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Ying Quartet Return To Edmond Town Hall Will Mark End Of Friends Of Music Winter Break

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Ying Quartet will make its fourth visit to Newtown on Sunday, February 16, for a 3 pm performance sponsored by Newtown Friends of Music. NFoM hosted the first three concerts of its 2013-14 season in September, October and November. The performance in February will mark the return of the performance season following a traditional two-month winter break.

The Ying Quartet is an American string quartet. Siblings Timothy, Janet, Philip and David Ying hail from Winnetka, Ill., and formed their quartet in 1988 while studying at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. Their steep rise to fame started in 1992 in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa, when they became the first recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts grant to support chamber music in rural America for two years in a row.

The quartet won the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music award early in its career and has since established an international reputation for excellence in performance and has won the hearts of all, including Newtown audiences. The quartet’s success in making artistic and creative expressions an essential part of everyday life was widely chronicled in both the national and international media, including feature articles in The New York Times and STRAD Magazine, along with coverage on CBS Sunday Morning.

Newtown Friends of Music, ever on the search for new, young talent, quickly engaged the Ying Quartet to not only perform in their Sunday afternoon concert series but also to teach an Outreach Program at Newtown High School 14 years ago. The concert and the outreach program were so successful, according to NFoM, that the quartet has been invited back several times.

The Ying Quartet occupies a position of unique prominence in the classical music world, combining brilliantly communicative performances with a fearlessly imaginative view of chamber music in today's world. Now in its second decade as a quartet, it has established itself as an ensemble of the highest musical qualifications in its tours across the United States and abroad.  Their performances regularly take place in many of the world’s most important concert halls, from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House.

When Timothy Ying, the quartet’s first violinist, left to pursue a different direction in his career, and moved to Toronto where he lives with his wife Catherine and their three children, Ayano Ninomiya serendipitously joined the Ying Quartet as first violinist. She is Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Eastman School of Music.

Ms Ninomiya graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a joint degree in music and French in 2001, when she was also awarded The David McCord Prize and won the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Concerto Competition. She holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Robert Mann.

She has built a significant career of recital, concerto, music festival, and chamber music appearances. In addition, she brings her own passionate vision for imaginative programming, collaborative work, and audience engagement initiatives.

The program for the concert on February 16 will feature the music of Sergei Prokofiev, Howard Hanson, Randall Thompson’s Alleluja, and will conclude with a string quartet by Antonin Dvorák.

Tickets for this performance are $25, cash or check only. They may be purchased in advance by sending check and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Newtown Friends of Music at PO Box 295 , Newtown CT  06470-0295; or by calling 203-426-6470.

Remaining tickets will also be sold at the box office of Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street, beginning at 2 pm the afternoon of the concert. Students K-12 are admitted free of charge when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. College students with a valid student ID are also invited to attend free of charge.

Parking is free behind Edmond Town Hall. The facility is handicapped accessible.

An informal reception following the concert will offer concert goers the opportunity to meet and mingle with the musicians.

For information regarding this and other concerts and to print out an order form, visit www.newtownfriendsofmusic.org

Seated clockwise from left are the musicians who will be performing at Edmond Town Hall Theatre on February 16: violinist Ayano Ninomiya, cellist David Ying, violist Philip Ying, and violinist Janet Ying.
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