Literature | SATURDAY, January 21 | 6:00 PM | FREE
FUSION excitedly welcomes Edward Dusinberre—first violinist of the world-renowned Takács String Quartet—to FUSION in the 708 for a thoughtful lecture on the themes in his book, Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home, coupled with a book signing.
In his lecture on January 21, Dusinberre will discuss topics inspired by his book. He wrote, “Music has the power to bridge and accentuate distance. A fragment of melody triggers a memory, rekindling a connection to home or exposing a painful separation from a place left behind. The pieces on this program were written by composers during periods of their lives shaped by departures and homecomings.” Dusinberre will address how these themes are presented in his book and how they tie into the Takács Quartet performance.
The following day, January 22 at 3 p.m., Takács String Quartet is performing a concert—hosted by Chamber Music Albuquerque—consisting of works by Benjamin Britten, Bela Bartok, and Antonin Dvorak at the Simms Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Albuquerque Academy. Tickets for the concert can be reserved here.
About
The book, Distant Melodies, is an engaging blend of memoir and music history. It explores the changing ideas of home, displacement, and return through the lives and chamber music of four composers.
How does music played and heard over many years inform one’s sense of home? Writing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel is forbidden and distance felt anew, Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the world-renowned Takács Quartet, searches for answers in the music of composers whose relationships to home shaped the pursuit of their craft—Antonín Dvořák, Edward Elgar, Béla Bartók, and Benjamin Britten.
The Takács String Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. The group first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982.
In 2014 the Takács became the first string quartet to be awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal. In 2012, Gramophone announced that the Takács was the first string quartet to be inducted into its Hall of Fame. The ensemble also won the 2011 Award for Chamber Music and Song presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society in London.
Based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, the members of the Takács Quartet are Christoffersen Faculty Fellows, and the beneficiaries of an instrument loan by the Drake Foundation. The members of the Takács are on the faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where they run a summer string quartet seminar, and Visiting Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music, London.
Chamber Music Albuquerque was founded as the June Music Festival in 1942 by Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, and sponsored for many years after her death by her husband Albert G. Simms. The organization changed its name to Chamber Music Albuquerque in 1987 to better reflect its year-round presentation of concerts. Chamber Music Albuquerque and the June Music Festival are particularly remembered for their lengthy association with the Guarneri Quartet.