Louisville String Quartet returns for Recitals in the Rotunda series

Release Date: 9/10/2002. Expired: 9/16/2002

The Louisville String Quartet returns to The Renaissance Center’s Recital in the Rotunda series for a free performance at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16.

“We are excited to begin another season of Recitals in the Rotunda and could not begin a new year with anything more exciting than a performance by the Louisville String Quartet,” said Elaine Sherrill, senior director of Music at The Renaissance Center. “The group’s performances are truly inspiring and go well with the recital series’ mission of providing quality classical performances from all over the Mid-South.”

Founded in 1946, the quartet has presented hundreds of performances for audiences of all ages. With the appointment of cellist Paul York, violist Christian Frederickson and violinist Marcus Ratzenboeck to the string department at the University of Louisville School of Music, the quartet was reformed by first violinist Peter McHugh in 2001, after a hiatus of 11 years. The quartet has quickly established itself as one of the finest ensembles in the region, receiving enthusiastic and critical acclaim. Listeners are overwhelmed by the quartet’s energy, excitement and youthful vigor. The freshness they bring to standard and new repertoire alike is truly unique, and their performances leave audiences uplifted and enthralled.

Violinist of the internationally renowned McHugh-Oliphant Duo, McHugh is distinguished professor of Violin at the University of Louisville School of Music. He has been concertmaster and soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Nashville Symphony and the Oklahoma Symphony. He has also played with the Dallas Symphony, World Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The New Century Chamber Orchestra and the famous Casals Festival Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

McHugh has played for such notable conductors as George Szell, Charles Munch, Rafael Kubelik, Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and Sixten Ehrling, and has played with such artists as Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Arthur Rubinstein. McHugh has recorded for RCA, New Albion Records and Louisville First Edition Recordings.

Ratzenboeck currently serves as principal second violin of the Louisville Orchestra. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1996 while studying with Eliot Chapo at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. In 1999, he received his Master of Music degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., where he studied with Henryk Kowalski and Yuval Yaron. Ratzenboeck served as concertmaster of the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra and concertmaster and soloist of the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C.

Frederickson is currently the viola instructor at the University of Louisville, where he is a member of the Louisville String Quartet. He maintains an active performance schedule in Louisville, Ky., performing with the Kentucky Center Chamber Players and the Louisville Bach Society as well as frequent recitals. He graduated from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and The Julliard School, where his principal teachers were Paul Coletti and Eugene Becker.

He is a founding member, violist and composer in Rachel’s, an instrumental ensemble with five albums released by Quarterstick Records of Chicago. He has performed throughout North America and Europe with Rachel’s. His performances have been featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” the BBC, BET TV, WNYC, and the national radio networks in Italy and Belgium. He has worked as an arranger with the bands Shipping News, The For Carnation, and shannonwright.

From 1994 to 1996 he was the first music director and principal conductor of the Turtle Bluff Orchestra, an innovative, community-based orchestra in his hometown of Port Townsend, Wash.

Cellist York has recently joined the music faculty at the University of Louisville. He has appeared with numerous orchestras as a guest soloist, including the Kyung Bok Symphony (Korea), the Abilene Philharmonic and the Sewanee Festival Orchestra. Recent solo appearances include a performance of Vivaldi’s Double Concerto in G Minor with internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

York is a former member of Trio Mississippi, the resident piano trio at the University of Southern Mississippi where he was a member the music faculty from 1995 to 2000. He was also a founding member of The Logsdon Chamber Ensemble, a Texas Commission on the Arts touring ensemble and ensemble in residence at Hardin-Simmons University. He has held principal cello positions for numerous regional orchestras and has performed with the Saint Louis Symphony under the direction of Leonard Slatkin.

In the summer months, York is a member of the artist faculty at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival where he performs solo and chamber works and serves as principal cello of the Festival Orchestra. He has also performed at Strings in the Mountains, the Abilene Chamber Music Series and has served as principal cello with the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra.

As an undergraduate student, York was chosen to participate in the Piatigorsky seminar at the University of Southern California, where he received his Bachelor of Music. He received his Master’s degree in cello from the University of California at Santa Barbara where he studied with Ronald Leonard. Other principal teachers include Gabor Rejto, Owen Carmen and Louis Potter.

York can be heard on the CRS record label and has recorded a CD of French Baroque chamber music with the University of Southern Mississippi faculty ensemble Promenade.

The return of the Louisville String Quartet kicks off the 2002-03 Recitals in the Rotunda season at The Renaissance Center. The series of free concerts is held every other Monday in the center’s rotunda and features professional musicians, faculty and accomplished students from area universities.

The series continues Sept. 23 with The Boys in the Orchestra, featuring three nationally recognized strings players from Nashville all under age 18, followed Oct. 7 by the Martin Norgaard Quartet and Oct. 21 by the Golden Sounds of Brass.

For more information on the Recitals in the Rotunda series, call (615)740-5545. The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Events - Concerts and Recitals page for more about musical performances.

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