Annual Meeting - Session 3 - Reinforcing the String Quartet

May 18 Register

Annual Meeting – Session 3 – Reinforcing the String Quartet

May 18, 2024 3:15pm EDT

Loreto Theater, The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture

Let’s listen to a variety of methods of reinforcing a string quartet – everything from a stereo pair, to close mic’ing the instruments. Led by Nick Kourtides.

Nick Kourtides designs for musical theatre and creates sound environments for devised ensemble works. Nick received the 2023 OBIE, 2022 Lucille Lortel, 2006 Barrymore, and 2015 Bessie awards. Off-Broadway credits include Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova), Blacklight (Commercial, Greenwich House), The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Object Lesson (New York Theatre Workshop, Brooklyn Academy of Music), Elephant Room (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Carson McCullers Talks About Love (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater) and Jomama Jones: Radiate (Soho Repertory Theatre). Internationally, Nick is the Sound Designer for Channing Tatums’s Magic Mike Live, with performance installations in Las Vegas, London, Berlin, and Australia. His projects have been presented at festivals including Paris Quartier d’Ete, Barbican Centre, Edinburgh Fringe, Philadelphia Fringe, New York Live Arts, and the Sydney Festival.

Regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Play House, New York Stage and Film, McCarter Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Folger Theatre, Studio Theatre, Arena Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Wilma Theater, Arden Theater, Prince Music Theater, and La Jolla Playhouse. Collaborations with Pig Iron Theatre Company include A Period of Animate Existence, Cankerblossom, Isabella, Chekhov Lizardbrain, and Mission to Mercury. With BalletX, Nick designed Sunset o639 Hours at the Wilma, The Joyce, Jacob’s Pillow, and Vail Festivals. Site-specific designs include works with PearlDamour, Lynn Nottage and Kate Whoriskey, and the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. He has taught Sound Design for Live Performance at Drexel University and Swarthmore College. Learn more about Nick at www.nickkourtides.com.

The Musicians:

Marina Kifferstein

Marina Kifferstein (she/they) is a violinist and generative artist based in New York City. Equally comfortable in major international venues and DIY spaces, they enjoy a diverse career that encompasses contemporary chamber music, improvisation, composition, classical performance, and various experimental practices, through the lens of performance, curation, pedagogy, administration, and scholarship. She is a founding member of TAK ensemble and The Rhythm Method string quartet, a member of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, and a regular guest with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink, and several other groups. As an active touring artist, recent performances have taken her to Asia, Europe, South America, Canada, and across the continental US. In addition to regularly conducting residencies at universities including Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Huddersfield, and Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, they hold faculty positions at the United Nations International School, Point Counterpoint, The Composer’s Institute at Lake George Music Festival, the Composers Conference, and the Lucerne Festival Academy. Marina holds degrees from Oberlin and the Manhattan School of Music, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, writing about 20th century performance applications of string ensemble music written in rational intonation.

Sarah Thomas

Violinist Sarah Thomas is a performer and educator who strives to create an environment for performers and audience members to share the experience of loving music together.
A member of the Bergamot Quartet, Sarah has performed in venues and series including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Greene Space, and Boulanger Initiative’s WoCo Fest. Sarah has collaborated with a variety of ensembles and musicians including Alarm Will Sound, Sō Percussion, arx duo, Ensemble Klang, Claire Chase, Dan Trueman, Courtney Orlando, and Terry Sweeney. As an educator, Sarah teaches with Bergamot in settings ranging from elementary schools to doctoral programs, is an Adjunct Lecturer at Peabody Conservatory, and is on staff at Peabody LAUNCHPad.
Sarah holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Violaine Melançon, and a Professional Studies Diploma from Mannes School of Music, where Bergamot Quartet studied with the JACK Quartet.

Irene Han

Cellist Irène Han is a dynamic and versatile musician with a deep passion for exploring diverse genres of music. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Manhattan School of Music, a Master’s degree from Peabody Institute, and a Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes School of Music, where the Bergamot Quartet was the inaugural Cuker and Stern Graduate String Quartet in Residence studying with the JACK Quartet. Irène has performed at venues such as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and New York City Center. She is a member of the Bergamot Quartet, a New York-based string quartet committed to advocating, creating, and educating audiences about music by living composers. Additionally, she co-leads a chamber project with pianist Chelsea de Souza, dedicated to commissioning works by Asian-American composers, most recently funded by New Music USA. Irène plays “Pierre,” a cello crafted by luthier David Finck.

Martine Thomas

Martine Thomas is a violist, performing internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, improviser, and composer collaborator. She has appeared at the Berliner Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Mariinsky Theatre, Disney Hall, the KKL Lucerne, the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts, and at the BBC Proms, Mariinsky White Nights Festival, Donaueschingen Festival, and Lucerne Festival. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Tyshawn Sorey, Kim Kashkashian, and Ghost Ensemble. Martine loves presenting solo recitals, and is looking forward to recitals this year in New York City, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and upstate New York. Martine studied in the Harvard-NEC dual degree program, is currently working on her doctorate in viola performance at CUNY Graduate Center, and is on the string faculty at Brooklyn College Conservatory and Point CounterPoint. For more of her music and writing, please visit martinethomas.com.

Sessions are available via video for members a few days after the session is completed. If you plan on attending in person – please register HERE. If you’d like to attend online – please fill out the following form to receive the zoom link.

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