WESTFIELD – Steeple Concerts at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Westfield is pleased to announce the fourth concert in its 2023-2024 series. On Sunday, March 10, Steeple invites the general public to hear the celebrated Aizuri String Quartet at 5 p.m.
Formed in 2012, Aizuri is comprised of four distinctive musical personalities whose unique approach to programming and sound not only melds them into a powerful collective, but transforms the string quartet genre itself into living art. Given this intrepid vibe and musical persona, it is no surprise that Aizuri draws its name from “aizuri-e,” a style of “predominantly blue Japanese woodblock printing noted for its vibrancy and incredible detail.” (aizuriquartet.com/ about). The Washington Post describes Aizuri as an “astounding…captivating… meld of intellect, technique and emotions.”
Concert tickets, priced at $30 for adults and $15 for students, are available at www.steepleconcerts.org. Tickets can also be purchased at the door. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is located at 414 East Broad Street in Westfield. Church and area parking are free. A reception with the artists follows the event.
Aizuri has garnered numerous awards – for example, from the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition (Japan); the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition (London, UK) and, in 2022, the annual Cleveland Quartet Award, from Chamber Music America.
In addition to traditional chamber music venues, the Quartet has performed in an eclectic variety of settings, e.g., with legendary Indie Rock band Wilco on CBS’s The Tonight Show with Steven Colbert, and in the Kronos Quartet’s Kronos Festival at SFJAZZ (San Francisco). They are also fellows of The Artist Propulsion Lab, a project of classical radio station WQXR (NYC).
Aizuri albums include music ranging from the 11th-century to Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Sibelius and contemporary American composers. NPR praised their latest album, Earthdrawn Skies (2023), as one that “convincingly connects the dots in wildly diverse music stretching over eight centuries…arousing solemn contemplation, cosmic curiosity, folksy delight and introspective scrutiny.”
Aizuri has a special interest in students. In 2020, the Quartet launched AizuriKids, a free online series of educational videos for children that uses the string quartet as a catalyst for creative learning.
More information aboutAizuri and the upcoming Masterworks Concert, featuring Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis for chorus and orchestra (Sunday, May 19 at 5 p.m.), is available at www.steepleconcerts.org. Steeple Concerts are sponsored by The Friends of Music at St. Paul’s and are also made possible per funds from the Union County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, a partner of the NJ Council on the Arts.
