Fine Arts Quartet
Ralph Evans, violin
Efim Boico, violin
Yuri Gandelsman, viola
Wolfgang Laufer, cello

Summer Evenings of Music Festival 2008
Family & Friends

In 2008, Fine Arts Quartet members Ralph Evans, Efim Boico, and Wolfgang Laufer will have performed together for 25 years.  To mark this special anniversary, each member of the Quartet, including newest member Yuri Gandelsman, has invited a family member or friend to join the Quartet for one of their Summer Evenings of Music Festival programs.

For the first program, Wolfgang Laufer has invited his son, cellist Daniel Laufer and guest violist and former student Olga Tuzhilkov. Ralph Evans shares a concert with his pianist father (still performing) who celebrates his 95th birthday in 2008 as Ralph celebrates a quarter century with the Quartet. Yuri Gandelsman performs with his wife, pianist Janna Gandelsman, and Efim Boico has invited his old friend, pianist Anatolij Koblenz, and UWM faculty hornist Gregory Flint for an all-Brahms evening.

Join the Fine Arts Quartet, their friends and families for four Sunday evenings of glorious--and deeply personal--music-making.

Summer Evenings of Music Festival Programs
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About the Guest Artists
About the Fine Arts Quartet

Summer Evenings of Music Festival Programs [top]
SUMMER EVENINGS OF MUSIC FESTIVAL 2008

All concerts take place on Sunday evenings at 7:30 pm in the Helen Bader Concert Hall Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts, 2419 E. Kenwood Boulevard

*Programs Subject to Change

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Download an order form here.

To order tickets or a subscription:

Call: 414.229.4308 (You may also call for accommodations for patrons with special needs & group sales availability.)

Mail:  
This form and payment to
UWM Peck School of the Arts Box Office
P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee
WI 53201-0413

Fax: this form to 414.229-3224

Stop by the Box Office, T-F 10am-5pm. Summer hours begin June 1 (M-F, noon-4pm).

Subscriptions

Summer Evenings of Musis 2008 (4 concerts)	$64
Summer Evenings + Fine Arts Quartet 2008-2009 season (8 concerts)	$120

Season Subscription Benefits
Save 15% off single ticket prices for Summer Evenings and even more if you purchase your 2008-2009 season tickets at the same time—ticket prices are going up in the fall! Guaranteed premium seats and full ticket exchange privileges for all concerts.

Parking
Available in the Zelazo Center lot, to the south of the building, and in the Union parking garage across Kenwood Boulevard.  Parking is free on Sundays.

About the Guest Artists [top]

Daniel Laufer has been associate principal cellist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1991. Born in Israel, he started playing the cello at age eleven, studying with his father, Wolfgang Laufer; he continued his studies at the North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. At age 19, he joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra after having won the position on his 18th birthday, making him the youngest musician hired by that orchestra. Laufer has given recitals in Milwaukee, Dallas, Boston, and Atlanta and on radio stationWFMT in Chicago. He was a recipient of the 1st Prize in the Young Artists Competition of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He has performed at summer chamber music festivals including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the Kfar Blum Chamber Music Festival in Israel. Laufer has performed as soloist with the Dallas, Atlanta, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras. He is a founding member of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta and has collaborated with musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, Sadao Harada, Robert Spano, and Alan Gilbert, among others. Laufer has performed as a guest with the Fine Arts Quartet in France and Atlanta as well as in Milwaukee.

Olga Tuzhilkov came to the United States as the original violist for the Veronika String Quartet, which was formed in 1989 while the members were studying at the Gnesin Academy of Music in Moscow. The Veronika String Quartet was awarded top prizes in international competitions in Russia, Australia, and in the United States between 1990 and 1996. The quartet collaborated in performances with the Fine Arts Quartet, Martin Lovett, formerly of the Amadeus Quartet, pianists James Tocco and Ruth Laredo, and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman; performed in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, England, Switzerland and Israel; and toured extensively in Russia and the United States. Tuzhilkov returned to Milwaukee several years ago and is active in the city as a freelance performer and teacher at Cardinal Stritch University.

Joseph Evans, pianist, was born in Russia in 1913. He began his early musical training in Cleveland, after his father became cellist in the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and continued his studies at Juilliard with Eduard Steuermann and Carl Friedberg. He also received artist diplomas from the Paris Conservatory, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Conservatory in Fontainebleau, and studied musicology at the University of Vienna, where he was invited to present several lecture-recitals. He has appeared as soloist, chamber music performer, and artist teacher-lecturer in many cities in the United States, as well as in Europe.

