Veronika String Quartet perform for Thursday Night Recital Series

Arguably Colorado’s finest string quartet and perhaps one of the state’s best-kept secrets, the Veronika String Quartet, will perform at the fifth concert in the 2005-2006 Thursday Night Recital Series in the Louisa Performing Arts Center at The Colorado Springs School Mar 23 at 7 pm. The program will feature works by Glazunov, Prokofiev, and Haydn. “It’s a great honor for us to have the Veronika String Quartet on our stage again,” said Head of School Mickey Landry. “Most people don’t realize what a treasure we have in these talented women who make their homes right here in the Pikes Peak Region.”

Indeed, the rest of the world knows. The Quartet was formed in 1989 at Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow. They have been awarded top prizes in international competitions in Russia, Australia, and in the United States and have performed in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, England, Switzerland, Israel, and toured extensively in Russia and the United States. The Veronika String Quartet has performed at the Thursday Night Recital Series several times, most recently with Lawrence Leighton Smith, Music Director of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic last season.

For over a decade, the Veronika String Quartet has received scholarship awards in the United States from the University of Milwaukee - Wisconsin’s Institute of Chamber Music, Miami University in Oxford, OH and the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, OH. The Quartet has been coached by Valentin Berlinsky, cellist of the Borodin Quartet, Fine Arts Quartet, and Henry W. Meyer, violinist of the LaSalle Quartet and has collaborated in performances with the Fine Arts Quartet, Martin Lovett, formerly of the Amadeus Quarter, pianists James Tocco and Ruth Laredo. The repertoire of The Veronika String Quartet ranges from Haydn and Beethoven to twentieth-century works. The Quartet has recorded for the Warner Brothers, Narada, and Northword Press Labels.

Since 1999, the Veronika String Quartet has been in residence at the University of Southern Colorado and the Pueblo Symphony. The popularity of the quartet has led them to launch a dedicated concert series in Pueblo: Chamber Music with the Veronika String Quartet. Two concerts, on Mar 5 and Apr 23, are scheduled for the current artistic season at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center Theatre. The Quartet plans a series of four concerts next season.

Their program includes music from the founder of the String Quartet, Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809) whose Emperor Quartet may be the single most popular work he composed for this combination of instruments. From Classical to Romantic: Alexander Glazunov’s (1865-1936) seldom heard 5 Novelletes- appropriately very Russian and very much inspired by the Veronika’s native homeland’s rich folk music tradition. Then, on to a 20th century master: Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), a maverick musical voice exemplified by the intimacy and concentration found in his String Quartet No. 2.

As an educational adjunct to their concert performance, the members of The Veronika String Quartet will share their music and personal stories with the entire Middle School at CSS in a special assembly. “We take full advantage of having great artists come on to our campus,” said Miller Adam, the school’s Fine Arts Department Chair. “Our students get the benefit of a rich arts experience, and through these encounters with artists, they’re able to see beyond the art to what it takes to make the art.”

In conjunction with the chamber music performance, the Gallery at Louisa will present painter Mariya Zvonkovich in her show Transitions. Zvonkovich’s plein air paintings will adorn the gallery walls, with an artist’s opening at 5 pm. She is an artist and educator who began her career as an art teacher in both the Los Angeles and Chicago public school systems. “I find myself at a new place in my life,” said Zvonkovich. “Years of artistic exploration have solidified who I am as a creative spirit and human being. This exhibit gives me the opportunity to reflect back upon that inquiry while showing the signs of what’s to come. I’m using this as a door opener toward future creation.”

Zvonkovich now teaches drawing and painting for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center's Bemis Art Academy. She held the position of Master Pastellist for the Colorado Springs Art Students League; and through her company, Painters Retreats International, conducted workshops nationally and internationally - including the popular painters’ retreats at Ghost Ranch, NM.

She has worked in the community in several arenas: instructing children’s and teachers’ workshops for the Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration; co-founding the Pikes Peak Pastel Society with a core group of colleagues; and collaborating with Gerry Riggs to bring WATERMEDIA - an international juried exhibit - to the Gallery of Contemporary Art (2005, 2000, and 1997).

Zvonkovich’s award-winning work has been exhibited in museums and galleries from Los Angeles to New York, including the Salmagundi Club and the National Arts Club in Manhattan. Closer to home, her work has been included in exhibits at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and the Gallery of Contemporary Art. She is currently represented by Squash Blossom Gallery in Colorado Springs, Pankratz Gallery in Monument, and Mary Martin Gallery in Charleston, SC.

For more information, call (719) 475-9747 ex 110 or check out the website at www.css.org

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