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• Grammy winners The Pacifica Quartet grace Krannert Center Feb. 13

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The Pacifica Quartet

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• Krannert Center for the Performing Arts »
  500 S. Goodwin Ave. Urbana, IL 61801
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They are our faculty quartet-in-residence. They are life-long comrades-in-music. They are a 2009 Grammy winner and Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year for 2009. They are named for the Pacific Ocean, and they will grace us with another of their superlative concerts at Urbana’s Krannert Center, Feb. 13. They are the Pacifica Quartet.

You can find roughly a half dozen CD or CD sets on the Internet that bear their name, and their recent recording of Elliott Carter’s “String Quartets Nos. 1 and 5” received a Grammy nomination for best classical producer.

Yet it is their extraordinary warmth and polish in the concert hall that has formed the backbone of their reputation these 14 years. In a typical month, they will commit their considerable talents to as many as 10 concerts in several different locations, and so far, 2009 has already heard them on three continents. It is gratifying that since 2004, when they became quartet-in-residence, local audiences can enjoy their concerts up to four times a year in the Krannert Center.

In 2009, they will make two appearances at Krannert. Their April 16 concert will feature saxophone virtuoso Erik Ronmark as the No. 5 player as they showcase American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s “Quintet for Alto Sax and String Quartet.” Since their founding year in 1994, they have mastered the range of quartet compositions from its origins with Franz Joseph Haydn to more modern works by living composers. With recordings ranging from the complete quartets of Mendelssohn to such 20th century masters as Elliott Carter and Ruth Crawford Seeger, their mastery of quartet music is as deep as it is broad.

Yet their Feb. 13 concert remains a bit of a mystery. At press time, no word had been given on any aspect of the concert, but knowing their range of mastery, the possibilities are endless. Perhaps that element makes this upcoming event, their third major concert this school year, even more inviting. Here in our own backyard, we have one of the premier chamber ensembles in the world, and they play for the home crowd many times.

In a statement for buzz, Sedgwick Clark, editor of Musical America’s International Directory of the Performing Arts, explained what made The Pacifica Quartet its Ensemble of the Year for 2009. “The Pacifica Quartet is a model string quartet of the 21st century. These open-minded players thrive on such old masters as Beethoven and Mendelssohn and are expert at unraveling the complexities of such modern masters as Elliott Carter, whose five quartets they are playing this season in honor of the composer’s 100th birthday. Their recent recording of Carter’s First and Fifth Quartets on Naxos is nominated for a Grammy this year, and the second CD that rounds out the cycle should be released this month.”