Fine Arts Quartet Performance May 5 Features Regional Premiere of John Downey Composition

MILWAUKEE - The Fine Arts Quartet at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts presents a special performance of John Downey's Quintet for Bassoon and String Quartet as the last event in its 2001-2002 season.

Robert Thompson, bassoon, joins quartet members Ralph Evans, violin; Efim Boico, violin; Yuri Gandelsman, viola; and Wolfgang Laufer, cello at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 5 in the Helen Bader Concert Hall of the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd. This is a change of location to the school's newest concert hall for this special concert. (The quartet traditionally performs in the Peck School of the Arts Recital Hall, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd.)

Quintet for Bassoon and String Quartet premiered at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York on February 16, 2002. The May 5 performance will be its regional premiere. Also on the program is Arriaga's Quartet No. 3 and Quartet No. 1 by Dohnanyi.

The members of the Fine Arts Quartet are artists-in-residence at UWM. Both Downey and Thompson are professors emeriti at the Peck School of the Arts.

Tickets ($16/general and $9/student) are available by phone, mail or in person through the Peck School of the Arts Box Office, 414-229-4308. The box office is open for phone and walk-up business between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and one hour prior to performances. Because the box office will be relocating from the lobby of the Theatre Building to the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts this spring, the public is advised to call ahead for further information before coming in person to purchase tickets. Parking is free on Sundays in the UWM Union Parking Garage, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.

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Also included with this release are biographies of John Downey and Robert Thompson, and a brief history of the Fine Arts Quartet . Electronic photos of the Fine Arts Quartet, John Downey and Robert Thompson are available. Please call Ellen Ash at 414-229-5714 to arrange an email transfer.

Composer and Musician Biographies

John Downey John Downey studied music in Chicago while working at night as a jazz pianist. A Fulbright Award took him to Paris to study with Honegger, Milhaud, and Nadia Boulanger; he later won the Prix de Composition at the Paris Conservatoire. Indeed, it was the French who first recognized his contribution to contemporary music by awarding him their highest honor in 1980, the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Downey is a distinguished professor emeritus and composer-in-residence at UWM.

His music exhibits a rich harmonic palette, a strong feeling for instrumental color, and is frequently imbued with what Downey refers to as "undercurrent jazz." Performed to acclaim across the United States and South America, as well as in France, Australia, Poland, the Ukraine, and Israel, he has been recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic, and the Czech Radio Symphony on Chandos, Cala Records, and MMC.

The Quintet for Bassoon and String Quartet was written between July 2000 and June 2001. Commissioned by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee colleague and internationally known bassoonist Robert Thompson, it is dedicated to the composer's late wife, Irusha. It is the first piece that the composer has written since his wife's unexpected and sudden death in late June 2000.

Robert Thompson

Since making his recital debut in Carnegie Hall, Robert Thompson, bassoonist, has enjoyed an acclaimed career as a recording artist and performer. Thompson has recorded a vast repertoire ranging from Vivaldi to Villa-Lobos and John Downey with the London Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, and London Mozart Players,. As a chamber artist, he has performed and recorded with the Fine Arts, Coull, and Chicago Symphony string quartets.

In addition, Thompson commissioned and gave the world premiere, along with English clarinetist Thea King, of John Downey's Portrait No. 2 for Clarinet and Bassoon in London's Wigmore Hall. His premiere performances of Andrzej Panufnik's Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra, a work written for Thompson, garnered critical acclaim in London, Warsaw, and Milwaukee.

As a recitalist, Thompson has appeared in such music centers as New York, London, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. He has also performed as principal bassoon of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and New York City Ballet Orchestra. As a teacher and ensemble coach, he has given classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Chopin Academy in Warsaw, and Royal Northern College of Music-Manchester. Thompson is a professor emeritus at the UWM Peck School of the Arts and a member of the Woodwind Arts Quintet.

Fine Arts Quartet

Founded in Chicago in 1946, the Fine Arts Quartet is one of the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success, an extensive recording legacy, and an astonishing durability.

The quartet, whose members are artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is among the elite few to have toured internationally since the end of World War II, passing the milestone of a half-century of uninterrupted existence with remarkably few changes in personnel.

Beginning in the 1970's, the original Quartet members were gradually succeeded upon their retirement by brilliant new artists: Ralph Evans, a prize winner in the International Tchaikovsky Competition; Efim Boico, former concertmaster of the Orchestre de Paris and member of the Tel Aviv Quartet; Wolfgang Laufer, former principal cellist of the Hamburg Philharmonic and Jerusalem Radio Orchestra; and newest member of the quartet, Yuri Gandelsman, the former principal violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

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