Posted: Monday, February 10, 2014

Two internationally acclaimed chamber musicians, violist James Dunham and cellist Michael Kannen, will collaborate with the University of Evansville’s resident faculty Eykamp String Quartet in an upcoming performance. The concert, featuring Arnold Schönberg’s chamber music masterpiece Verklärte Nacht, will take place in the University of Evansville’s Wheeler Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 16 and it is free and open to the public.

Violist James Dunham’s rich background includes having been founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Sequoia String Quartet and violist of the Grammy Award-winning Cleveland Quartet. An impassioned advocate of new music, he has premiered and recorded several works written for him by American composer Libby Larsen. Dunham is currently professor of viola and chamber music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he also co-directs its Master of Music in String Quartet program.

Cellist Michael Kannen was a founding member of Brentano String Quartet and is currently a member of the Apollo Trio. During his years with the Brentano Quartet, the group was awarded the first Cleveland Quartet Award, the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, and a Royal Philharmonic Award, and was the first participant in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center II. Kannen is currently the director of chamber music at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he holds the Sidney Friedberg Chair in Chamber Music.??

Appearances by Dunham and Kannen are part of the UE Department of Music’s Friends Series and are made possible through the generosity of Friends of UE Music.

For more information, please contact the Department of Music at 812-488-2754.

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