Bergonzi String Quartet
The Bergonzi String Quartet, named for the famous violin maker, Carlo Bergonzi, has been Quartet-in-Residence at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami, since 1992, where all four performers are faculty members. In their first three years they performed the Beethoven Quartet cycle in a series of six concerts at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach. Since then, they have developed a repertoire that includes many Latin works and a large number of original arrangements created by the members of the quartet, including Neil Hefti’s What is this thing called Love?, Schubert’s Erlkonig and Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals for String Quartet and 12 Instruments.
Hailed by the critics as “electrifying” and “masterful”, the Quartet has become one of Florida’s and America’s most important cultural assets. Reflecting South Florida’s diverse cultural community, the Bergonzi often explores the marvelous quartet repertoire of Villa-Lobos, Ginastera, Surinach, Piazzolla, and others.
The Bergonzi String Quartet consists of Scott Flavin, Evija Ozolins, Chauncey Patterson and Ross Harbaugh. Prior to joining the Bergonzi Quartet, the four members were part of the New World, Pro Arte, Miami, and Ellis String Quartets, and have extensive collective performing experience, appearing in virtually every major center in the world, with concerts throughout Europe, U.K., North and South America, New Zealand, and Asia. They have released seven recordings, including Bergonzi: By Arrangement Only, For Bergonzi Four, Mendelssohn Quartets, Bergonzi Live, and Wild, for labels including Naxos, Centaur, and Fleur de Son. In the summer, they are in residence at the Pine Mountain Music Festival.
Scott Flavin, Violin
Scott Flavin maintains a busy and versatile career as violinist, educator, conductor, and arranger. He is Professor of Violin at the Frost School of Music, where he is also Resident Conductor and Artistic Coordinator for The Henry Mancini Institute.
Since 2002 he has been concertmaster of Florida Grand Opera, as well as for the Miami Bach Society. In addition, he performs nationally and internationally on violin and viola with PULSE Trio. Previous positions include concertmaster of Miami City Ballet from 1997-2003, and violinist in the Rochester Philharmonic. He is the Music Director of Miami Mozarteum, and has appeared on the podium with such diverse artists as soprano Denyce Graves, the Beach Boys, Chick Corea, and Dave Grusin, among many others.
Scott was born and raised in Boston, where he received his early musical training, and then attended the Eastman School of Music. He has conducted in summer festivals including the Pine Mountain Music Festival and the University of New Hampshire’s Summer Youth Music School, as well as guest appearances with the Alhambra Orchestra and on the JazzRoots concert series. The HMI Chamber Orchestra, under his direction, received the 2013 Downbeat Magazine award for outstanding classical group. His nationally-broadcast conducting debut, for the PBS television special, “Jazz and the Philharmonic”, aired in January of 2014. He has also been heard on over a dozen Grammy Award-winning albums, has recorded for labels including Naxos, Centaur, and M&W, and has released two solo recordings. In addition, he is active as a composer and arranger, his works having been heard often on American Public Media’s Performance Today, and in concert across the country.
For more information, see www.scottflavin.com
Evija Ozolins, Violin
Evija Ozolins is currently the concertmaster for the Palm Beach Symphony orchestra and assistant concertmaster of Florida Grand Opera. Born in Riga, Latvia, Evija is a third generation musician in a family of professional musicians.
She began playing the piano at the age of three and the violin at the age of five, and was educated in Riga at the Emils Darzins Academy of Music. In 1991, she was accepted as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where she studied with renowned violinists Aaron Rosand and David Nadien, and received a Bachelor of Music degree and a professional studies certificate. In addition, she was awarded a career grant from the American Latvian Association and a Bill Starr Scholarship, as well as a Canadian Latvian Association Career Grant. Ms. Ozolins was also the winner of the Mannes Orchestra Concerto Competition.
She has given solo recitals in many U.S. cities, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, as well as Canada, the Caribbean and Europe. She has recorded as a soloist with Maureen McGovern, Lee Leesack, Brian Lane Green, and her name appears on many commercial recordings and soundtracks. She also performs on numerous broadway shows, most recently Motown and Phantom of the Opera on Broadway in NYC. Evija plays on a 1782 Antonio Gragnani violin.
Chauncey Patterson, Viola
Chauncey Patterson has garnered an impressive career as chamber musician, teacher, soloist, and orchestral player. He began his professional career at the age of 23 as Assistant Principal Viola of the Denver Symphony, and was eventually appointed Principal Viola by Music Director Phillipe Entremont. His next post was Principal Viola of the Buffalo Philharmonic under the direction of Seymon Bychkov.
