Cypress String Quartet in Open Rehearsal: See New Music Being Made!

Please join us for a very special event! The acclaimed Cypress String Quartet is preparing for a concert that includes the world premiere of George Tsontakis' String Quartet No. 6.

On Saturday, March 8, the Maybeck Studio will host the Cypress Quartet in a concert preview and open rehearsal. Come see the creative process as the artists bring a new work to life; hear remarks from members of the Quartet about music-making and new works; and bring your own questions.

The Cypress String Quartet in Open Rehearsal
Saturday, March 8, 2014, at 3:00pm
Maybeck Studio for the Performing Arts
1537 Euclid Ave., Berkeley 94708

This event is free, but seating is limited. Get your required online reservation here.


“Call & Response” was born out of the Cypress String Quartet's commitment to presenting music as a dynamic and ongoing process of inspiration.  The term “Call & Response” is usually associated with Jazz and Gospel music: the idea being that a musician places a musical “call” to which another musician “responds”.  In this program the call is that of the Cypress String Quartet searching for connections across musical, historical, and social boundaries.  The response is the creation of a new work by a contemporary composer and the creation of a new and diverse concert audience.

Following over two dozen educational outreach presentations before students and adults of all levels and communities, the Cypress Quartet performs the Call & Response concert at Marines’ Memorial Theatre in San Francisco. Scholarship tickets permit participating students to attend the public performance free of charge.

This year, for the 15^th Anniversary of Call & Response, the theme of Call & Response is “The Long and the Short of It”, and we will explore how both brief and epic pieces of music can express worlds of emotions.  In order to delve more deelply into this concept, the Call & Response concert will feature four very different works by composers Franz Schubert, Anton Webern, and George Tsontakis. Indeed, the expansive and highly romantic nature of Schubert’s G Major Quartet contrasted with the concise and tightly-knit works by Anton Webern, at first glance, seem to be on opposite ends of the musical spectrum. And yet, while these three composers use disparate musical building blocks (spare texture vs. thick texture, lush harmonies vs. clarion melodies etc.), their goals are the same: to express emotion and create a piece of music that moves people.