Greg Barrett
Clarinetist and NIU School of Music faculty member Greg Barrett will join NIU’s Avalon String Quartet as they continue their 2010-11 season at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.
They will play Stravinski’s “Three Pieces for String Quartet,” Tchaikovsky’s “String Quartet No. 1 in D Major” and the Brahms “Clarinet Quintet.”
Barrett, associate professor of clarinet and chamber music, has presented recitals and classes throughout the United States, and in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland and Japan. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, SUNY-Buffalo and Indiana University.
Currently performing with the Ars Viva Symphony, Elgin Symphony Orchestra and the Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra, he has been bass clarinetist with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as well as with numerous other orchestras in the Carolinas, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. He has been a Buffet Clarinets Artist-Clinician since 2000.
Inspired by the music of Jean Sibelius, Barrett has developed a wide-reaching interest in Finnish music and culture. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs sponsored his research in Finland to meet with contemporary composers of works for the clarinet. Resulting from this trip were Barrett’s dissertation and The Finnish Clarinet, released by ALBA CDs, Finland. Expanding on his interest in Scandinavian music to include Denmark, Barrett recently completed sabbatical work researching Danish clarinet music.
Barrett frequently collaborates with composers in their new works. In July 2005, he twice performed Paul Moravec’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Tempest Fantasy” under Moravec’s guidance at the Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival, California. He has premiered works by Lasse Jalava and David Maki.
Members of the Avalon Quartet are Blaise Magniere – first violin, Richard O. Ryan Endowed Chair in Violin; Marie Wang – second violin; Anthony Devroye – viola; and Cheng-Hou Lee – cello. The members of the Avalon Quartet teach applied lessons and coach chamber music, and are active in their performance career bringing attention to the NIU School of Music from the concert stage and in other outreach activities. They annually perform a number of concerts on campus and on a concert series produced by NIU at Symphony Center in Chicago.
Founded in 1995, the Avalon Quartet held residencies at NIU and the Hartt School, and prior to their appointment at NIU School of Music in 2007 was the faculty quartet-in-residence at the Indiana University-South Bend Raclin School of the Arts for four years.
The concert is free and open to the public. The NIU Music Building, 300 Lucinda Ave., is accessible to all. For those unable to attend, this concert also will be live-streamed.
For more information, contact Lynn Slater at (815) 753-1546 or lslater@niu.edu.
