May 2: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Ringwood Friends of Music – Featuring the Music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy
Photo of the Telegraph Quartet by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution here.
Telegraph Quartet Presented by Ringwood Friends of Music
Featuring the Music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy
Saturday May 2, 2026 at 7pm
Community Presbyterian Church | 145 Carletondale Road | Ringwood, NJ
Free, Open to the Public, and Wheelchair Accessible
Please register by emailing ringwoodfriendsofmusic@gmail.com
More Information
Telegraph Quartet’s New Album
20th Century Vantage Points Vol. 2: Edge of the Storm Out Now
Review downloads & CDs available upon request.
“soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail …[the Telegraph Quartet is] an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Ringwood, NJ – On Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 7pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group The Strad describes as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” is presented in concert by the Ringwood Friends of Music at Community Presbyterian Church (145 Carletondale Road). The performance is Free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. Please register by emailing ringwoodfriendsofmusic@gmail.com.
Known for technical prowess and an appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet brings its fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to a program that embraces a sense of homage to those who inspired the works, featuring Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7 in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1, The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet. This performance is free with registration and open to the public.
Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7 in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 is the first of his “Razumovsky” quartets, nicknamed for Prince Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna who commissioned Beethoven to write these pieces, asking him to include a Russian theme in each of the Quartets. The Quartet will also perform a Great American Songbook transcription of Jerome Kern’s The Way You Look Tonight. Originally from the film Swing Time, this tune by Jerome Kern is now regarded as a standard of jazz repertoire. The form of Debussy’s String Quartet is of particular note, as it includes the “cyclical” method, advocated by Franz Liszt and carried on by César Franck, the premiere of whose own String Quartet in 1890 may have inspired Debussy to embrace writing chamber music.
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.
“While these are now traditional stalwarts of the string quartet canon, both the Debussy and Beethoven quartets here were highly unconventional when they were created and pushed the boundaries of what was possible in the form,” says the Telegraph Quartet. “As such, we are excited to be exploring and sharing what was innovative and groundbreaking about these seminal works - what expectations they foiled and bring a new way of listening to them to our audience at Ringwood.”
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
Presented by Ringwood Friends of Music
What: Music by Ludwig van Beethoven and Claude Debussy
When: Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 7pm
Where: Community Presbyterian Church, 145 Carletondale Road, Ringwood, NJ 07456
Free and Open to the Public
To register please send an email to ringwoodfriendsofmusic@gmail.com
For more information, go to: https://www.ringwoodfriendsofmusic.org/concerts
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, a group The Strad describes as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” performs a lively concert featuring distinct quartets of the Romantic era and a modern era jazz standard: Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 59 No. 1, Claude Debussy’s String Quartet, and Jerome Kern’s The Way You Look Tonight. This performance is free with registration and open to the public.