Nov. 16: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Chamber Music Marin – Featuring the Music of Derrick Skye, Béla Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven
Available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet
Telegraph Quartet Presented by Chamber Music Marin
Featuring the Music of Derrick Skye, Béla Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven
Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 5pm
Chamber Music Marin
Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church | 410 Sycamore Ave. | Mill Valley, CA
Tickets and 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.
“precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication” – The Strad
Mill Valley, CA – On Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 5pm, 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 Marin. The performance will take place in Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church (410 Sycamore Ave). Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet bring their fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to a program titled From Countryside to Concert Hall – a concert program that showcases how these three composers adapted, adopted, or fully embodied folk music, bringing the rustic and unassuming spirit of that idiom into the bright light of the concert stage. The program includes Derrick Skye’s American Mirror, Part 1; Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2; and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7 in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 – the first of his “Razumovsky” quartets, nicknamed for Prince Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna who commissioned Beethoven to write these pieces.
According to composer Derrick Skye, "American Mirror reflects on the coming together of cultures in our society, which consists of many generations and descendants of refugees, immigrants, and slaves, and how intercultural collaborations are essential to the well-being of American society.” The piece infuses influences from West African, North African, and Eastern European vocal techniques and ornamentations with open harmonies commonly found in Appalachian folk music. Bartók’s second quartet exhibits his immersion into what he called the “purest music” – that of the remote Hungarian countryside – a style he sought to absorb and recreate as a new form of highly complex concert music. The fourth movement of Beethoven's first "Razumovsky" quartet playfully features a theme from his patron's homeland fulfilling the patron’s request – that Beethoven include a Russian theme in each of the Quartets – in a cheeky fashion.
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 bringing this folk-oriented program to Chamber Music Marin, the Telegraph Quartet says:
“We're excited to be sharing three different centuries of classical composers who infused each of their chamber works with folk music. While Beethoven impishly transformed a slow somber Russian folk song into a light-hearted finale, Bartok fully absorbed the Hungarian folk idiom to create an "updated" and truly modernist composition reflecting the apprehension of its WWI context. Derrick Skye's American Mirror is a self-professed reflection of many musical cultures mixing together to create one distinctly new voice that nimbly glides between one and the other.”
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 Countryside to Concert Hall
Presented by Chamber Music Marin
What: Music by Derrick Skye, Béla Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 5pm
Where: Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church, 410 Sycamore Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941
Tickets and information: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/millvalleychambermusicsociety/1632606
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 Marin. The ensemble will perform a lively concert program titled Countryside to Concert Hall, featuring American Mirror: Part I by Derrick Skye, Quartet No. 2 by Béla Bartók, and Quartet No. 7 in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1 “Razumovsky” by Ludwig van Beethoven.