FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Ian Martínez
Director of Communications
(773) 834-7965
imartinez@uchicago.edu

Tickets: (773) 702-8068

LEGENDARY ALBAN BERG QUARTET TAKES FINAL MANDEL HALL BOW, FEBRUARY 29

Chicago, Feb. 12, 2008 – Mandel Hall audiences will be able to witness the end of an era, as the celebrated Alban Berg Quartet performs on Friday, February 29 at 7:30 p.m. as part of its Farewell Tour. This will be a unique opportunity to hear the group critics have called “one of the great ensembles of our time.”

For over 30 years, the Alban Berg Quartet has reigned supreme as one of the legendary quartets of the classical music world. For its final Mandel Hall program, the quartet will perform Haydn’s immortal Seven Last Words of Christ and Schubert’s last string quartet, as well as a work by the foursome’s namesake—Berg’s signature Lyric Suite.

Forming from an Austrian chamber orchestra in 1971, the founding members of the Alban Berg Quartet chose their name to honor fellow Vienna native, composer Alban Berg, who bridged the gap between Romanticism and Modernism. Like the composer, the quartet strives to maintain a balance between the traditional and the avant-garde, always to give “the most harmonious performance.” Since its inception, the Alban Berg Quartet has won over 30 major international awards, including the Grand Prix du Disque, the first International Classical Music Award, the Japan Grand Prix and the Gramophone Magazine Award. The quartet also has its own concert series at the Vienna Konzerthaus, where its members made their debut, as well as at the Royal Festival Hall in London, Opera Zurich, Theâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Philharmonie in Cologne and at Alte Oper Frankfurt.

Among the group’s many recording projects have been the complete quartets of Beethoven, Brahms, Berg, Webern and Bartók, as well as the complete late Mozart and late Schubert quartets. A new EMI Classics release, titled Hommage, is a five-disc set containing numerous performances recorded between 1979 and 2000. In 2005 the Alban Berg Quartet suffered a painful loss with the death of its violist, Thomas Kakuska. The surviving members of the quartet continue their concert activities with Kakuska’s former pupil, Isabel Charisius. In 2006 they performed a commemoration concert for Kakuska in the Vienna Konzerthaus with an all-star cast of artists, including Angelika Kirchschlager, Sir Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado.

TICKETS for the Alban Berg Quartet’s Mandel Hall concert are $32 for general public or $5 for students with a valid ID and can be purchased by calling the University of Chicago Presents Concert Office at (773) 702-8068, or visiting 5720 S. Woodlawn Avenue on the University of Chicago campus.

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Friday / 29 February / 7:30 pm
Alban Berg Quartet
Günter Pichler, violin
Gerhard Schulz, violin
Isabel Charisius, viola
Valentin Erben, cello
Farewell Tour

Haydn: The Last Seven Words of Christ, op. 51
Berg: Lyric Suite
Schubert: String Quartet in G major, D. 887, op. posth. 161

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The University of Chicago Presents is one of the city’s landmark classical music presenters on the campus of the University of Chicago in the heart of the city’s South Side. Among the musical legends who made their debuts at Mandel Hall are violinist Isaac Stern, guitarist Andres Segovia, soprano Cecilia Bartoli and The Juilliard String Quartet.

UCP offers five concert series—Classic Concert, the Howard Mayer Brown International Early Music, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Artists-in-Residence Series featuring the Pacifica String Quartet, and the Contempo series.

TICKETS: By phone with credit card at (773) 702-8068; minimum $10 charge
In person with cash, check or credit card, weekdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
– Office of Professional Concerts, 5720 S. Woodlawn Ave.
– At Mandel Box Office after 6:30 p.m. on concert day
– By email at concert-office@uchicago.edu

LOCATION: Mandel Hall is located at 1131 E. 57th Street.

PARKING: Street or free in lot at 55th Street and Ellis Avenue

DISABILITIES: Persons with disabilities or who otherwise need assistance may call the Office of Professional Concerts at (773) 702-8068 prior to the concert, but no later than 3 p.m. on concert day.

PHOTOS: Photos of the artists may be obtained upon request to the University of Chicago Presents at (773) 834-7965, or by fax at (773) 834-5888. To download pictures directly from the web site, visit chicagopresents.uchicago.edu/news/photos.

ONLINE: chicagopresents.uchicago.edu

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