Friction Quartet with soprano, Amy Foote
Friday January 19, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Program
String Quartet:
- Jay Lyon, Concertos
- Greg A Steinke, Dance of Life
- Adrienne Albert, Mood Swings
- Andrew B. Robinson, String Quartet No. 3 The Diversion
String Quartet and Amy Foote, soprano:
- John G. Bilotta, Hippocampus monologue
- Allen Shearer, At Waters edge
- Alden Jenks, Death Marriage
- Davide Verotta, Flora
- Molly Axtmann, Le bestie
Friction Quartet, lauded for performances described as “terribly beautiful” (San Francisco Classical Voice), “stunningly passionate” (Calgary Herald), and “exquisitely skilled” (ZealNYC), is dedicated to modernizing the chamber music experience and expanding the string quartet repertoire. The quartet achieves its mission by commissioning cutting-edge composers, curating imaginative concert programs, collaborating with diverse artists, and engaging in interactive educational outreach.
Friction made their debut at Carnegie Hall in 2016 as participants in the Kronos Quartet Fifty for the Future Workshop. They returned in March of 2018 to perform George Crumb’s Black Angels as part of “The 60’s” festival and their performance was described as, “one of the truest and most moving things I’ve ever heard or seen.” (Zeal NYC)
Since forming in 2011, Friction has commissioned 47 works for string quartet and given world premiere performances of more than 100 works. They developed the Friction Commissioning Initiative in 2017 as a way to work together with their audience to fund specific commissions. The money raised to date has helped Friction commission a total of 12 new works, including six by young composers between the ages 16 and 21. They were awarded a 2019 Intermusic SF Musical Grant to develop a participatory educational program with composer Danny Clay that is designed to be accessible and sensory-friendly. Friction’s past grants include a grant from Chamber Music America that was used to commission a piano quintet from Andy Akiho, which debuted in November 2016, as well as project grants from Intermusic SF and Zellerbach Family Foundation supporting special projects involving the performance of commissioned works.
Since graduating with her Master of Vocal Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Soprano Amy Foote has sung an expansive repertoire, ranging from leading roles on the operatic stage to world premiers of contemporary chamber music. On the operatic stage, Miss Foote has sung leading roles with Berkeley “West Edge” Opera, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, and Lamplighters Music Theater, with whom she recently performed Cunegonde from Bernstein’s Candide in Spring 2015. Her operatic voice has been deemed “most impressive…[with] accuracy, musicality, and diction…” by the San Francisco Classical Voice.
With contemporary chamber group Nonsemble 6, Amy commissions new monodramas and performs a memorized and staged version of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire which has been performed coast to coast from Stanford University in California to The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Amy has worked with over 25 composers nationally and has performed with many new music groups including the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. She has released experimental rock albums with bay area bands Makeunder and Night Genes.
Watch Friction Quartet Video ~ Watch Amy Foote Video
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