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Currently the Quartet-in-Residence of the Western Piedmont Symphony and the Chamber Music Festival of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the La Catrina Quartet has already given multiple world premieres of works written for them, such as Our Hands Were Tightly Clenched, a string quartet by composer Zae Munn, published by Arsis Press and premiered by them in 2003 at Chicago’s College of Performing Arts. They have recorded works by Mexican composer Germán Romero, under the Quindecim label, and collaborated with several other artists, including a recording of Mozart’s clarinet quintet with renowned Cuban clarinetist Alfredo Valdés-Brito. They have received important awards and recognitions, such as Western Michigan University’s All University Research and Creative Scholar Award. At Kent State University, where they completed a master of performance degree in chamber music, the Miami String Quartet invited them to perform Mendelssohn’s octet, to showcase the accomplishments of Kent State University’s string department. In the summer of 2005, they premiered works by composers Tom Janson and John Ferrito at the Kent Blossom Music Festival as part of a grant to promote the works of outstanding Ohio composers. Because of their brilliant performance at the festival, they were invited to offer a chamber music master class the following summer. On November 2005, they were semifinalists at the fourth International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition. The La Catrina Quartet performs regularly at San Miguel de Allende’s chamber music series, Pro Música, and last fall they were in residency for two weeks in Hickory, North Carolina, where they were featured in the Western Piedmont Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber Classics series as part of a year-long search, dubbed "The Battle of the Bows," that culminated with their appointment as Quartet-in-Residence of that orchestra. Some of this year’s activities have included their participation in the highly competitive Association of Performing Arts Presenters 2007 convention in New York City, which concluded with a performance in Carnegie Hall showcasing them as one of the "next generation of classical stars." This summer they conducted a two-week residency for the Chamber Music Festival of San Miguel de Allende, where they collaborated with the Brentano Quartet for a performance of the Mendelsohnn octet. Prior to their San Miguel de Allende residency, they began an ambitious two-week chamber music festival for kids ages 5-18 at Kent State University (for detailed information, click here). Recipients of the Bascom Little Fund Grant, which is given to outstanding artists to promote the creative endeavor of composers from Ohio, the La Catrina Quartet will release a compact disc in the fall of 2008. Next season they will be featured in concert series throughout the US and Mexico. For more information on past and future concerts, please click here.
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