The Blair String Quartet is the

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

- in-residence at the

Blair School of Music Blair School of Music, located in Nashville, Tennessee, provides a conservatory-caliber undergraduate education in music performance, composition, or integrated music studies (theory and history) within the context of a major research university, ...

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

, , consisting of violinists Cornelia Heard and Stephen Miahky, violist Eric Wong and cellist Felix Wang. They perform frequently at Blair, and have also performed at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

, and the

Weill Recital Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by its n ...

.. Accessed: 29 July 2018. In 1980 the Blair Quartet consisted of violinists Christian Teal and Lee Joiner, violist Kathryn Plummer, and cellist David Vanderkool as members. Prior members also include violist Christina McGann, and cellist Grace Mihi Bahng.

Stephen Clapp Stephen Clapp (November 27, 1939 – January 26, 2014) was a violinist and Dean Emeritus of the Juilliard School. Education Clapp earned the B.M degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and the M.S. degree from the Juilliard School. He was a student ...

was lead violinist from 1967 to 1972. Their repertoire ranges from traditional

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

, including

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonie ...

Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

, and

Ginastera Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (; April 11, 1916June 25, 1983) was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century classical composers of the Americas. Biography Ginastera was born in Buenos A ...

, to

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st-century classical music, 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), post-tonal music after the death of ...

, including

John Harbison John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer and academic. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harbison and Janet German Harbison. The Harbisons ...

George Rochberg George Rochberg (July 5, 1918May 29, 2005) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Long a serialism, serial composer, Rochberg abandoned the technique after his teenage son died in 1964, saying it had proved inadequate to expres ...

, and

George Tsontakis George Tsontakis (born Astoria, Queens, New York City, October 24, 1951) is an American composer and conductor. Early life and education He was born in New York City, and is of Greek descent. Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and ...

. They have also worked with

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

banjoist

Bela Fleck Bela may refer to: Places Asia *Bela Pratapgarh, a town in Pratapgarh District, Uttar Pradesh, India *Bela, a small village near Bhandara, Maharashtra, India *Bela, another name for the biblical city Zoara * Bela, Dang, in Nepal * Bela, Janakpur ...

and bluegrass bassist

Edgar Meyer Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won seven Grammy Awards and been nominated ten times. Meyer is a member of the Telluride Bluegrass ...

. Meyer and Fleck composed a Quintet for Banjo and String Quartet (1984) together for performance with the Blair Quartet.

Michael Hersch Michael Nathaniel Hersch (born June 25, 1971) is an American composer and pianist. He currently serves as faculty at the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, where he completed his own studies in music composition. The New ...

's piece ''Images from a Closed Ward'' (2010) was commissioned by the Blair Quartet, who premiered the work and recorded it. They commissioned and premiered

Daniel Bernard Roumain Daniel Bernard Roumain (; known by his initials, DBR; born 1970) is a composer, performer, violinist, and band-leader, whose work combines classical music with jazz, hip-hop and rock. Composer In September 2010, ''Dancers, Dreamers, and Presiden ...

's String Quartet no. 1: ''X'' (1993), dedicated to

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...

.McDonald, Anthony; ed. (2012). ''A Catalog of Music Written in Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr'', p.70. Scarecrow Press. .

Discography

*''Ginastera: String Quartet No. 1 and Proto: String Quartet No. 1'' (1979, Red Mark RM 3105) *''Quintet For Piano And Strings and Quartet No. 3'' (1980, Varèse Sarabande),

Roy Harris Roy Ellsworth Harris (February 12, 1898 – October 1, 1979) was an American composer. He wrote music on American subjects, and is best known for his Symphony No. 3. Life Harris was born in Chandler, Oklahoma on February 12, 1898. His ancestry ...

*''From Mozart to Ravel'' (1995, Warner Bros.), various, including

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

and

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

*''Charles Ives: String Quartets'' (2006, Naxos),

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, actuary and businessman. Ives was among the earliest renowned American composers to achieve recognition on a global scale. His music was largely ignored d ...

*''Images from a Closed Ward'' (2014, Innova Records #884), Michael Hersch *''Quintet for Banjo and String Quartet'', Meyer and Fleck, featured on the PBS series '' Lonesome Pine Special''

References

External links

Blair String Quartet
, ''Vanderbilt.edu''. American string quartets Contemporary classical music ensembles Musical groups established in 1967 {{US-band-stub