Del Valle Fine Arts will be presenting chamber music group Telegraph Quartet in Livermore this weekend.
Set for this Saturday, the group will show off their talents and musicianship to an audience at the Bankhead Theater.
The set list will bridge the end of 19th century and the first half of the 20th century with themes referring to World War II and traveling around the globe.
Some compositions include String Quartet No. 4 (1951) by Grażyna Bacewicz, String Quartet No. 1 (1941) by Benjamin Britten, and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895), according to a statement from Del Valle Fine Arts.
Made up of violist Pei-Ling Lin, cellist Jeremiah Shaw and violinists Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 out of a mutual love and appreciation for contemporary chamber music.
Maille shared his thoughts on the historical context built into the upcoming performance set list.
"Two of the works of this program exemplify the sheer emotional intensity that is wrapped up in a time of unprecedented upheaval -- the period during and after World War II," said Maille.
Many composers during that time period come with striking stories of surviving war times and avoiding persecution.
Grażyna Bacewicz’s String Quartet No. 4, was composed in 1951 just years after the end of WWII. Bacewicz had lived through the Nazi occupation of Poland and continued to create musical works. Composer Benjamin Britten, and his future partner Peter Pears, fled England in 1939 to avoid being jailed and out of fear of a war.
"Britten and Bacewicz not only managed to keep working creatively during this period, a small feat in itself, but also managed to express a striking combination of ambivalence and purity in both of these works," said Maille of the two musicians. "(They were) contending with the harsh realities of their world while still honoring the universal human truths that were worth fighting for."
The violinist added, "like Britten, but under very different historical circumstances, Dvořák found himself on an extended sojourn in a promising America where he began writing a poignant quartet yearning for his homeland of Bohemia and incorporating the folk inclinations of both of these lands equally."
The group's most recent album, "20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths" (released Aug. 25) featured many of these recordings. The record is the first installment of a three-part series on the era, said band members in a statement.
Since their formation, the group has been recognized as a skilled and exceptional musical group, receiving many awards, positive reviews and accolades over the years. In 2016 the four piece received the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award, a global competition.
They have traveled and performed across the country but remain based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The members belong to the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Del Valle Fine Arts seeks to bring quality chamber music concerts and education to the Tri-Valley. Each year, the organization presents five regular season concerts with other special shows as well. This year marks its 38th season of events.
The Telegraph Quartet's show at the Bankhead is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 21). Tickets are available at https://livermorearts.org/events/telegraphquartet/
