May 18, 2022
Please join at the Denmark Arts Center on May 29th or May 31st, 2022, to see the Lott Quartet perform.
The Lott Quartet will be performing the music of Beethoven, Dvorak, and
Wynton Marsalis at the Denmark Arts Center on Sunday, May 29th at 3:00 pm,
and at the Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, May 31st
at 7:00 pm.
Based in New Orleans, the Lott Quartet was founded around a mutual love of
chamber music and a deep desire to reach audiences with engaging and
insightful programming. Recently appointed as Quartet-in-Residence at the
University of New Orleans, the group begins a role as musical ambassadors
to the greater Southeast U.S., bringing their passion as performers and
educators to audiences and students throughout the Gulf region and beyond.
The May 29th and 31st program begins with the stormy opening to Beethoven’s
C minor quartet. This four-movement work showcases the genius writing of a
young and fiery Beethoven, whose chosen key of C minor is so often used to
depict his most personal inner struggles. Next, Marsalis’ Hellbound Highway
kicks the energy into high gear as the composer takes the audience on a
train ride from “down south.” They finally arrive in the Big Easy, dancing
to the celebratory Rampart St. Row House Rag. After a brief intermission,
the quartet will perform Dvorak’s Quartet No. 14 in A-flat major. Dvorak
wrote the work Bohemia shortly after returning from America in 1895.
Romantically Czech in nature, hints of American influence lead Dvorak’s son to
state that the work “recapitulated his successful trip to America and his
happy return home.” The May 31st concert will feature a special guest
performance by the Valley Strings—an ensemble composed of Fryeburg Academy
students and community members.
Tickets to the May 29th performance at the Denmark Arts Center are $15
general admission. Order online at www.denmarkarts.org/events. Tickets to
the May 31st performance at the Leura Hill Eastman PAC are $15 for adults
and free for students (reserved seating). Order online at www.fryeburgacademy.org/pac,
or call the box office at 207-544-9066. Both performances are funded in part by
a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported
by the National Endowment for the Arts.