During his stay in Buffalo, Mr. Patterson was offered and accepted the viola position in the award-winning Miami String Quartet. During his 15 year tenure, the MSQ garnered awards in the quartet competitions of London and Evian, in addition to being the first string quartet to win the Concert Artist Guild New York Competition. The Quartet toured the U.S. extensively playing virtually every high profile venue including performances at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl.
Foreign travels (both with and without the MSQ) have taken Mr. Patterson to Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Panama, Brazil, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, and the Netherlands. He has shared the chamber music stage with such distinguished artists as: Gil Shaham, Garrick Ohlsson, Cho liang Lin, Robert Chen, Jamie Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Paul Neubauer, Cindy Phelps, Nadja Salerno Sonennberg, the Orion String Quartet, Franco Gulli, Aaron Rosand, Menachem Pressler, Peter Wiley, Andre Michel Schub, Bill Pruecil, Ida Kavafian, Lynn Harrell, Arto Noras, Mark Johnson, Gene Druckman, and Robert Vernon. Following his tenure with the MSQ, Mr. Patterson served as interim violist of the world renowned Fine Arts Quartet. He currently resides in Miami, Florida where he serves as Solo Viola of the Florida Grand Opera and interim professor of viola at the Frost School of Music, as well as violist in the Bergonzi String Quartet.
Educaton has been a major component of Chauncey’s career; his faculty affiliations include: The Cleveland Institute of Music, Blossom School of Music, Kent State University, Hartt School of Music, Encore School for Strings, Eastern Music Festival, University of Charleston (W.V.), University of Denver, New World School of the Arts, Florida International University, and The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
Chauncey started playing the viola at the age of 8 in the Burlington, North Carolina Public School System. He attended The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Cleveland Institute of Music and holds a Certificate from The Curtis Institute of Music. His major teachers were Ann Woodward, Robert Vernon, Karen Tuttle and Michael Tree.
Ross Harbaugh, Cello
Ross Harbaugh is Professor of Cello and Chair of the Department of Instrumental Performance at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami. His distinguished teachers include Janos Starker, Leonard Rose, and Peter Howard in the United States and Andre Navarra at the Paris Conservatory, as well as chamber music study with the Juilliard Quartet.
As a founding member of the New World Quartet he won the Naumburg Prize, a Prix du Disque, and recorded 14 records and CD’s for Vox, MCI Classic and IMP Masters, CRI, Centaur, Fleur de Son, and Musical Heritage labels. Performing throughout Europe and the United States, he has appeared in concerts at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, and Wigmore Hall in London, and has concertized with such artists as Leonard Rose, Bill Preucil, Richard Goode, Jeffrey Kahane, Raphael Hillyer, Joel Krosnick, Jerome Rose, Gil Kalish, and the Guarneri Quartet.
Mr. Harbaugh has served as a judge for the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, the Stulberg Competition, and the Fulbright Competition for Graduate Music Study Abroad.
For more information, see www.rossharbaugh.com.
Wild
Glenn Basham, violin, harmonica, musical saw, bird, pianoScott Flavin, violin, narrator, siren, bird, piano
Pamela McConnell, viola, accordion, recorder, electric keyboard, piano
Ross Harbaugh, cello, kazoo, bird, piano Peter and the Wolf Sergei Prokofiev (1891 – 1953), Arr. by Pamela McConnellell Carnival of the Animals Camille Saint Saens (1835-1921), Arr. by Pamela McConnell Bagatelle Antonin Dvorak, Arr. by Pamela McConnell Libertango Astor Piazzolla, Arr. by Pamela McConnell
For more details, please click HERE.
Dennis Kam: All About Time
Bergonzi String Quartet, Margaret Donaghue Flavin, Alan Ngim, Amy Tarantino Preludes for piano (1986-1998) Amy Tarantino, piano String Quartet no. 3 (1998) Bergonzi String Quartet Fantasy Sonata for clarinet and piano (1981) Margaret Donaghue Flavin, clarinet; Amy Tarantino, piano The Epistemology of Delicate Time in Blue Three (1981)For more details, please click HERE.
Bergonzi Live
String Quartets in D Major, K.V. 575 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart String Quartet No. 2 in D Major Alexander BorodinA live recording of the Bergonzi String quartet concert given on June 26, 2006, in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts in Houghton, Michigan. This concert was presented as part of the Pine Mountan Music Festival dedicated to the performance of Chamber Music, Opera, and Symphony in the Upper Peninsula of MIchigan.
For more details, please click HERE.
