CONWAY, Ark. (November 16, 2012) - The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's Rockefeller String Quartet will be the inaugural Quartet in Residence at Hendrix College beginning January 2013.
The quartet will perform at Hendrix on Friday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Reves Recital Hall. The concert coincides with the celebration of the quartet's 10th anniversary, and the program will include Mendelssohn's String Quartet in D Major No. 1, Op. 44, Glass's String Quartet No. 3 (Mishima), and Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1 in D Major.
In addition to rehearsing and performing at Hendrix, the Rockefeller Quartet (or "Rocks" as they call themselves) will coach and mentor chamber music students at Hendrix, as well as the outreach and individual applied music instruction quartet members Dr. Christian Baker, violin, and cellist Daniel Cline already do as adjunct faculty members at Hendrix.
Joining Baker and Cline as adjunct music faculty will be Arkansas Symphony Principal Violist and Rockefeller String Quartet Violist Katherine "Kater" Reynolds. The fourth member of the quartet violinist Darby BeDell is excited about the residency and, in particular, the Rockefeller Quartet's upcoming performance at Hendrix.
"The timing of this could not be better since we currently have two terrific student string quartets who have devoted this past term to studying and performing string quartets by Joseph Haydn, who is often called 'the father of the string quartet'," explained Hendrix music professor Dr. Karen Griebling.
In January, the student quartets will perform works by visiting composer Dan Welcher arranged by students in Griebling's Orchestration class during Welcher's residency with the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language.
"This is a perfect time to build on that energy and momentum and stabilize the chamber music program," Griebling said. "The Rocks' residency will be a tremendous nucleus around which to build and grow."
Hendrix has enjoyed a fruitful informal partnership with the Arkansas Symphony for many years, Griebling added. Hendrix faculty members at have been on the symphony's roster, and Hendrix students have benefited from internships both on and off stage at the symphony. And the Hendrix Chamber Orchestra has for well over a decade "given back" to the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra with its annual Waltz Night fundraiser each February.
Griebling said the new residency program was made possible throught the support of Hendrix Provost Dr. Robert L. Entzminger, ASO Music Director Maestro Philip Mann, ASO Executive Director Christina Littlejohn, ASO Outreach and Education Services Coordinator Barbara Burroughs, and ASO Personnel Manager David Renfro.
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the fifth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of the country's "Up and Coming" liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2012 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country's best 377 colleges, the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges, Forbes magazine's annual list of America's Top 650 Colleges, and the 2013 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.