Evans, a professor emeritus and former chairman of the Piano Department at Michigan State University, was past president and honorary life member of the Michigan Music Teachers Association. In recognition of his tireless work to promote higher teaching standards, the state organization cited him in 1968 as "Teacher of the Year" and the National Music Teachers Association presented him in 1969 with the Mason and Hamlin "Excellence in Teaching" award. He is the father of Fine Arts Quartet violinist Ralph Evans.

Janna Gandelsman graduated from the Gnesin Academy of Music in Moscow, where she was a student of Professor B. Berlin. In 1980 she received a Diploma at the Soviet Union National Competition. She and her husband, Yuri Gandelsman, have played recitals together in all the major cities in Russia. In 1990, after emigrating to Israel with her family, Ms. Gandelsman joined the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv University. Ms.Gandelsman has played concerts in Germany, Italy, France, England, Japan, Brazil, and Israel She has played with her son, Jonathan, prizewinner in the Kreisler Competition in Vienna, in the Radio France Festival in Montpelier and the Istanbul Festival. Ms. Gandelsman has made several recordings in Germany, France, the United States and Israel.

Anatolij Koblenz was born in Riga in the Republic of Latvia where he began his music studies at the age of six. He attended the Conservatoire of Riga and afterwards the Moscow Academy. He has lived in Germany since 1973, pursuing an active career as a soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue. He has collaborated with many artists including Misha Maisky, Kim Kashkashian, Ida Levin, Toby Hoffman, Mario Brunello,Rocco Filippini and the Tel Aviv Quartet, and is a member of the Shostakovich Trio.

Gregory Flint is assistant professor of horn at UWM.  He is currently principal horn with the Elgin Symphony, Chicago Opera Theater, Present Music of Milwaukee and the Fulcrum Point New Music Project. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Honolulu Symphony, Key West Symphony, and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra.  A busy chamber musician, Mr. Flint is a founding member of the Asbury Brass Quintet and hornist with the Chicago Brass Quintet. As a soloist, he recently appeared as guest artist at the Trombones de Costa Rica International Brass Festival. Mr. Flint teaches each summer at the Birch Creek Music Center in Door County, Wisconsin. He has also served on the faculties of DePaul University, Roosevelt University, and Northwestern University.

About the Fine Arts Quartet [top]

The Fine Arts Quartet, whose members Ralph Evans, Efim Boico, Yuri Gandelsman, and Wolfgang Laufer are artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is one of the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success and an extensive recording legacy. Founded in Chicago in 1946, the Quartet is one of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for over half a century. Three of the Quartet’s current artists have now been performing together for nearly 25 years.

Each season, the Fine Arts Quartet tours worldwide, with concerts in such musical centers as New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Mexico City, and Toronto. The Quartet also continues to record actively, with over 60 works recorded since 1985. The latest releases include: the complete Schumann Quartets on Naxos, which the American Record Guide in 2007 called “one of the very finest chamber music recordings of the year”; chamber music by Glazunov on Naxos, which Musicweb International named one of the best “Recordings of the Year 2007”; the complete Mendelssohn String Quintets on Naxos (released in May, 2008), and the complete Dohnányi Quartets and Quintets on Aulos. Releases planned for 2008-9 include the complete Bruckner chamber music, the Fauré Piano Quintets, the Franck Quartet and Piano Quintet, and quartets by American composers (Antheil, Herrmann, Glass, Evans), all on Naxos, as well as the complete early Beethoven Quartets and quartets by Shostakovich on Lyrinx.

The Fine Arts Quartet's complete Schumann Quartets CD on Naxos was selected for the 50th Grammy Awards Entry List (2008) in two categories: "Best Classical Album" and "Best Chamber Music Performance". In addition, the Quartet's recordings of the complete Mozart Viola Quintets, released by Lyrinx in Sony's brilliant Super Audio CD format, were selected for the 2003 Grammy Entry List and designated a "Critic's Choice 2003" by the American Record Guide. Special recognition was given for the Quartet's commitment to contemporary music: a 2003-2004 national CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, given jointly by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

The Quartet members have helped form and nurture many of today's top international young ensembles. They have been guest professors at the celebrated national music conservatories of Paris and Lyon, as well as at two of America's finest summer music schools, Yale University and Indiana University. They also appear regularly as jury members of major competitions such as Evian, Shostakovich, and Bordeaux. Documentaries on the Fine Arts Quartet have appeared on both French and American Public Television.

Click here to visit the Fine Arts Quartet’s web site.