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Albuquerque cellist James Holland introduced cellists Dana Winograd and Joel Becktell to the cello quartet “Squartet” by Holland’s friend Matt Walker last year. It’s a bluesy and funky kind of composition, Holland said, that pays homage to the “William Tell Overture.”
“I don’t think there’s a classical note in the piece,” he added.
“Squartet” is among the works presented during Taos Chamber Music Group’s Art of the Cello concert in Taos next weekend. When Walker composed the work in 2008, Holland thought he would be playing it with his old friend at a Charleston Symphony Orchestra concert not long after it was written, but the gig fell through. Holland got a chance to hear the piece on YouTube last year after a cello quartet performed it in Nashville.
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If you go WHAT: “Art of the Cello, Part Two” presented by the Taos Chamber Music Group WHEN: 5 p.m. Saturday, March 30 and March 31 WHERE: Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux St., Taos HOW MUCH: $20 in advance; $22 at the door For tickets go to www.taoschambermusicgroup.org. For more information: 575-758-0150 |
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“It was a hoot,” said Holland. “I contacted Matt and asked him to send me all the parts so I could play it in Albuquerque with New Mexico cellists.”
Holland, Becktell, Winograd and David Schepps have performed “Squartet” at the University of New Mexico and at the Sunday Chatter series. For the Taos performance, Sally Guenther joins Winograd, Holland and Becktell on stage.
“The piece brought the house down in Albuquerque,” Holland said. “I think Taos audiences will love it.”
“Art of the Cello, Part Two” is a concert that features cello quartets by some of New Mexico’s finest cellists. Guenther and Winograd performed in a previous “Art of the Cello” concert that took place two years ago in Taos.
“Taos seems to love cellos and cellists,” said Taos Chamber Music Group’s artistic director Nancy Laupheimer in a recent written statement. “We wanted to present another program of music for multiple cellos performed by musicians with lots of personality.”
The cello quartet performs a wide range of works for four cellos. Holland said the repertoire for cello quartet is thankfully growing.
“The cello has a great low, middle and high register,” he explained. “It lends itself to ensemble work.”
On the program are works written for and arranged for cello quartet by Antonio Vivaldi, Béla Bartok, Claude Debussy, Ira Gershwin and Fritz Kreisler. Music by Paul McCartney and Guns N’ Roses is thrown into the mix. Laupheimer joins the quartet to play an arrangement of Bach’s C Major Flute Sonata and Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5.
While Guenther and Winograd are familiar faces on Taos stages, Holland and Becktell are newcomers. Holland, who plays with the New Mexico Philharmonic, Albuquerque Chamber Soloists and the Figueroa Project, appeared with Taos Chamber Music Group in its January concert. Becktell, who graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music and spent seven years as the principal cellist of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, has been performing in Santa Fe with the Santa Fe Symphony and Santa Fe Pro Musica.