Fourtified
THE MIAMI SASOPHONE QUARTETGary Keller, soprano saxophone
Gary LIndsay, alto saxophone
Ed Calle, tenor saxophone
Mike Brignola, baritone sasophone
THE BERGONZI STRING QUARTET
Also featuring: Chuck Bergeron, James Gasior, Richard Bravo, Mike Harvey, Lee Levin, Dan Warner
For more details, please click HERE.
For Bergonzi Four
Compositions by: Thomas Sleeper, Christian Macelaru, Dennis Kam, Kenneth Fuchs, Scott Flavin String Quartet no. 2 “Bergonzi” Thomas Sleeper (2001) String Quartet No. 3, “For the Bergonzi” Dennis Kam (1998)For more details, please click HERE.
Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartets Op.12, 13 & 81
String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 13* String Quartet in E Flat Major, Op. 12* String Quartet, Op. 81**For more details, please click HERE.
The Bergonzi String Quartet plays Ginastera, Wolf and Debussy
String Quartet no. 1, Opus 20Alberto Ginastera Hugo Wolf String Quartet No. 1 in G, Opus 10 Claude Debussy
For more details, please click HERE.
Bergonzi String Quartet by Arrangement Only
For more details, please click HERE.
American Classics: Cadman Charles Wakefield
Bergonzi Quartet, Ross Harbaugh, Paul Posnak, Peter Zazofsky Arr. Yost Gaylord Cadman Piano Trio in D major Violin Sonata in G major Piano Quintet in G major The Legend of the Canyon, opus 68 4 American Indian Songs, op. 45: No 1. From the land of the Sky-Blue WaterFor more details, please click HERE.
New York Concert Review
“Their tone is full and sonorous. Their performance was excellent, authoritative and affectionate. The players emerged for their solos and melted back into the texture smoothly and naturally. “
“The Bergonzi String Quartet gave this long and complex piece a splendid performance. Technically secure, emotionally involved, they brought out the character of each movement as well as the textural and idiomatic contrasts between them, and generated a sense of cameraderie and enjoyment that sent sparks across the footlights.”
– Edith Eisler, concert review “The Bergonzi Ensemble Is Excellent”
Coral Gables Gazette
“The ensemble approached with typical skill and accuracy. First Violin Glenn Basham played Mendelssohn’s complex and hurried melismatic passages with great skill and beauty.”
“Violist Pamela McConnell deserves special mention. Rarely has this listener been treated to such warm, tender, and beautiful viola playing. Her sound is always discernable in the chords and counterpoint, but only in the most positive sense. Too many violists are lost in the wars of the string quartet sound, whereas her cutting and beautiful tone rings through, a full contributor to the pieces’ beauty. “
“Closing the concert was Ravel’s only string quartet. It is here that the ensemble’s versatility came shining forth. Creating seemingly endless varieties of color and timbre, the quartet discovered beautiful moments of vibratoless chords accompanying a warm, tender melody in Basham’s vioin. Their reading reflected an intimate knowledge and understanding of the work.”
– Bruce Kiesling, concert review “Bergonzi Quartet Does Not Disappoint” (For full review, please click HERE)“McConnell’s new take on Saint-Saens’s classic was a total delight. The string writing has both wit and style. She has reduced the full orchestration to just four instruments with ingenuity, musicality, and inventiveness. The composer’s charming musical vision is not short changed. Along the way the players make lion and bird noises. At one point violinist Glenn Basham played a harmonica (to fill in the orchestral texture). Later Basham switched from his violin to a musical saw which made some eerie effects in a surprisingly imaginative way. McConnell played an alto recorder for the ‘Cuckoo’ sound while walking through the audience. She also played a synthesizer skillfully in the ‘Fossils’ movement. (Indeed McConnell proved to be a striking comedienne.) Cellist Ross Harbaugh had his turn playing a kazoo in place of a double bass. Violinist Scott Flavin joined his colleagues at the keyboard to share the ‘Pianists’ section. Their skill at the piano and showbiz flair brought to mind Victor Borge. And why not? Why shouldn’t concerts be fun? Art and humor can be combined. This version of ‘Carnival of the Animals’ combines musical integrity and creativity with great entertainment. The Bergonzi Quartet has come up with a winner and has broken new ground for the string quartet medium. The performance was wonderfully light, bright, and witty. Harbaugh played ‘The Swan’ with beautiful singing tone and nobility of musical line.
– Lawrence Budmen, music review “The Bergonzi Quartet Romps with Saint-Saens’s ‘Carnival'” (For full review, please click HERE)
Miami Herald
“The Bergonzi foursome gave it a finely judged performance, pointing up the multi-thematic writing of the first movement and Mendelssohn’s phenomenal facility at counterpoint.”
