LSO Concert with Tai Murray, Violin, & BEO String Quartet

Under the direction of Music Director & Conductor Daniel Meyer, the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra (LSO) will perform a concert with violinist Tai Murray and Beo String Quartet at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2 in Hoover Auditorium. Murray will perform Concerto, Violin, op. 77, D major – Brahms.

THE PROGRAM

• Liszt – Les Préludes 
• Smetana – String Quartet no. 1 in E minor, “From My Life”

       I. Allegro vivo appassionato
       II. Allegro moderato à la Polka
  Beo String Quartet

• Brahams – Violin Concerto, op. 77, D major
       I. Allegro non troppo
       II. Adagio
       III. Allegro giocoso; ma non trappo vivace
  Tai Murray, violin

TAI MURRAY, VIOLIN

Described as “superb” by The New York Times, Tai Murray has established herself as a musical voice of a generation.

Appreciated for her elegance and effortless ability, Murray creates a special bond with listeners through her personal phrasing and subtle sweetness.

Her programming reveals musical intelligence. Her sound, sophisticated bowing and choice of vibrato, remind us of her musical background and influences, principally, Yuval Yaron (a student of Gingold & Heifetz) and Franco Gulli. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2004, Murray was named a BBC New Generation Artist (2008-2010). As a chamber musician, she was a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society II (2004-2006).

Murray has performed as guest soloist on the main stages world-wide, performing with leading ensembles such as the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Symphony Orchestra and all of the BBC Symphony Orchestras. She is also a dedicated advocate of contemporary works (written for the violin). Among others, she performed the world premiere of Malcolm Hayes’ violin concerto at the BBC PROMS in the Royal Albert Hall.

Murray’s critically acclaimed debut recording for harmonia mundi of Ysaye’s six sonatas for solo violin was released in February 2012. Her second recording with works by American Composers of the 20th century was released by the Berlin-based label eaSonus and her third disc with the Bernstein Serenade on the French label mirare.

Murray is an Assistant Professor, Adjunct, of violin at the Yale School of Music, where she teaches applied violin and coaches chamber music. She earned artist diplomas from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and the Juilliard School.

BEO STRING QUARTET

The eclectic and highly polished Beo String Quartet, founded in 2015, has created a niche for itself as a daring, genre-defying ensemble.

Rigorously trained in the classical tradition, violinists Jason Neukom and Andrew Giordano, violist Sean Neukom and cellist Ryan Ash also know their way around contemporary expression, including the use of electronics, live sound processing and spatial audio manipulation.

Their performances of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich have been compared to those of the best among 21st-century international string quartets.

They play the masters in a variety of settings, collaborate with living composers and explore technology’s capacity to the fullest.

Works such as “Haydn Recycled” and “Projection 1: Triple Quartet” combine virtuosic quartet writing and staging in various forms. To date, Beo String Quartet has performed more than 100 concert works, including some 45 world premieres, throughout Europe and the United States.

The quartet regularly collaborates with composers Richard Danielpour, Marc Mellits, Missy Mazzoli, Lawrence Dillon, Joel Hoffman and Charles Nichols.

As part of their annual residency with the Charlotte New Music Festival, Beo String Quartet hosts an annual Composition Competition which yields a winning work selected from 100+ submissions. The quartet then records the composition and makes a point of programming it frequently in subsequent seasons.

Music education outreach is essential to the quartet’s vision. Through its educational tours of elementary, middl, and high schools, short-term residencies at colleges and universities, and its annual residency at Dakota Chamber Music, Beo String Quartet has shared these engaging experiences with more than 3,500 students to date.

DANIEL MEYER, MUSICAL DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR

Daniel Meyer was named Music Director & Conductor of the LSO in 2019.

As Music Director of the Erie Philharmonic and Artistic Director of the Westmoreland Symphony and Cleveland’s BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, Meyer has reinvigorated orchestras with his innovative programs, engaging presence and keen musical intellect.

In addition to collaborating with world-renowned soloists such as Marc-André Hamelin, Sharon Isbin, Gil Shaham, Jeremy Denk, Daniil Trifonov, Midori and Emanuel Ax, Meyer has commissioned new works by Michael Torke, Vivian Fung, Richard Danielpour and Zhou Tian.

Meyer recorded the music of Hanson, Diamond and Daugherty for the Bavarian Radio with the Bamberger Symphoniker, and his recent guest appearances include the Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Portland Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, Württembergische Philharmonie, Staatsorchester Darmstadt and the Nuremberg Symphony in Germany.

In his role as Director of Orchestral Activities at Duquesne University, Meyer embarked on a recording project of the concertos of American composer Lynn Purse.

In recent seasons he conducted the Rochester Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony, as well as guest engagements with the Indianapolis, Columbus, Phoenix, Eugene, Alabama, Toledo and Knoxville Symphonies.

His critically acclaimed European debut took place with the Staatstheater Stuttgart Orchestra and violinist Thomas Zehetmaier, and he returned to Germany soon after for concerts with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen and to Austria with the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna and the Wiener Jeunesse Orchestra.

Meyer’s summer festival appearances have included the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom, the Aspen and Grand Teton Music Festivals, the Chautauqua Festival and the Brevard Music Center.

Upon the invitation of Mariss Jansons, Meyer was named Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony and Music Director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, where he served until 2009.

A native of Cleveland, Meyer studied conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and is a graduate of Denison University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

He composed and conducted works for ensembles at both schools, including a Stabat Mater for soprano, chorus and orchestra.

At Boston University, Meyer received the Orchestral Conducting Honors Award and was awarded the prestigious Aspen Conducting Prize from David Zinman. He received an honorary doctorate from Edinboro University in 2016.