Ian Swensen, violin

Calvin Wiersma, violin

Maria Lambros, viola

Elizabeth Anderson, cello

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Formed in 1983, The Meliora String Quartet won the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1985; and both the Coleman and Fischoff Prizes in 1984. As winners of the Cleveland Quartet Competition at the Eastman School of Music, the Meliora worked and performed with the internationally known Cleveland Quartet, and recorded with them on the Telarc label. After 1985, the Meliora toured extensively, making exciting and highly acclaimed debuts in Boston's Jordan Hall, New York's Alice Tully Hall, Washington's Corcoran Gallery and on the Coleman Series in Pasadena. They gave additional performances at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Princeton, Rutgers, Harvard and in Los Angeles, Buffalo, Denver, Berkeley, San Diego, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Kansas City, Salt Lake City. Seasoned teachers, the Meliora held residency positions at the Longy School in Boston, at Florida State University in Tallahassee and at Middlebury College in Vermont. Frequent guest artists at the Spoleto Festival in both Italy and South Carolina, the Meliora was the first Quartet-in-Residence at Spoleto/Australia.

Michael Alec Rose's String Quartet No. 2 was commissioned by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation following their competition win, receiving its New York premiere on the Meliora's Naumburg concert that took place on March 8, 1988 in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. The Meliora's performed the world premiere at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

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Naumburg Concert, March 8, 1988, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center

The Meliora String Quartet, 1985 Naumburg Chamber Music Award Music

Ian Swensen and Calvin Wiersma, violins; Maria Lambros, viola; Elizabeth Anderson, cello

Program

Beethoven: Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4

Michael Alec Rose: String Quartet No. 2, New York premiere and Naumburg commission

Mendelssohn: Andante & Scherzo, Op. 81

Bartok: String Quartet No. 6

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"They play with a high-risk intensity... that produced one of the most dramatic performances I have heard in years."
WASHINGTON POST

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"Of the younger chamber music groups performing today, it would be hard to top the Meliora Quartet for sheer excitement. They are already a fully integrated ensemble that plays with intense concentration and an inordinate amount of vitality."
BOSTON GLOBE

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"The Meliora gave a deeply probing, fiery account of Beethoven Op. 18, No. 1. It isn't often that one hears such faultless control and cohesive ensemble playing: even rarer is the extraordinary sense of poetry these four brought to the work."
LOS ANGELES TIMES

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"A rhapsodic and heartfelt performance. infused with a palpable feeling of spontaneity and enthusiasm which brought much deserved cheers at the end."
BUFFALO EVENING NEWS
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"The earth moved for the Meliora Quartet. In one of the most exciting concerts of the season, the musicians played with a passionate abandon, as if their lives depended on every note."
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

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