Acclaimed Borromeo String Quartet returns to Bates

Borromeo String Quartet

The Borromeo String Quartet makes a return visit to Bates.

Called “simply the best there is” by The Boston Globe, the critically acclaimed Borromeo String Quartet returns to Bates College for a performance of music by Schubert, Schoenberg and others at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

General admission tickets are $6, available at www.batestickets.com. Free admission is offered to the first 100 seniors or students; please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

The quartet returns to Bates for an intensive two-day residency. On the 29th, the audience will be invited to shape the order and content of the program.

The Borromeo String Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles of its kind in the world. Audiences and critics alike champion the foursome’s revealing explorations of Beethoven, Bartok, Schoenberg, Shostakovich and Golijov. Their ability to make even the most challenging contemporary repertoire approachable and enlightening has become a hallmark.

They perform at the world’s most illustrious concert halls and music festivals, and continue long-standing residencies at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum (“one of the defining experiences of civilization in Boston,” according to The Boston Globe), the Tenri Cultural Institute and the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music, where it has been the official quartet in residence for 17 years.

In April 2007 the Borromeo Quartet was honored in New York with a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 2006 the Aaron Copland House honored the Borromeo’s commitment to performing contemporary music by creating the Borromeo Quartet Award, an annual initiative that will premiere the work of important young composers to audiences internationally.

In 2003 the Borromeos made classical music history with its pioneering record label, The Living Archive, making it is possible to order on-demand DVDs and CDs of many of its concerts around the world, a feat only previously attempted in rock music. The series allows listeners the chance to explore in greater depth the music they have just heard in concert, as well as explore new and rarely performed works.

The Borromeo has enjoyed collaborations with composers John Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti, Gunther Schuller, Osvaldo Golijov, Steve Mackey, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Jennifer Higdon, Derek Bermel, Lior Navok and Lera Auerbach, among others.

The members of the quartet are violinists Nicholas Kitchen and Kristopher Tong, violist Mai Motobuchi and cellist Yeesun Kim. Learn more: www.borromeoquartet.com.