Sunday, April 23rd, 2023- 4pm
$15 youth, $20 Senior/Student, $25 general admission
Tickets available through Eventbrite.
"When the music says swing, we swing.
When the music says groove, we groove."
Calliope is delighted to welcome back the extraordinary Quartet San Francisco, who last performed for us in a live-stream only concert during "lockdown" (concert links below.)
This time around, you can see them in person (or by live-stream/on-demand ) - your choice!
Your safe enjoyment of this wonderful music is our first priority; all artists, guests, and staff must be fully vaccinated and boosted for Covid 19 in order to attend. We will ask for proof of vaccination at the door. At this time, we are also requiring an N95, KN95, or double mask be worn, properly covering nose and mouth, throughout the performance.
Grammy nominees for four CD releases (2013, 2009, 2007, and 2006) and International Tango competition winners (New York, 2004), Quartet San Francisco expresses itself in its agility and standout virtuosic playing.
Quartet San Francisco was founded in 2001 by celebrated Bay Area violinist and composer-arranger Jeremy Cohen. Along with violinist Joseph Christianson, violist Chad Kaltinger, and cellist Andrés Vera, these crossover specialists excel in multiple styles — from jazz to tango, pop to funk, blues to bluegrass, gypsy swing to big band and beyond.
QSF’s September 2018 CD release, A QSF Journey (Reference Recordings), features new chamber music from Jeremy Cohen, Helmut Lipsky, and Giovanni Sollima, and showcases world music and the lyrical leanings of the group. Their 2013 disc, Pacific Premieres: New Works by California Composers (Violinjazz Recordings), received two composer Grammy nominations (Gordon Goodwin and Vince Mendoza). In 2010 the quartet and its engineers were awarded two Grammy nominations for their release QSF Plays Brubeck (Violinjazz Recordings), and the quartet appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday in a studio interview with Leane Hansen. Their Latin and tango CD, Látigo (Violinjazz Recordings, 2006), was honored with Grammy nominations for Best Classical Crossover and Best Engineered, Classical. The quartet members were again Classical Crossover Grammy nominees for Whirled Chamber Music (Violinjazz Recordings, 2007), "…what could easily be the most cheerful and brilliantly-executed release of 2007" (Judith Schlesinger, All About Jazz)
Concert Program
Quartet San Francisco performs the music of two great American musical icons. Eddie South (1904-1962), the extraordinary American violinist who traversed classical, romantic and jazz styles and spent much of his career in Europe, where he was free from the racial discrimination against Black artists (photo below, top); and Raymond Scott (1908-1994), whose character-filled compositions were adapted by the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes for their soundtracks, sliding in right alongside the most iconic composers of the classical era and Bugs, Elmer and Daffy. Quartet San Francisco digs deep into their own well of unique compositions for strings to perform with an energy that guarantees to elevate your spirit. (Photo below, bottom).
Artist Profiles:
Jeremy Cohen, violin: an Oakland native, Jeremy is from a family of five musicians. Classically-trained and a student of Itzhak Perlman and Anne Crowden, Cohen's eclectic style reflects his respect for a wide range of violinists from Perlman and Fritz Kreisler to Joe Venuti and Eddie South.
He has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Virginia Symphony, the California Symphony and the Reno Philharmonic. His recording credits include motion picture and television soundtracks including The Dukes of Hazzard and Jane Fonda's Dollmaker, and as concertmaster on recordings with Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles, Aaron Neville, Howard Keel and Cleo Laine. He appeared on Carlos Santana's Grammy-winning CD Supernatural and the original Star Wars compilation CD with John Williams.
On the stage he was the solo violinist in Forever Tango and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He has toured and recorded with the Grammy Award-winning Turtle Island Quartet. Cohen's orchestral arrangements have been featured by numerous orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, and the San Jose and San Francisco Chamber Orchestras. As an educator, he has served on the faculties of the Henry Mancini Institute (Los Angeles), The Jazz School (Berkeley, CA) and the Stanford Jazz Workshop.
