The following is a press release from the Office of Communication.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — The Meccore String Quartet is the next group to participate in Skidmore’s ambitious Beethoven String Quartet Cycle project, which features six internationally renowned guest artists performing the full cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets over the course of the next two years. The Meccore Quartet will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, in Skidmore’s Arthur Zankel Music Center.
The program features the Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2, and the Quartet in A minor, Op. 132. Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and the Skidmore community, free for students and children. To purchase tickets online, please visit http://www.skidmore.edu/zankel/
Quartet members are Wojciech Koprowski and Jarosław Nadrzycki, violin; Michał Bryła, viola; and Karol Marianowski, cello. The group has performed at major European music festivals—the Ludwig van Beethoven Spring Festival, Budapest Spring, Heidelberg Frühling, Kissinger Sommer, Festival Radio France Montpellier, Bregenzer Festspiele, and in concert halls around the world, including Beethovenhaus in Bonn, Wigmore Hall in London, and Musikverein in Vienna.
Critics have praised the quartet for its technical perfection, intensity, and lyricism.
Established in 2007, Meccore String Quartet is considered one of the top quartets of their generation. In 2012 the group was awarded the first prize and an annual scholarship by the Irene Steels-Wilsing Stiftung, which resulted in the quartet’s debut CD released in 2013 featuring string quartets of Mozart and Beethoven.
Additional recognition includes second prize at the 2012 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition in London, the finalist award and the special award at the 2011 ninth International String Quartet Competition Premio Paolo Borciani in Reggio Emilia, first prize at the 2010 International Chamber Music Competition in Weiden, and first prize at the 2009 Max Reger International Chamber Music Competition in Sondershausen.
Last year the ensemble had the honor to perform as the first Polish string quartet during the ceremony on Holocaust Remembrance Day in German Bundestag.
Meccore String Quartet was at first tutored by members of the Camerata Quartet; since 2009, they have been studying with the Artemis Quartet at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Since 2012 they have been able to study at Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel thanks to a full scholarship. The quartet, as well as each of the members individually, received the scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as well as from the "Young Poland" program.
Violinist Michael Emery, senior artist-in-residence at Skidmore, is coordinator of the Beethoven string quartet project as part of Skidmore’s ELM Chamber Music Residency. The project will feature six internationally renowned guest artists who will present the full cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets over the course of two years in the college’s Arthur Zankel Music Center.