Antares

Vesselin Gellev, violin
Rebecca Patterson, cello
Garrick Zoeter, clarinet
Eric Huebner, piano

 www.antares-music.com

First Prize, 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition

• 2004 & 1999 ASCAP/CMA Award for Adventurous Programming

Antares has “the gift of making whatever it’s playing seem the most important piece in the world,” declared The Gramophone in its rave review of the group’s 2005 debut CD Eclipse on the Innova label, adding that the “ensemble has two things going for it: its instrumentation and a fearlessly irrepressible energy.” Comprised of four virtuoso instrumentalists, Antares draws from a vast and colorful repertoire for violin, cello, piano and clarinet, as well as its various trio and duo permutations. This versatility allows Antares to create programs which span the traditional eras of classical music from the 18th century through the music of today. Hailed by The Chicago Tribune as “powerful…striking...razor-sharp,” Antares’ high energy performance style and unique ensemble dynamic led to the quartet’s selection as first prize winner of the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

With two ASCAP/CMA Awards for Adventuresome Programming to its credit (2004 & 1999), a recent New York Times review accurately described Antares’ approach to the music it performs: “The four musicians play with superb technical polish and, equally important, a sense that they not only are comfortable with this music but also understand its vocabulary and syntax.” This sentiment was seconded in August 2005 when Antares’ appearance on New York’s River to River Festival was featured in Time Out New York as follows: “a small ensemble that affords color, flexibility and heft in one tidy package… including an invaluable dedication to living composers that has garnered well-deserved acclaim.”

Featured engagements for the ensemble include the CAG/New Works at The Thalia Series at Symphony Space in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Kennedy Center, Chamber Music Cincinnati, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music in New York City, the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois, the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild (NC) and Panama’s Asociacion Nacional de Conciertos. Residencies include those at the Aspen School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Columbia University, Wesleyan University, Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa, where Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time was the centerpiece, Market Square Concerts (PA) and the La Jolla Music Society’s Discovery Series, where the quartet’s performance was described by The San Diego Reader as “exciting, expressive, nuanced and captivating.” In August 2005, the ensemble’s distinctive sound was featured for the third time on a nationwide broadcast of Minnesota Public Radio’s ever-popular series Saint Paul Sunday.

Antares’ numerous festival appearances include the Bayview (MI) Music Festival and the Huntington  (NY) Summer Arts series, a three-part series at New Haven’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas, the Chautauqua Institution, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and the Norfolk Contemporary Music Seminar and Chamber Music Festival. Antares was twice Ensemble-in-Residence at the Festival Eleazar de Carvalho in Fortaleza, Brasil and has performed at the Tuckamore Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Antares has commissioned and/or premiered a substantial number of works by highly regarded composers including Ezra Laderman, Stefan Freund, Kevin Puts, members of the Minimum Security Composers Collective, John Mackey (with the Parsons Dance Company at The Joyce in New York), Oliver Schneller (through a Meet the Composer grant), Dan Visconti (through a grant from BMI) and Carter Pann, whose work Antares was commissioned by CAG. In addition to its 2005 release Eclipse, Antares has recorded Ned Rorem’s The End of Summer on the Newport Classics label, Fred Lerdahl’s Marches, which was released in spring 2006 by Bridge Records.

Widely admired and sought after for educational outreach, Antares’ work in this area includes K-12 classrooms and general audience interactive lecture/demonstrations as well as multi-day, week or semester residencies featuring ensemble coaching and readings of student composer works.

June 2006