Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Music is quite magical. It can calm, exhilarate, make one smarter.
There’s also a direct connection with food. Case in point is the celebrated Balourdet Quartet, which will open Market Square Concerts’ 2025-26 season this month at Market Square Presbyterian Church.
Winner of the 2024 Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award and Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, the group’s name was inspired by the food of Antoine Balourdet, the chef at the Taos School of Music, for which violinists Angela Bae and Justin DeFilippis and cellist Russell Houston share a passion.
“While naming a string quartet after a chef may be a surprising choice, great cuisine at its best can be as impactful and memorable as other sensory experiences, including visual art and music,” said Peter Sirotin, MSC’s co-director and concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra.
One of the best examples, he said, can be found in the life of the great Italian operatic composer, Gioachino Rossini. After creating nearly 40 celebrated operas by age 37, he retired from composing and dedicated the second half of his life to creating recipes that are still popular today, such as Tournedos Rossini and a macaroni dish.
“Balourdet Quartet will open our season with this type of program ranging from poise and humor in Hayden’s celebrated ‘Lark’ quartet and frenetic intensity of Ligeti’s second quartet to evocative richness of Smetana’s grand autobiographical String Quartet No. 1 (‘From My Life’),” Sirotin said.
If cuisine can result in a musical group’s title, what other sorts of inspiration do musical groups draw on to come up with a name?
Take, for example, the Sebastians, the New York-based music ensemble next on MSC’s schedule on Nov. 5 at Market Square Presbyterian Church. These innovative musicians will present music of the Baroque era relevant to the contemporary listener. The Sebastians, who received high praise from the New York Times, decided to use Johann Sebastian Bach’s middle name as their own.
“I am really looking forward to their program, ‘Handel’s Vibrant London,’ because it will immerse listeners into the unique atmosphere of 18th century London, which attracted tremendous talent leading to an explosion of creativity similar to early 20th century Vienna or late 19th century Paris,” Sirotin said.
Next on MSC’s season of concerts is Canadian violin virtuoso, Kerson Leong, whose name is all his own. The solo recital by Leong will be presented on Jan. 7 at St. Michael Lutheran Church. As Sirotin explained, MSC is primarily a chamber music series, but every so often, it presents an exceptional artist taking the spotlight on their own. Sirotin, who is also a professional violinist, is thrilled to introduce audiences to Leong.
“His approach to virtuosity is based in an unusually thorough understanding of physics, acoustics and physiology, which combined with deep knowledge of musical tradition and impeccable taste, make him an unforgettable performer,” he said. “I also love that this program really stretches violin’s expressive possibilities to their limits, particularly compositions by Ysaye and Bach, which remain unsurpassed achievements in violin repertoire.”
On Feb. 18, the ever-popular Stuart and Friends concert will feature the maestro’s favorite works for piano and winds, showcasing the spectacular principal wind players of the Harrisburg Symphony in whimsical music by Prokofiev, Poulenc, Sondheim and Avner Dorman, an award-winning composer on faculty at Gettysburg College.
The last two concerts of the season will showcase two of the world’s finest string quartets. On March 17 at Temple Ohev Sholom, the U.K.-based Doric Quartet marks their return to MSC with the program, “Art of Fugue,” exploring musical conversations in works of Bach, Haydn and Beethoven. Finally, on April 30, also at Temple Ohev Sholom, the winner of a Latin Grammy, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, concludes the season with “Tribute to the Americas,” a celebration of cross-cultural dialogue through music of North and South American composers.
Great music and great food are good for the soul, and, for Sirotin, live performances are like a “delicious chocolate truffle.”
“There are a lot of similarities in preparing a well-balanced menu and a satisfying concert program,” Sirotin says. “Memorable musical experiences need to combine tradition and innovation, as well as balance, predictability and surprise.”
Balourdet Quartet will open Market Square Concerts’ 2025-26 season on Sept. 24 at Market Square Presbyterian Church, 20 S. 2nd St., Harrisburg. For information on all Market Square Concerts, visit www.marketsquareconcerts.org/concerts.
If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!
