he Alianza String Quartet (Sarita Kwok and Lauren Basney, violins; Ah-Young Sung, viola; Dmitri Atapine, cello) was officially formed at Yale University School of Music in 2004, but has played together in various capacities for over three years. Composed of members from USA, Australia, Korea, and Russia/Spain, the ensemble is currently in residence as post-graduate associates of the Yale School of Music. They are coached and mentored at the School by the Tokyo String Quartet. The quartet made their debut at the Aldeburgh Festival, UK, the French Academy in Rome (Villa Medici, Rome) and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, France. While at these festivals the quartet were given the opportunity to work closely with composers Michael Jarrell and Jerome Combier, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The quartet also has extensive performance experience on the US East Coast with performances at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufmann Auditorium 92nd St. Y in NYC, Juilliard’s Paul Recital Hall, and Yale University’s Sprague Memorial Hall and British Art Center. The Alianza String Quartet has worked intensively with the Juilliard String Quartet at the JSQ Seminar in 2005 and 2006. They have been semi-finalists at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, 2005 Young Concert Artists and 2006 Concert Artist Guild competitions, and finalists at the 2006 Coleman National Chamber Music competition. The quartet also has a keen interest in contemporary music, premiering works by Combier and Jarrell in Europe this past summer. They have enjoyed working with faculty composers at Yale such as Ezra Laderman and Martin Bresnick, performing the quartets of both composers on New Music series concerts at Yale.
Upcoming engagements include further collaborations with Laderman and Bresnick, appearances at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Whitney Humanities Centre, Schumann Festival at Cornell University, and recital performances along the east coast.
The Yale School of Music, established in 1894, has a long tradition of leadership in the training of professional performers and composers. It is a graduate-professional school and the only school of music in the Ivy League. The school is highly selective, with approximately 200 students who come from the finest American and international conservatories and universities to study with a distinguished faculty.
The school’s alumni are found in major positions in virtually every sphere of music making and administration. Given the strength and long tradition of Yale’s programs in chamber music and in the performance of music of our time, it is no surprise that Yale graduates have founded or joined the ranks of many prominent chamber and new music ensembles. Yale graduates also perform in most of the major American symphony orchestras, and voice alumni have enjoyed great success in joining professional opera companies throughout the world, with over a dozen Yale graduates on the artist roster of the Metropolitan Opera. Along with artistic accomplishment, Yale School of Music graduates have demonstrated strong leadership in guiding the course of numerous academic and cultural institutions.
The School of Music engages in cooperative partnerships with several leading international conservatories and schools. These institutions include the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing, China), Korean National University of the Arts-School of Music and Seoul National University-College of Music (Seoul, Korea), Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Russia), Royal Academy of Music (London), and the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (Budapest, Hungary).
The Yale School of Music offers the Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of
Musical Arts, and Master of Music degrees, as well as the Artist Diploma and the Certificate in Performance.
For more information, please visit www.yale.edu/music.
