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Parker Quartet (with Daniel Chong second from the right)

It’s not often you can call yourself “one of the preeminent ensembles of [your] generation” and it not sound boastful, but for the Boston-based Parker Quartet, it’s simply a description. 

Formed a decade ago when its members were all students as the New England Conservatory of Music, these formidable chamber music savants have maintained busy touring and recording schedules, won numerous honors and competitions and have served as artist-in-residence for a host of organizations across the nation, including their now fourth year in-residence at Harvard University with the new prestigious title of Preceptor.

Since the spring of 2013, one of those residencies has often been here in Columbia at the University of South Carolina. 

“We’ve been coming to USC for now, four or five years,” says violinist Daniel Chong. “We come for about two weeks a year. Certainly, at this point, both Columbia and USC feels a bit like a home away from home, for a number of reasons.”

Not surprisingly, much of the group’s relationship is grounded in their extraordinary work and collaboration — Chong cites watching the students grow year after year as well as developing relationships with the USC School of Music faculty. The Quartet makes a point to collaborate with a faculty member each time they return here, featuring Phillip Bush on a Brahms piano quintet last year and returning to the composer with clarinetist Joseph Eller this year at their Nov. 12 Family Concert.

“The music school at USC is a really tight-knit family, and we feel lucky to feel part of that or at least a branch of that,” offers Chong. “Whether it’s students or the faculty or the donors who make this residency possible, just welcoming us every time with open arms, being so supportive, and helping us make as much an impact as possible.”

Each year when the Quartet returns, they typically give two concerts — one in the recital hall, and another Family Concert for free the following Sunday. Much of this program, the violinist notes, is pulled from the works that the group is touring on for that year. 

“What makes our quartet unique is that we have a very wide range of taste,” he explains. “We’ll be playing Haydn and Mozart, but also all the way to European avant-garde music. Having Mozart and [contemporary Hungarian composer György] Ligeti back to back, I think that’s an interesting juxtaposition both as a listener and as a player. ... We like the fact that you can give someone the world of Mozart, but then sort of shatter that world with something completely different and unexpected. Somehow, if one listens with open ears, they can find their own connections between two very different composers.”

That Thursday night program, which also features a piece by modern Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, will be followed by a Sunday performance of two Stravinsky pieces and the Brahms clarinet quintet with Eller. In between, the Quartet’s members will conduct master classes with both USC students and other musicians in the area as the group continues to bolster their warm ties to Columbia despite their increasing renown. 

“What we’ve experienced is that there is an incredible amount of warmth and appreciation for what we bring, what we have to offer,” Chong professes, specifically thanking the donors who make the residency possible and foster the continued growth of chamber music for both the artists and the community. It is, after all, what allows the Parker Quartet to climb to such musical heights. 

“When we were young, we were seen as having so much talent and potential and energy and ability, such a high level of playing,” he says of the current state of the group, which is entering its second decade. “I’d like to think that all of those things are still there, but I think that those aspects have coalesced into a more refined version of who we are as a single entity.” 


What:Parker Quartet

When:Thursday, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m. (USC School of Music Recital Hall, 813 Assembly St.); Sunday, Nov. 12, 5 p.m. (Family Concert — Johnson Performance Hall at Darla Moore School of Business, 1014 Greene St.)

Price:$15 Thursday; Free Sunday

More: music.sc.edu

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