Afiara Quartet to bring its 'pursuit of beauty' to SUNY Oswego concert

The Afiara Quartet, a dynamic and award-winning strings ensemble, will perform as part of SUNY Oswego’s Ke-Nekt Chamber Music Series at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, in Sheldon Hall ballroom.

Hosted by SUNY Oswego’s Dr. Ahreum Kim, an accomplished violinist who knows three of Afiara’s four members personally, the evening is scheduled to begin with a preconcert talk at 7.

The artists will be performing from their playlist, a mixture of classic and popular music, including Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Op. 13. Kim will join the ensemble for “The Enemy Guns” by indie rock band DeVotchKa, as arranged by Afiara cellist Adrian Fung.

“One of the joys of being a violinist is that I get to meet incredible musicians throughout my life’s journey and reconnect with them down the road,” Kim said.

Kim and Afiara violinist Valeri Li studied with Herbert Greenberg at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Violinist Tim Kantor and Kim met during the summer of 2004 when both were members of the Festival Orchestra at the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado. And she met violist Eric Wong at Aspen the year before.

“The Ke-nekt concert will become the story of how I met cellist Adrian Fung,” Kim said. “I am honored to host and collaborate with the Afiara Quartet.”

After residencies at the Juilliard School and San Francisco State University, the Afiara Quartet is currently Fellowship Quartet at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. The ensemble is winner of the Young Canadian Musicians Award, Concert Artist Guild, Munich ARD, and Banff International String Quartet Competitions, including the latter’s Szekely Prize for the best interpretation of Beethoven.

Hailed as “a revelation” by Montreal’s La Presse, the quartet describes itself as “an ensemble for the 21st century … defined by its pursuit of beauty, meaning and growth as musicians and ambassadors for its genre.” The quartet has performed throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Their work has included projects with groundbreaking scratch DJ Kid Koala, jazz virtuoso Uri Caine and Latin Grammy Award-winning producer Javier Limon.

Tickets for the Afiara Quartet—or for any concert in the Ke-Nekt series—are $15 ($5 for students) and are available at all SUNY Oswego box offices, online at tickets.oswego.edu and by calling 315-312-2141.

Parking is included in the price of a ticket and is available in the employee and commuter lots adjacent to Sheldon Hall or across Washington Boulevard. Patrons needing assistance should call 315-312-2141 in advance of the performance.

The SUNY Oswego music department and the college’s arts presentation organization, Artswego, co-sponsor the Ke-Nekt Chamber Music Series.