PROGRAM
Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte
Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 1
Schumann: String Quartet No. 3

Borislava Iltcheva, violin

Borislava Iltcheva

B.M Bulgarian National Academy
M.M. Louisiana State University
D.M.A Louisiana State University

Borislava Iltcheva started playing the violin at age of 5. Ms Iltcheva holds a Bachelor degree from the Bulgarian National Academy, Masters and Doctorate Degrees in violin performance form Louisiana State University. Her principal Violin Teachers include Alexander Iltchev, Evgenia Maria Popova, Kevork Mardirossian and Mauricio Fuks. Borislava holds prizes from several National and International Competitions such as “Closter Shöntal” International Violin Competition, MTNA Chamber Music Competition, LSU Deans Concerto Competition, “Saverio Mercadante” International Competition and others. Borislava has an active schedule as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been featured as a soloist with the Louisiana Sinfonietta, Baton Rouge Symphony and Acadiana Symphony, Thessalonica Camerata, Chengdu Symphony Orchestra, among many others. She has performed recitals throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. Ms Iltcheva is the Concertmaster of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. . Currently Ms Iltcheva is the assistant to Professor Mauricio Fuks at Indiana University where she is pursuing a Post Doctorate Degree.

Highlights from Ms Iltcheva’s performances include an appearance in Carnegie Hall in New York in May, 2009 as well as a two-week European tour with recitals in Greece and Croatia. As a member of the Donatello String quartet, Ms Iltcheva was selected to participate in the Sandor Vegh International Competition. They were also selected to Participate in the Coleman Chamber music Competition in California. The quartet performed their debut Carnegie Recital on May 16th, 2012. They were also accepted as a quartet in residence at the Banff International Music festival. She will be returning to Carnegie Hall in 2017.

Ms Iltcheva recently joined the faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University as an Adjunct Faculty where she is teaching violin to graduate and undergraduate students. Ms Iltcheva frequently teaches masterclasses around the world and is in residence in Southern France in the month of July. In the fall Borislava will be performing Mozart concerto N4 and later in the season she will be performing Piazzola “Four Seasons” and “Vivaldi’s” Four Seasons” with orchestras in Europe, the United State. Other 2019 highlights include concerts and masterclasses in Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, France, Brazil and Australia. In 2019, Ms. Iltcheva will be teaching at Orford’s Summer Academy in Canada.

Aaron Farrell, violin

Aaron Farrell

B.M Eastman School of Music
M.M. Lousinana State University
D.M.A Louisiana State University

Aaron Farrell received a Master of Music and Doctor of Music degree in violin performance from LSU as well as a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music. His teachers include Kevork Mardirossian and Camilla Wicks at LSU, Peter Salaff of the Cleveland String Quartet, and Joseph McGauley of the Boston Symphony. He has performed as a soloist with the Acadiana Symphony and the Baton Rouge Symphony, where he serves as the Principal Second Violin. He has also performed as a soloist with Louisiana Sinfonietta and orchestras in Greece and Romania. In addition, Aaron performs with his wife, Borislava, in Duo Farrell, which has given concerts in the United States and abroad. Highlights of the violin duo included tours in Greece with performances and master classes in three cities and a two-week tour of performances and masterclasses in Romania, Greece, and Turkey in 2015. They recently performed the Bach Double Violin Concerto with the Baton Rouge Symphony. Aaron is active as a teacher, chamber musician and soloist in Louisiana and abroad. As co-owners of Grace Notes School of Music he and Borislava have been working to fulfill the vital mission of bringing high quality music education to children, teens and adults in southern Louisiana.

Christopher Lowry, viola

Christopher Lowry

B.M. Vanderbilt University
M.M. Louisiana State University
D.M.A. Louisiana State University

Nashville native Christopher Lowry is emerging as one of the leading violists and most frequently performed composers of his generation. A two-time prizewinner in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, Grand Prize winner in the 2015 Lewisville Lake Symphony International String Competition, winner of the 2017 Sousa/ABA/Ostwald Composition Award, and first prize winner of Cuarteto Jose White’s 2018 “Nuestra America” Award, Lowry has won awards in many local and national concerto competitions as well as composition competitions such as the ATSSB Composition Competition, Dallas Winds Fanfare Contest, The American Prize in Composition, World Projects Composition Competition, Salford International Composers Contest, NAfME Composition Competition, Anton Stadler International Basset Clarinet Composition Competition, and Calls for Scores for the “Vox Novus” West Point Band Bicentennial, Cypress Symphonic Band, Brazosport Symphony, Joliet Symphony, Oklahoma Youth Winds, Alabama Symphony, BandWidth Music Festival, and Ablaze Records Orchestral Masters Series, among others. Lowry’s music has been recorded by the Brno Philharmonic and performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and the Ryman Auditorium by ensembles such as the Nashville Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony, Imperial Symphony, Nashville Philharmonic, Louisiana Sinfonietta, LSU Symphony, West Point Band, Central Band of the Royal Air Force (UK), Baylor Wind Ensemble, and Vanderbilt Wind Symphony, among many others.

