Sept. 4, 2001
Music Department Sets Stage
for Cool Quartet
Coolidge Quartets Three-Year Residency Program
Boosts GW Concert Scene
By Nicholina
Ferramosca
In 1997 four musicians from four different parts of the world came together
to create music that would be innovative and award winning. Named in
honor of arts patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the Coolidge Quartet
formed with the guidance of the Emerson Quartet at the Hartt School
of Music in Connecticut.
Now, GW has landed this acclaimed ensemble by creating a three-year
residency program. The residency will include evening concerts at GWs
Mount Vernon Campus Hand Chapel, lunchtime concerts on the Foggy Bottom
campus, master classes, and educational outreach to local schools. The
Quartet just completed a three-year Guarneri Fellowship program at the
University of Maryland and has traveled throughout the world participating
in festivals and working with world famous composers.
The Quartet has performed in Europe, Israel, Hong Kong, Australia, Guatemala,
and throughout the United States in concert series and festivals such
as the Aspen Music Festival, Summerfest La Jolla, the MIT Guest Artists
Series, and with the Carolina Chamber Players and the 20th Century Consort
of Washington. In 1998, The Coolidge Quartet won prizes at both the
Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Chamber Music Yellow
Springs Competition. The quartet also was invited by world-renowned
violinist Isaac Stern to participate in the Third International Jerusalem
Chamber Music Encounters. Their debut CD was released in 1999 on the
Classico Label (Olufsen Records).
The four members of the quartet include Amy Leung, cello, who was born
in San Francisco and grew up in New Jersey. She earned her bachelor
of music degree from the New England Conservatory and her doctor of
musical arts from the University of Maryland. She has performed throughout
the United States and Europe, and was winner of the 1994 Kranichsteiner
Interpretation Prize at the International Institute for New Music in
Darmstadt, Germany. Hasse Borup, violin, earned his DMA from the University
of Maryland, GPD from the Hartt School, and also is a graduate of the
Royal Danish Academy of Music. He was recipient of the International
Yamaha Prize in 1992 and was an award-winner in the Danish Radio Young
Musicians Competition. He has toured Europe as soloist and concertmaster
with the Copenhagen String Orchestra and acted as co-producer for its
CD of works by Nielsen and Grieg. Hasse serves on the faculty of Montgomery
College.
The second violinist is Se-Yun Lee who grew up in Boston, MA and received
her bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and her master of music
degree from the New England Conservatory (NEC). A devoted teacher, she
has served on the faculty of NEC and also on the faculty of the Hartt
School Community Division. The last of the members is Paul Reynolds,
viola, who grew up in Albuquerque, NM, and received his bachelor of
music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and his master of
music degree from Rice University. He has performed with the Santa Fe
Opera and more recently was a member of the New World Symphony where
he was invited to appear as a soloist with the orchestra. As a soloist
and chamber musician, he has toured throughout North America and Europe.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu