The Borealis String Quartet is teaming up with pianist Jane Hayes at 7:30 p.m. tonight (Oct. 21) for a "String Showcase" performance that will include Dvorak's Piano Quartet at Kwantlen Polytechnic University's Langley Auditorium.
It is one of many upcoming shows for the internationally acclaimed string quartet-in-residence, who also teach classical music at the school.
"The quartet is now the quartet in residence and faculty at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and we are building up the string program both locally and internationally," said first violin Patricia Shih, who along with husband and violist Nikita Pogrebnoy make up half of the team that also includes Yuel Yawney (second violin) and Sungyong Lim (cellist).
"Our plans this coming year is to start a new Kwantlen Chamber Orchestra and bring it on tour worldwide under the Kwantlen name. As we are an international touring group, it would be most likely happening even this coming summer where we are faculty and performers at the prestigious Casalmaggiore Festival in Italy."
The quartet will also be performing a one-of-a-kind show next month at the Surrey Arts Centre.
"The audience members will be in complete darkness, hence the theme of the concert being called Out of Darkness into Light."
The four musicians will have rely on their memory and performance skills as they perform without music scores or the ability to see one another.
The 3 p.m. concert on Nov. 20 will begin with Georg Freidrich Haas's String Quartet No. 3, "In iij Noct," which audiences will listen to with the lights off after finding their seats. When the work premiered in 2002, the composer said darkness is something we have lost in our lives and we have suppressed the natural tension it creates. Additional works on this program include works of Shostakovich, Haydn and local Vancouver composer Farshid Samandari.
Another Borealis String Quartet performances at Kwantlen's Langley campus for classical music lovers to mark on their calendars is a "Wind Showcase" Feb. 3 featuring Paolo Bortoluss (flute), Marea Chernoff (oboe), Fracois Houle (clarinet), Allan Thorpe (bassoon), Laurel Spencer (French horn) and pianist Hayes in a program built around Francis Poulenc's Sextet, a French masterpiece of the 20th century.
On March 3, they'll be joined by Vancouver's Good Noise Gospel Choir for a "Choral Showcase" directed by Gail Suderman, KPU's Director of Voice and Choral Studies.
Visit borealisstringqurtet.com for more information.