Clarinetist and Muir String Quartet to Perform

David Shifrin, one of the world’s best-known clarinetists, and the internationally renowned Muir String Quartet will team up on Saturday, March 20, for the Secrest Artists Series concert at Wake Forest University.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Brendle Recital Hall.

Shifrin will perform Brahms’ Quintet in B minor with the Muir Quartet. The Quartet will also play Mozart’s Quartet in E-flat Major and Debussy’s Quartet in G minor.

Shifrin has performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras, the Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Denver and Edmonton symphonies, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the New York Chamber Symphony.

“The sound he produces is a revelation in just how beautifully the clarinet can be played,” according to a review in the San Francisco Chronicle. Shifrin was appointed artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1992. He is also music director of Chamber Music Northwest, the acclaimed summer chamber music festival in Portland, Ore. Currently a professor of music at Yale University, he has also served on the faculty of the Juilliard School.

In May 1987, Shifrin was chosen to receive one of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career grants, given to outstanding American artists. His recording of the Copland Clarinet Concerto received a Grammy nomination.

In addition to the Muir String Quartet, Shifrin often performs with the Guarneri, Tokyo and Emerson string quartets.

The Muir String Quartet performs in major cities across North America and Europe. The group performed with the Da Camera Society of Houston during the 1997-98 Secrest Artists Series season. The four members are violinists Peter Zazofsky and Lucia Lin, violist Steven Ansell and cellist Michael Reynolds.

In keeping with the quartet’s namesake, Sierra Club founder John Muir, the group donates proceeds from its Eco-Classics CDs to a variety of environmental and conservation organizations.

Admission is $17.50 for adults, $12.50 for seniors and non-Wake Forest students. Tickets are available at the door or through the Secrest Series office at 336-758-5757.

Categories: Arts & Culture, Events