“You can trace the popularity of chamber
music in America directly to the
Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium.”
Washington Post
The Cypress String Quartet and the Library of Congress have joined together to celebrate the 200th birthday of composer Felix Mendelssohn in 2009. In honor of the occasion, the Cypress and the Library have co-commissioned a new string quartet from brilliant young American composer, Kevin Puts (www.kevinputs.com), hailed by the New York Times as “exhilarating and compelling” and by the Los Angeles Times as “inventive, clever, haunting and poetic.”
The new work will be premiered by the Cypress in Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. in February 2009 as part of the Mendelssohn on the Mall celebration in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Museum.
Mr. Puts will compose his new string quartet using Mendelssohn’s Quartet Opus 13 and Beethoven’s Quartet Opus 135 as inspiration. The two older works and the new one will be performed together as the repertoire for this concert, an ongoing format devised by the Cypress for their award winning “Call & Response” series, in its 10th season in 2008-09.
This singular program by the Cypress String Quartet featuring the works of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Puts is available for international touring after the world premiere in Washington on February 6, 2009.