2020 is a year in which the future can seem as uncertain as ever. At the same time, music speaks to universal themes which have sustained humanity across all time: hope, faith, promise, and optimism. This program brings forth again some of today’s brightest composers in works that call forth those qualities. Nico Muhly’s Common Ground and Caroline Shaw’s Blueprint speak perhaps to a way forward for America’s future in their dynamic contemporary language. From the mid-20th century, Grażyna Bacewicz’s Quartet for Four Violins rounds out the first half with its infectious joy. We end the festival with Dvorak, evergreen standard-bearer of how chamber music brings people together into a sum that is always greater than its parts. His sunny String Quintet in G major, while traversing the range of human emotion, ultimately displays an unabashedly upward outlook for the future. 

Nico Muhly: Common Ground
Jasmine Lin, violin
Clancy Newman, cello
Juliana Han, piano
Caroline Shaw: Blueprint
Aizuri Quartet
Grazyna Bacewicz: Quartet for Four Violins
Emma Frucht, violin
Miho Saegusa, violin
Wayne Lee, violin
Jasmine Lin, violin

INTERMISSION

Antonín Dvořák: String Quintet in G major, Op. 77
Wayne Lee, violin
Emma Frucht, violin
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Clancy Newman, cello
Scott Pingel, bass