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FeedThe World On A String
The ever-evolving Serafin String Quartet is raising its profile with a new CD release, a London concert and a project with a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. It’s safe to say, the Serafins aren’t fiddling around.
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Since its debut concert in 2004, the Serafin String Quartet has gone peacefully along, performing primarily at venues up and down the East Coast and occasionally nationally. But with the recent release of its first commercial CD, along with several other exciting projects, the Wilmington-based Serafins are broadening their horizons.
“We’ve decided we need to start to have some international presence” says violinist Kate Ransom, a quartet founder. So the quartet—Ransom, Ana Tsinadze on viola, Timothy Schwarz on violin and cellist Lawrence Stomberg—will be presented in September at Saint John’s, Smith Square, London—the premier venue for emerging ensembles.
The Serafins’ repertoire will include selections from its recently released CD, which Ransom describes as an “American tapestry,” as well as material from an upcoming project with Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-winning composer Jennifer Higdon.
The CD, available now on the Centaur Records Website (scheduled for an official release in September), was recorded in 2009 at the University of Delaware’s Gore Hall. Though recording was exciting, it’s also progress toward another level.
“It’s a step along the way because the group continues to develop and refine what we do,” Ransom says. “We’ve already grown artistically since we recorded that material.”
The Serafins (they take their name from Ransom’s violin, which was made in 1728 by the Venetian master Sanctus Serafin) will play the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia in February, then kick off a tour of the Southeast in April. The quartet also recently signed a deal to become the ensemble in residence at UD.
With the group’s youngest member approaching 40, Ransom says it’s too late for the quartet to establish itself by embarking on the traditional competition circuit.
“We have to build our careers in a different way,” she says. “We have to take the next step that is achievable and helps us grow and strengthen everything about what we are.”
For more, visit centaurrecords.com, or serafinquartet.org. —Drew Ostroski
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