piatigorsky Scholarship for 2005-06.
The Parker String Quartet is coached by Paul Katz at NEC. Other coaches have included Martha Strongin Katz, Donald Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Paul Katz and Lucy Stoltzman.
Concert tickets are free for the Union community, $20 for the general public and $10 for area students. For more information, call 388-6080 or 372-3651; or visit http://www.union.edu/concertseries/.