Includes the NC premiere of a work by NCSU music department
director and composer J. Mark Scearce

DATE: October 26 2008, 3 PM

SITE: The Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts 

PROGRAM

• Charles Ives: String Quartet No. 1
• J. Mark Scearce: String Quartet No. 2 ("Brooklyn Bridge")
• Robert Schumann: String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1

Considered "Simply the best there is" by the Boston Globe, the critically acclaimed Borromeo String Quartet is one of the most sought after string quartets in the world, performing over 100 concerts of classical and contemporary literature across three continents each season. Audiences and critics alike champion its revealing explorations of Schoenberg, Brahms, Ligeti, Kurtag, and Janácek, and affinity for making challenging contemporary repertoire approachable. Lauded for its absolute mastery of the complete Beethoven and Bartók quartet cycles, the ensemble is currently focused on the work of Dmitri Shostakovich.

The Borromeo Quartet's long-standing and celebrated residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has been called "one of the defining experiences of civilization in Boston" [Boston Globe]; and its ongoing concert series at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York has been hailed as "one of New York's best kept secrets" [New York Sun]. They are faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory of Music as well as Dai-Ichi Semei Hall in Tokyo, and will return this summer for a third season in residence at the famed Taos School of Music in New Mexico.

In April 2007 the Borromeo Quartet was a recipient the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Other highlights of the current season include the complete Shostakovich quartet cycle at the Gardner Museum, artist residencies in Israel at the Jerusalem Music Center and in France for ProQuartet, the premiere of a concerto by Lera Auerbach for String Quartet and Orchestra with the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra in Ohio, a series of educational projects with the Library of Congress, and studio recordings of music by composer Steven Mackey.

In 2003 the Borromeo made classical music history with its pioneering record label, the Living Archive Recorded Performance Series, making it is possible to order DVDs and CDs of most of its concerts around the world. The series promotes the impact of the live performance, and allows listeners the chance to revisit in greater depth the music they have just heard in concert, as well as explore new and rarely performed works. Gramophone Magazine hailed the "great clarity and beauty" and "ravishing fury" of the BSQ's studio recording of masterworks by Beethoven, and their CD featuring works of Maurice Ravel was honored with the Chamber Music America/WQXR Award for Recording Excellence in 2001. In 2004 the Aaron Copland House honored the Borromeo's commitment to contemporary music by creating the Borromeo Quartet Award, an annual initiative that will premiere the work of important young composers to audiences internationally. It has enjoyed collaborations with John Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti, Osvaldo Golijov, Steve Mackey, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Gunther Schuller, Jennifer Higdon, and is currently performing "Hope Cycles" a new work by Lior Navok commissioned for them by the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation at the Library of Congress. In 2000 the Borromeo String Quartet completed two seasons as a member of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two and served as Ensemble-in-Residence for the 1998-99 season of National Public Radio's Performance Today. Awards include Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award in 2001, Chamber Music America's Cleveland Quartet Award in 1998 and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1991, as well as top prizes at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France in 1990. www.borromeoquartet.com.

"You could have watched as four perfectly ordinary human beings strode onto the stage and created magic." Naples Daily News

Wade Henderson, tenor, a resident of Cary, NC, appears frequently on regional stages in opera, concert and choral settings. He is known for his "strong, vibrant tenor voice" (Classical Voice of North Carolina) as well as for his facility with a wide variety of musical styles. In opera, Wade has appeared in lead and supporting roles with the Opera Company of North Carolina, Asheville Lyric Opera, the North Carolina Symphony, Capital Opera and Long Leaf Opera. He recently sang critically acclaimed performances of the demanding role of Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Capital Opera and both tenor roles in an acclaimed production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with Grant Llewellyn and the North Carolina Symphony. Other recent leading roles include Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Old Man in the world premiere of J. Mark Scearce's A Tree - A Rock - A Cloud. Wade has performed the title role in Mascagni's seldom heard L'amico Fritz and parts in Salome, il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Bohème and Lucia di Lammermoor.

Wade is also in wide demand as a concert soloist. His concert repertoire spans from the classics of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to the modern masterpieces of Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Britten. Wade has soloed with the Tar River Philharmonic, the Choral Society of Durham, the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Community Chorus, the Duke Chapel Choir, and the Duke Vespers Ensemble. Wade recently sang the tenor part in a performance of Richard Einhorn's haunting new oratorio Voices of Light under the direction of Larry Speakman with the Concert Singers of Cary during a screening of the landmark 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc. Other recent concert engagements include J. Mark Scearce's Anima Mundi with Paul Gambill and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Bach's St. John Passion with Rodney Wynkoop and the Choral Society of Durham, Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil (Vespers) with Rodney Wynkoop and the Duke Chapel Choir and Chorale, Beethoven's Symphony #9 with Al Sturgis and the Tar River Philharmonic, and Stravinsky's rarely performed Les Noces (The Wedding) with Rodney Wynkoop and the Choral Society of Durham Chamber Choir. Upcoming engagements include the world premiere of J. Mark Scearce's Quartet #2 with the renowned Borromeo Quartet in Raleigh and in New York City as part of the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Wade is a prior first place winner of both the NATS NC District and the NATS Mid-Atlantic Regional vocal competitions, and was a semi-finalist in the 2005 and 2006 Charles A. Lynam Vocal Competitions at UNCG. Wade is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he studied French Horn and voice.