Oct. 13: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Chamber Music Tuscaloosa – Performing Haydn and All That Jazz
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Telegraph Quartet Performs Haydn and All That Jazz
Presented by Chamber Music Tuscaloosa
Featuring the Music of Franz Joseph Haydn, Wynton Marsalis,
Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy
Monday, October 13, 2025 at 7:30pm
Grace Presbyterian Church
113 Hargrove Rd | Tuscaloosa, AL 35401
Tickets and More Information
Telegraph Quartet’s New Album
20th Century Vantage Points Vol. 2: Edge of the Storm
Out Now
"precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication" – The Strad
Tuscaloosa, AL – On Monday, October 13, 2025 at 7:30pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group The New York Times describes as “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in concert by Chamber Music Tuscaloosa. The concert will take place in Grace Presbyterian Church (113 Hargrove Rd.). Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet bring their fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to Haydn and All That Jazz – a concert program that celebrates the interconnection between the two worlds of Classical and Jazz music. The program includes Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major, Op. 54 No. 2; selections from At the Octoroon Balls by Wynton Marsalis; The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet.
While improvisation is a building block of jazz, it was an equally critical element in the Classical era. In Haydn’s brilliant quartet in C Major, improvisation pervades the rhapsodic episodes of the second movement, poignantly blurring the usual pristine classical sentences. Conversely, renowned Jazz composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis channels the whimsicality and harmonies of his genre into the rigorous strictures of the string quartet idiom. Following Marsalis’s work, the Telegraphs perform a Great American Songbook transcription of Jerome Kern’s The Way You Look Tonight. The program’s finale is Debussy’s only string quartet, whose Impressionist style paved the way to influence many great artists of the Jazz Age.
The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
Of this vibrant program the Telegraph Quartet says:
“We’re excited to share this unique program that juxtaposes the Classical Era improv of Haydn, turn-of-the-century modality of Debussy with the traditions of Jazz and American Standards. While very different repertoire abound on this program, we find each of these works reflects the other in some way, whether it is the gypsy rhapsody of Haydn’s second movement, Debussy’s drawing on non-European inspiration in his own musical vocabulary, or Marsalis and Kern infusion of the string quartet - a very European invention - with Creole, African-American and Broadway flavors. ”
In August 2023, the Telegraph Quartet released 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, the first in a trilogy of recordings on Azica Records exploring the string quartets of the first half of the 20th century – an era of music that the group has felt especially called to perform since its formation. Divergent Paths features two works that (to the best of the Quartet’s knowledge) have never been recorded on the same album before: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7. The Quartet’s new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Edge of the Storm is out now on Azica Records. Read the press release online here. This second volume of the trilogy examines music from the turbulent war years of 1941-1951 and features a thoughtfully curated program of works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg.
More about Telegraph Quartet: The Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. The Quartet is currently the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Michigan.
Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the St. Lawrence Quartet and Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.
Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan. In fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet. In the summers of 2022 and 2024, the Telegraph Quartet traveled to Vienna to work with Schoenberg expert Henk Guittart in conjunction with the Arnold Schoenberg Center, researching all of Schoenberg's string quartets.
For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet in Haydn and All That Jazz
Presented by Chamber Music Tuscaloosa
What: Music by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wynton Marsalis, Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy
When: Monday, October 13, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: Moody Concert Hall at University of Alabama, 810 2nd Ave. Tuscaloosa, AL 35401
Tickets and information: https://www.chambermusictuscaloosa.com/events
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, a group “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented in concert by Chamber Music Tuscaloosa. The ensemble will perform a lively concert program titled Haydn and All That Jazz, featuring Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major, Op. 54 No. 2, selections from At the Octoroon Balls by Wynton Marsalis, The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet.