Opus 76 Quartet – 'Glass, Beethoven and Mendelssohn' 

Program

• String Quartet No. 2, “Company” by Philip Glass (1937-  )
• String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
• String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 44 No. 1 by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

"Company” was commissioned by the Mabou Mines Development Foundation for the dramatization of Samuel Beckett’s prose poem by the same name. It premiered in 1983 at the Public Theater in New York.

Samuel Beckett’s short novel was adapted for the stage and performed as a monologue by Frederick Neuman, who asked and received Beckett's permission to use an original musical score commissioned to and composed by Philip Glass.

“I liked the idea of using the medium of the String Quartet that would allow for both an introspective and passionate quality well suited to the text. Beckett picked four places in the work which he referred to as the ‘interstices as it were.’ Not surprisingly these four short movements have turned out to be a thematically cohesive work which now, as my String Quartet No.2, has taken on a life of its own.” – Philip Glass

The quartet’s residency, which began as digital artists-in-residence in 2021, saw the group embark on a number of critically acclaimed recording projects in partnership with MTC as part of its innovative digital concert series, “Eat, Drink, Play!”

Adding to its previous recordings of “The Complete Works for String Quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven,” (broadcast live on Kansas Public Radio (KPR) in 2020), Opus 76 recorded Mendelssohn’s Op. 44 No. 1, Schubert’s Quintet in C, Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, Mozart’s Quintet No. 3 in C Major, Bartók’s Quartet No. 1 and Mozart’s “The Six Quartets Dedicated to Haydn,” a project also supported by KPR.

In addition to a national touring schedule, as part of its residency the Quartet runs The Sunrise Program, which provides a year of free lessons and performance opportunities to selected students in the Kansas City metro area.