– James Roos, music review “Is It Mainly Mozart? No, But Gems Sparkle” (For full review, please click HERE)“Flavin’s violin, along with the profound lyricism of Ross Harbaugh’s cello and Paul Posnak’s powerful pianism, captured all of the angst and profundity of this masterpiece [Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Piano Trio from 1945]. The players managed to maintain correct intonation while projecting the full power of the music.”
“The Bergonzi Quartet took on the challenges of Schubert’s well-known String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, Death and the Maiden. The title is taken from the composer’s song, which provides the theme for a set of variations in the second movement. While the first movement’s Allegro is one of turbulence and unrest, the Bergonzi’s played down these elements and gave us a reading without the usual vehemence. There were no such problems in the simple beauty of the slow movement, but the cross-accents of the Scherzo and final Presto were too gentle when one wanted to be shaken by the scruff of the neck. If this was not your usualDeath and the Maiden, it was a well executed and thought-provoking alternative.”
– Alan Becker, concert review “Bergonzi String Quartet Delights with Unusual Program” (For full review, please click HERE)
Palm Beach ArtsPaper
“Charming, funny, and a crowd-pleasing moment, but what was most striking about the Bergonzi String Quartet’s concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach was its admirable seriousness, and the high level of polish and quality with which this fine ensemble opened the 2009-10 classical music season in Palm Beach County.”
“The quartet showed how much variety there is Ginastera, whose music’s relentlessness often spurs charges of monotony and tedium. Here, for instance, the second movement was quiet and mysterious even as it percolated steadily away, and two fine solo passages from Harbaugh and Basham gave real expressivity to the third movement, with its noonday-heat feeling of stasis and slow unfolding. The treacherous ending, toward which the musical language of the entire piece has been resolving, was right on the money, bringing a neat climax to the work and shouts of enthusiasm from the decent-sized audience.”
“Flavin’s arrangement of the Bernstein song also was quite effective, and the clowning that went with it added some real mischievous fun to the afternoon; perhaps it could have used a fuller sound as the closing accelerando material got under way.”
– Greg Stepanich, concert review “Bergonzi Quartet Opens Season in Admirable Style” (For full review, please click HERE)Music & Voices
“The Bergonzi String Quartet gave this score a lush, rich toned performance. There was rhythmic propulsion and vigor in the fast sections, yet the quartet never exaggerated the music’s pulse. Ross Harbaugh’s golden cello tone was a tower of strength, matched by Glenn Basham’s singing first violin. Violinist Scott Flavin and violist Pamela McConnell also played with intensity and dedication in this splendid revival of a lovely work.”
– Lawrence Budmen, music review “Enchanting Music: Festival Miami Celebrates Ned Rorem’s 80th Bithday, and Lawrence Budmen Was Impressed”South Florida Classical Review
“The Bergonzi String Quartet delivered a superb, impassioned performance, violinist Glenn Basham digging into the emphatic riffs and all the members putting across the eerie harmonics and strident edge, the group’s astringent sonority well suited to this music.”
– Lawrence A. Johnson, music review “Ginastera Fest Opens with Fire at the Frost” (For full review, please click HERE)Website
Reviews
“…accomplished performances, highlited by the tremendously assured partnership involving the Bergonzi Quartet…”
“The Quartet played the work (Ginastera’s Quartet No.1) with great security, freedom and idiomatic empathy…The Bergonzi ensemble is excellent; the players take it so much for granted that they hardly need to look at each other. Their tone is full and sonorous…”
“Their tone is full and sonorous. Their performance was excellent, authoritative and affectionate. The players emerged for their solos and melted back into the texture smoothly and naturally.”
“Creating seemingly endless varieties of color and timbre, the quartet discovered beautiful moments of vibratoless chords accompanying a warm, tender melody in Basham’s vioin. Their reading reflected an intimate knowledge and understanding of the work.”
“Charming, funny, and a crowd-pleasing moment, but what was most striking about the Bergonzi String Quartet’s concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach was its admirable seriousness, and the high level of polish and quality with which this fine ensemble opened the 2009-10 classical music season in Palm Beach County.”
“The Bergonzi foursome gave it a finely judged performance, pointing up the multi-thematic writing of the first movement and Mendelssohn’s phenomenal facility at counterpoint.”
Audio Samples
Live Recordings
String Quartet in D Major, K.V. 575
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I. AllegrettoII. Andante
III. Menuetto and Trio-Allegretto
IV. Allegretto
What is This Thing Called Love
Cole Porter, arr. by Scott Flavin
The Man I Love
George Gershwin, arr. by Scott Flavin