"Garden Quartet"

The centerpiece of this concert is the world premiere of Garden Quartet, a new work of contemporary chamber music commissioned by Wave Hill and composed by Michael Brown, "one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers" (The New York Times). Mr. Brown will perform his new work with cellist Nicholas Canellakis and violinist Elena Urioste, who perform as a trio; they will be joined by guest clarinetist Alex Fiterstein.

Garden Quartet is composed of three movements, each of the three inspired by Wave Hill and by two other gardens—the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ, and Longwood Gardens, just west of Philadelphia, PA—both invited to participate by Wave Hill. It will be performed at Desert Botanical on April 8, and at Longwood on May 1.

In this new work, Mr. Brown employs the same instrumentation as Olivier Messiaen's landmark Quartet for the End of Time, using accessible musical language so as to engage a broad audience. The clarinet movement of Messiaen's work, "Abyss of the Birds," will be performed as part of the program.

Described as "outstanding" by Albany's Times Union, today's musicians are acclaimed for the exuberant communicativeness with which they play. Recent highlights include the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Los Alamos Concerts, Merkin Concert Hall, the Vancouver Recital Society, the Ravinia Festival and Chicago's radio station WFMT.