Hardcore chamber music fans may have heard of the Parker Quartet, the multiple award-winning group that has recently finished an artist residency with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Public Radio. For the rest of us, here’s an excellent primer: the group’s exciting performance of a movement from Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 1. This is an engaging quartet whose youthful energy comes across on stage. It will be a treat to hear them play the Debussy Quartet, the the Schumann A Major Quartet Op. 41 No. 3, and Henri Dutilleux’s Ainsi la nuit. San Francisco State’s McKenna Theatre is not too far to go to see a top- rank musical act, so don’t let that deter you. If you get there once, you might go back.
Michael Zwiebach is the senior editor/content manager for SFCV. He assigns all articles and content, manages the writing staff, and does editing. A member of SFCV from the beginning, Michael holds a Ph.D. in music history from the University of California, Berkeley.