WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — The renowned Simon String Quartet and special guests will present free classical chamber music concerts as part of its Summer String-In workshop held each summer at Monmouth University.
The Summer String-In, now in its 13th season, is an intensive week-long music workshop for adult amateur string players.
On Tuesday, August 8, the Simon Quartet will perform three masterworks: Haydn’s string quartet, Op. 64, No. 6; Shostakovich’s Fourth String Quartet, composed during a period when the composer was keenly interested in the color and despair expressed in Jewish Folk music; and Schumann’s Quartet No. 3, nicknamed “Clara,” for the opening motive of a descending fifth which is said to be a representation of the name of Schumann’s wife.
On Thursday, August 10, the quartet will be joined by violist Kim Foster and cellist Joseph Kimura to play Brahms’s Quintet No. 1 in F major, as well as the rarely heard 1806 version of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for string sextet.
Both concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Wilson Auditorium. The concerts are free and open to the public, but seating is limited.
The Simon String Quartet (Fiona Simon and Sebu Sirinian, violins; Lisa Suslowicz, viola; David Bakamjian, cello) is led by Fiona Simon, a member of the New York Philharmonic. Its members each combine careers in chamber music and orchestras, with teaching and solo performance. The members of the quartet are currently based in New York, though they have performed worldwide.