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The Restoration Concert on Sunday, November 19 at 4:00 p.m. will feature the New Hollywood String Quartet performing Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 in D Major op. 11. Cellist Brian Schuldt and Violist Meredith Crawford will join the NHSQ for Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) op. 4 for String Sextet in the second half of the program. The concert is presented by the Restoration Concerts Committee of the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library and will be held in the beautiful historic Library Community Room at 1115 El Centro St. in South Pasadena. Tickets will be available at the door for $25.
The New Hollywood String Quartet had its debut concert in Los Angeles on Jan. 9, 2001 and has been performing to critical acclaim ever since. Inspired by the great Hollywood String Quartet from over half a century ago, the current members of the NHSQ are likewise premiere performers of their generation. The quartet members are Tereza Stanislav – violin, Rafael Rishik -violin, Robert Brophy – viola, and Andrew Shulman – cello. Individually, and together as one of the top string quartets in Southern California, they are well known guests at many of the most prestigious concert series in Los Angeles and its environs. Its members reside in Los Angeles and have recorded hundreds of film scores, are members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and have decades of chamber music experience between them. The NHSQ was featured on the Grammy Nominated Disc, “Passing Through” performing Gernot Wolfgang’s “String Theory” for String Quartet. They’re most recent recording was for Jeff Beal’s newest album The Paper Lined Shack -’Things Unseen’ for String Quartet.
Dividing her time among chamber, solo, orchestral and recording projects, Tereza Stanislav has been hailed for her “expressive beauty and wonderful intensity” (Robert Mann) of her playing, her “sure technique and musical intelligence” (Calgary Herald), and “ her sweet tone, brilliant phrasing, uncannily pointed rhythm and pure intonation (even at the violin’s highest and lowest extremities)” (Huffington Post). Ms. Stanislav was the featured soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of the Violin Concerto by Benjamin Wallfisch
Chamber Music has always been a big part of Rafael Rishik’s musical life. He spent several years performing with the Camerata Pacifica and is a founding member of the New Hollywood String Quartet. “Compelling Artistry…” is how the Jerusalem Post described Mr. Rishik’s violin playing.
Robert Brophy can be seen and heard playing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera and many West Coast chamber music series. He is featured with Nigel Kennedy in a quartet for Kennedy’s new release Greatest Hits on the EMI label and has performed alongside Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Michel Dalberto and Dmitri Sitkovetsky. He won the viola audition with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in December 2011.
Andrew Shulman, principal cello with LACO and faculty at USC, was the first British winner of the Piatigorsky Award and was made an Honorary RCM by The Queen Mother. The Los Angeles Times declares that his playing is “always eloquent and passionate”.
As a founding member of the Felici Piano Trio, Brian Schuldt has performed hundreds of critically acclaimed concerts in the U.S., Europe and South America. His chamber music collaborations include renowned artists such as Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Edward Auer, Atar Arad, Corey Cerovsek, Hagai Shaham and Eli Eban. Brian was the cellist of the Arcadia String Quartet, which won the grand prize of the 1995 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition and the Indiana University Kuttner Quartet Scholarship. He has appeared as soloist with the Oak Ridge Symphony, Auburn Symphony, Owensboro Symphony, Eastern Sierra Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra “Cantelli” of Milan, Italy. He has served as guest principal cellist for the Fresno Philharmonic and Reno Chamber Orchestra. He is currently Executive Director of Chamber Music Unbound and conductor of the Eastern Sierra Chamber Orchestra. Brian plays a cello by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume.
Meredith Crawford is a Los Angeles-based violist who values the variety and vibrancy in her career that LA has to offer, and consistently demonstrates her value for emotional connection with her audience through her authentic connection with the music she performs. At the age of 22 – before the completion of her senior year at Oberlin Conservatory – she won her first orchestral audition and a seat with Pacific Symphony, an ensemble beloved in its home of Orange County and gaining recognition and praise nationally and internationally. She subsequently moved up the ranks in her section, winning the Assistant Principal chair in 2012, followed by the Principal chair – her current position – in 2018. She performed Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for the opening of Pacific’s 2018-19 season with concertmaster Dennis Kim, garnering rave reviews. Described as a “sensitive, poetic ‘singer’ on her instrument,” with a “big, warm, inviting tone” and a “glorious sound… paired with tasteful musicality,” she was compared to legendary violist Donald McInnes, praised for her ability to bring a “focused, melodic” sound to what’s typically considered a “fuzzy-voiced” instrument. Crawford is also an avid chamber musician and is the resident violist of the Salastina Society, one of LA’s most innovative, inclusive and forward-thinking musical organizations.
The Restoration Concerts Committee, a committee of the non-profit organization, The Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, has a goal to bring world-class music at an affordable price to the concertgoers in South Pasadena and surrounding communities. As the name suggests, net proceeds from the concerts provide for restorations, enhancements and other benefits to the South Pasadena Library and Community Room. For more information about Restoration Concerts, contact restorationconcerts@gmail.com or go to https://www.friendsofsopaslibrary.org/restoration-concerts.
