Boston-based Quartet to Play at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – The music department and the chamber players at the College of the Holy Cross will present the QX String Quartet, a Boston-based ensemble, on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

The quartet, founded in 2005, includes violinists Krista Buckland Reisner and Rohan Gregory, violist Peter Sulski and cellist Jan Müller-Szeraws. Their music ranges from the classics to improvisational world music.

“We will be performing just the classics at Holy Cross,” says Sulski, “Including Bartok's quartet number 1, Beethoven quartet opus 18, number 4 and the Ravel string quartet.”

Sulski works with instrumental students at Holy Cross, giving them lessons, coaching them in chamber music, and assisting with the Holy Cross Chamber Orchestra. He also helps in setting up many community outreach performances for the students, including one at Mechanics Hall in the spring.

“Working at College of the Holy Cross with its musicians is an intense experience,” explains Sulski. “The students are dedicated and open to new experiences and ways of thinking.”

The Quartet collaborates frequently with composer Shirish Korde, professor and chair of the music department at the College. QX is planning the premiere of a concerto for string quartet, in the performance Korde will play the block flute.

QX made their debut right here in Worcester, at Mechanics Hall. They have performed with pianists Andrew Rangall and Judith Gordon at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, premiered a composition written for them by Christos Koulendros, by invitation of the St. Botolph Club in Boston and recorded their first CD in the fall of 2006, by composer Joseph Summer (Albany Records).

In 2005, they started the QX Chamber Music Festival, which brings together budding young instrumentalists for an intensive week of chamber music coaching, faculty and participant concerts. The festival was so successful they have expanded it to a two week period and opened it up to adult amateurs. This year it will take place from July 14-25.

Other upcoming events include a Shakespeare Concert in Boston’s Jordan Hall and the recording of a second CD of works by Joseph Summer.