Yoko Matsuda and Miwako Watanabe, violins

James Dunham, viola

Robert Martin, cello

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The Sequoia String Quartet was named a winner of the 1976 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. At the time of winning Naumburg, they served as Quartet-in-Residence at the California Institute of the Arts.

As part of their Naumburg prize, they were awarded a commission by William T. McKinley, Fantasia Concertante for String Quartet, receiving its world premiere on the Sequoia's Naumburg concert on March 8, 1977 in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center.

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Naumburg Concert, March 8, 1977, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center

Sequoia String Quartet, 1976 Naumburg Chamber Music Award

Yoko Matsuda and Miwako Watanabe, violins; James Dunham, viola; Robert Martin, cello

Program

Bela Bartok: Quartet No. 3

W.A. Mozart: Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465 "Dissonant"

William Thomas McKinley: Fantasia Concertante for String Quartet, World premiere, Naumburg commission

Robert Schumann: Quartet in A Major, Op. 41, No. 3

Review Excerpt, The New York Times, March 1977

Music in Review

"There were a lot of musicians on hand at the Sequoia String Quartet's debut...they cheered the group lustily at every opportunity. Indeed this was a major affair; the Sequoins, who are based now at the California Institute of the Arts, near Los Angeles...this was solid, well-schooled, idiomatic and sensible playing."

"Mr. McKinley's piece was full of clever effects... he himself cites Bartok, jazz and Debussy in his notes; certainly the modern Polish school deserves a credit, too"

John Rockwell

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