LLL: Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet

Coming Monday, June 16 at 7 p.m. in the Lodge

Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet
Presented by CM4A (Chamber Music for All) a string quartet

String Quartet №8 in C minor, Op. 110, is one of Dmitri Shostakovich's most renowned works. Composed in 1960, it serves as Shostakovich's response to his visit to the war-ravaged city of Dresden in 1955, dedicating the piece "To The Victims Of Fascism And The War." Being written in 1960, this composition falls within the "Modern" music period, spanning from 1945 to the present. The composition's courage, amid pressure from the authoritarian Soviet government at the time, makes it a remarkably impressive piece in 20th-century music history.

Musicians in the CM4A quartet have a rich and impressive background.

Born in Timisoara, Romania, violinist Calin Ovidia Lupano is the concertmaster of the Charlotte Symphony. Mr. Lupano plays a violin made by Pierre Silvestre in Lyon, France, in 1857. In addition to his season-long responsibilities in Charlotte, Lupanu maintains a busy summer schedule, participating in such festivals as Bach and Beyond, Aspen, Lower Saxony, Strings in the Mountains, and the Colorado Music Festival, the latter of which he has been a member since 1998 and served as Concertmaster from 2004 until 2022, being the longest serving Concertmaster in the history of the Colorado Music Festival. 




Violinist Monica Boboc was born in Romania and gave her first solo performance with a professional orchestra at the age of fourteen.  She completed her musical studies at the Bucharest Musical Conservatory where she later served as assistant professor of chamber music. 

Violist and musicologist Dr. Marcus R. Pyle is currently serving as the inaugural Franco professor of humanities and assistant professor of musicology at Davidson College. Pyle was a C.V. Starr scholarship student at The Juilliard School where he graduated with a Master's in Viola Performance. Prior to attending Juilliard, he graduated with a Bachelor's in Music from the Royal Academy of Music in London. 

Peruvian cellist Marlene Ballena began playing the cello at age seven in her hometown of Lima. Following an impressive international career in music including earning a bachelor's degree in music at the University of Louisville, she joined the Charlotte Symphony in 2014.