Lowry has appeared as soloist with the Baton Rouge Symphony, Lewisville Lake Symphony, Acadiana Symphony, Louisiana Sinfonietta, Nashville Sinfonietta, LSU Symphony and Philharmonia, University of Maine Symphony Orchestra, Vanderbilt University Orchestra, and Eastern Music Festival Orchestra, among others. Lowry is principal violist with the Baton Rouge, Acadiana, and Amarillo Symphony Orchestras, violist of the Lagniappe Trio, and former violist with both the Carlos Chavez and Ars Nova String Quartets. Lowry’s debut solo CD, Milestones: New Music for Viola from the Third Millennium is set to release on Centaur Records in early 2021, and it features his own music in addition to pieces by Peter Dayton and Christopher Hallum; he can also be heard performing the music of Dinos Constantinides on Magni Publications. Lowry holds both a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master’s degree from LSU and a Bachelor’s Degree from Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.

Molly Goforth, cello

Molly Goforth

MM - DePaul University
BM - University of Louisville

Molly Goforth is an active chamber and orchestral musician based in Lafayette, Louisiana. Ms. Goforth is the principal cellist of the Baton Rouge Symphony, a member of the Acadiana Symphony and cello faculty at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Ms. Goforth maintains an active pre-college private studio. Recent events include performances of the Brahms Double Concerto for Violin & Cello at UL Lafayette as well as a chamber music recital with Yvgeny Kutik in Baton Rouge. Her private students are regularly accepted into the Louisiana All-State Orchestra, the LPSS Gifted & Talented program, Acadiana Symphony Youth Orchestra, UL-Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, and are employed by various churches and other organizations as gigging musicians. Ms. Goforth has a Master's degree in cello performance from DePaul University in Chicago, a BM from the University of Louisville and has registered Suzuki Teacher Training through Cello Book 7. Ms. Goforth has studied privately with Stephen Balderston, Alan Harris, Darrett Adkins, Craig Hultgren, Alice Ann O’Neill and Paul York.

With almost 70 years combined experience with your Baton Rouge Symphony, Borislava, Aaron, Christopher, and Molly bring their exceptional talents together to provide a night of exquisite string quartet music.

The evening begins with Entr’acte, a piece influenced by Haydn and written by the youngest-ever Pulitzer Prize winner in composition, Caroline Shaw. “Entr’acte was written in 2011 after hearing the Brentano Quartet play Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2 — with their spare and soulful shift to the D-flat major trio in the minuet. It is structured like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further. I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.” - Caroline Shaw

Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 is his first of three quartets and was composed in 1871. The melancholic second movement, which has become famous in its own right, was based on a folk song the composer heard at his sister's house whistled by a house painter. When the quartet was performed at a tribute concert for Leo Tolstoy, the author was said to have been brought to tears by this movement: “…Tolstoy, sitting next to me and listening to the Andante of my First Quartet, burst into tears".

The concert culminates with Schumann’s String Quartet No. 3. The influence of both Mozart and Beethoven is felt throughout the Quartet. Not only in the introduction’s tonal ambiguity, with its unsettling chromatic harmony, but in Schumann’s very brief establishment of the “tonic” (home) key before swiftly journeying into other keys. The four movement work ends with a rousing finish.

With safety as our top priority, we are excited to announce St. James Place as our 2020/21 Streaming Sponsor for this concert. Whether in person or streaming from the comfort of your home, enjoy an evening with your BRSO String Quartet.

Covid-19 Safety Protocols

·         Tickets must be purchased in advance

·         Doors will open at 7pm

·         All attendees must wear a mask or face covering

·         Maintain social distancing inside and outside

·         During our abbreviated intermission, restrooms will be available. If not using the restroom, patrons must remain in their seating area.

·         Immediately following the concert, attendees will be dismissed by area

·         No congregating in the building after the concert

Series Sponsor: Lamar Family