In 2004 Cohen released Jeremy Cohen and Friends Celebrate Joe Venuti—100 Years (VAI), a DVD tribute to Joe Venuti. Cohen and Violinjazz pay homage to violinist Eddie South in the 2010 release, The Music of Eddie South (Sono Luminous). Most of QSF’s multi-genre material has been composed or arranged by Cohen who aspires to widen the repertoire available to modern string players.
In demand as a recitalist and chamber musician around the globe, Joseph Christianson premiered Chinese composer Yi Qiao's Duet for violin and piano at the 2019 ASEAN Festival in Nanning, China, and performed in Lorin Maazel's 2012 production of La Boheme in Muscat, Oman. In 2019 he performed Biber's 16th Rosary Sonata for Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, CA. He accompanied Andrea Bocelli for an audience of 17,500 people at SAP Center in San Jose, CA, and played with the soul band Tower of Power at the Fox Theater in Oakland, CA. He has taught masterclasses and workshops in locales ranging from Nanning, China to Wichita, Kansas.
Joseph Christianson, violin: Originally from San Luis Obispo, California, Joseph is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory and has worked with conductors including Lorin Maazel, Kent Nagano, and Scott Yoo. In 2017 he performed with violinists Andrew Wan and Stefan Hersh in a video of Andrew Norman’s virtuoso ensemble piece Gran Turismo, produced by the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. Joseph has been awarded fellowships at Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Castleton Festival, Mendocino Music Festival, and the Rubin Institute of Music Criticism. Joseph joined Quartet San Francisco in 2018.
Chad Kaltinger, viola: a Chicago native, Chad is an active freelancer in the San Francisco area and maintains a busy schedule as orchestral violist, chamber musician, soloist, and recording artist. Principal violist for Opera San Jose and the Santa Cruz Symphony, he is a frequent guest principal at the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. Chad has performed in many festivals around the U.S. including Music in the Mountains, Arizona Musicfest, South by Southwest, the Monterey Jazz Festival, and the Mendocino Music Festival.
Chad is an active proponent of new music and performs regularly with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the University of California-Santa Cruz New Music Works Ensemble, and the Worn Chamber Ensemble. He was the soloist in the 2012 U.S. premiere of Noam Sheriff’s Canarian Vespers, for solo viola and strings, with the Cadenza Chamber Orchestra in Santa Cruz, California.
Chad began his studies in Chicago at age 9. He studied at the Music Institute of Chicago in Wilmette, Ill. with Peter Slowik, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Emanuel Vardi. As a fellowship student at the Aspen Music Festival he studied with Heidi Castleman and Victoria Chiang. Chad was the winner of the 1994 E. Nakamichi Viola Concerto Competition at the Aspen Music Festival.
Andrés Vera, cello: Andrés, who grew up in Puerto Rico, brings a rich mix of cultural influences to his playing. Surrounded by the sounds of salsa, reggae, Latin jazz, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, Andrés grew up with an affinity for music and its variety, color, and ethnic diversity. He was invited to join the cello section of the Miami Symphony Orchestra at the age of 17.
Andrés holds a B.A. degree from the University of Miami and an M.M. degree and post-graduate Professional Studies Diploma from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He studied with Ross Harbaugh, Jean-Michel Fonteneau and Jennifer Culp. Andrés is a founding member of the Cello Street Quartet, with whom he traveled in 2014 to Russia, Kosovo and Hungary for the U.S. State Department.
Andrés Vera is a skilled collaborator and performer of Classical and Baroque cello repertoire. He currently performs as a soloist, orchestra member, and chamber musician, and has been seen in countless cabaret venues throughout the Bay Area. Andrés teaches at Sacred Heart Preparatory High School in San Francisco. He is also an instructor for the YMCA of San Francisco’s After School Program, fostering the next generation of young cellists.
We guarantee all of our artists a fair minimum wage - thanks to supporters like YOU!
This presentation of Quartet San Francisco is part of the Third Sunday Concert Series, an eclectic offering of jazz, classical, early, Baroque and world music, now in its fourth year. The series was founded and is curated by noted flutist Jane Lenoir.