CANTON -- After 44 performing seasons, the Alexander String Quartet will retire in the Spring of 2025. St. Lawrence University's Music Department has hosted the Quartet for 40 years and is pleased to host them for their final fall season at St. Lawrence with three free public performances this week from October 1-3.

A Performance Inspired by Nature and the Environment

Tuesday, October 1, at 12:00 p.m. in the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery

In conjunction with the current exhibition, Change Is a More Accurate Measure of Time Photographs by Mark Klett, on display at the Art Gallery until October 9, 2024.

St. Lawrence's Brush Art Gallery is located in the Griffiths Arts Center. For more information, contact the Gallery at 315-229-5174 or visit stlawu.edu/offices/art-gallery.

Interactive campus map: https://www.stlawu.edu/campus-map

The Quartet's Matinee Performance

Wednesday, October 2, at 12:00 p.m. in Peterson-Kermani Performance Hall.

Peterson-Kermani Performance Hall is located in Griffiths Arts Center, 23 Romoda Drive. Parking is available directly across from the Griffiths Arts Center entrance. There is a handicapped entrance and ramp located at the front entrance as well as an elevator in the lobby. Wheelchair spaces exist on each side of the house, at the top of the access ramps from the lobby of the performance hall. For more information contact the Department of Music at 315-229-5166.

The Quartet's Evening Concert Live (and Livestreamed)

Thursday, October 3, at 7:00 p.m. in Peterson-Kermani Performance Hall

They will perform pieces by Joseph Haydn, Kian Ravaei, and Franz Schubert during the evening concert.

This performance will also be livestreamed. Watch the Livestream (https://www.stlawu.edu/offices/music/livestream)

The events are free and open to the public.

The Quartet stands among the world's premier ensembles, having performed in the major music capitals of five continents. The quartet is a vital artistic presence in its home base of San Francisco, serving since 1989 as Ensemble in Residence of San Francisco Performances. Widely admired for its interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, and Shostakovich, the quartet's recordings have won international critical acclaim. Founded in New York City in 1981, the ensemble quickly captured attention, initially winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 1982, and then becoming the first American quartet to win the London (now Wigmore) International String Quartet Competition in 1985. The members of the Alexander String Quartet are recipients of honorary degrees from Allegheny College and St. Lawrence University, and Presidential medals from Baruch College (CUNY).

Since its inception, the Alexander String Quartet has maintained an unyielding and passionate commitment to education. For decades, the ensemble has trained generations of gifted performers, emerging string quartets, and talented young musicians destined to pass on their knowledge and love of music as teachers in schools across the globe. Their visit to Poland's Beethoven Easter Festival is beautifully captured in the 2017 award-winning documentary, Con Moto: The Alexander String Quartet.

Joyce Yang, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Richard Stoltzman, Joyce DiDonato, Midori, Lynn Harrell, Branford Marsalis, David Sanchez, Jake Heggie, Augusta Read Thomas, Tarik O'Regan, Wayne Peterson, and Samuel Carl Adams are only a few of the many distinguished instrumentalists, singers, and composers with whom the Alexander String Quartet has collaborated in performance and recording projects crossing genres from classical to jazz, rock, and folk in its more than four decades of music making. Their most recent collaborative project, "British Invasion," brings the Quartet together with guitarist William Kanengiser to explore the music of Sting, Led Zeppelin, John Dowland, and the Beatles by way of contemporary composers Ian Krouse, Dusan Bogdanovic, and Leo Brouwer.