The Avalon String Quartet will perform in concert at 8 p.m. tonight in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall in the Music Building at NIU. The concert is free and open to all.

According to an NIU School of Music news release, the Avalon Quartet, founded in 1995, “held residencies at NIU and the Hartt School and has been the faculty quartet-in-residence at the Indiana University-South Bend Raclin School of the Arts for the past four years.”

The members of the quartet include Blaiso Magniere (1st violin), Richard O. Ryan (endowed chair in violin), Marie Wang (2nd violin), Anthony Devroye (viola) and Cheng-Hou Lee (cello). Members teach applied lessons, coach chamber music, are active in NIU concerts and outreach activities.

“We try to give varied and exciting programs,” said Wang, an assistant professor of violin at NIU.

“(In) this program, we are presenting two trios—an early work of Beethoven and a late Romantic work by Hungarian composer Dohnanyi; and the perennial audience favorite, Dvorak’s Piano Quintet, with guest William Goldenberg, a distinguished professor of piano at NIU.”

The concert will be about one and a half hours, Wang said.

The Avalon Quartet performs two major concerts on campus each semester, said Devroye, an assistant professor of viola and chamber music at NIU.

He said the quartet is a very international ensemble, with members who have lived in Belgium, France, England, Canada, Taiwan and the United States. The quartet has a series of four programs to present at NIU and the Symphony center each year, and are part of a position as quartet-in-residence at NIU.

“The Avalon Quartet is one of the most versatile chamber ensembles in America,” Devroye said.

“With each concert, we try to put the great string quartet literature of the past 250 years (up to and including brand new music), in an engaging context for our listeners, bringing music of contrasting composers, countries, cultures and styles to new life.”

For more information, call the NIU School of Music at 815-753-1551, or go to www.niu.edu/music, or www.avalonquartet.com.

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