story by Kyle MacMillan<\/em><\/p>\n
The Attacca Quartet pays respect to the past, playing works by composers like Haydn and Ravel and twice tackling the ultimate challenge for any such ensemble, a complete set of performances of Beethoven\u2019s 16 career-spanning string quartets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a goal of ours, that a work by a living composer be on every concert that we play, which is not the norm, but I think it should be,\u201d said cellist Andrew Yee, who uses the pronouns they and them.<\/p>\n In that spirit of the now, the Attacca makes its Colorado Music Festival debut July 12<\/a>, presenting a concert of all contemporary music as part of the summer event\u2019s Music of Today and Robert Mann Chamber Music series.<\/p>\n Yee describes the July 12 Festival program<\/a> as a \u201csnapshot\u201d of what\u2019s important to the group at the moment. The quartet spotlighted John Adams, the Festival\u2019s 2022 Composer-in-Residence, on its debut album in 2013, performing all three of his existing string-quartet works at the time, including John\u2019s Book of Alleged Dances<\/em>, selections of which are featured here. \u201cSo, we have always had John Adams in our DNA, and John Adams took us under his wing and has had a lot of pieces cross our paths whenever he is in charge,\u201d Yee said. It was via Adams that the group encountered Gabriella Smith\u2019s Carrot Revolution<\/em>, which culminates this program.<\/p>\n Also included on the line-up<\/a> are Shaw\u2019s Evergreen<\/em>, Anna M\u00fcller\u2019s Drifting Circles<\/em>, Louis Cole\u2019s Real Life<\/em>, and selections by Steven Ellison aka Flying Lotus, a Los Angeles DJ and rapper. Rounding out things is Philip Glass\u2019 String Quartet No. 3, Mishima<\/em>, which the Attacca recorded on its last album, Of All Joys<\/em>. \u201cWe like putting Philip Glass on programs because it\u2019s the wild card,\u201d Yee said. \u201cIt can exist in whatever way an audience member sees fit, which is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n The Attacca was formed in 2003 at the Juilliard School in New York. Yee and violinist Amy Schroeder met on the second day of orientation as undergraduates, and they began playing string duos and then were part of a piano trio. But when the pianist dropped out, they decided to create a string quartet with two other students. \u201cAnd we just sort of kept going,\u201d the cellist said.<\/p>\n The group needed to list a name when it entered a competition soon thereafter, so its members chose \u201cattacca,\u201d a musical term placed at the end of a movement to signify a continuation to the next section without pause. \u201cLike at 3 in the morning, Amy and I just opened a music dictionary and said every word until it sounded pretty good in front of \u2018quartet,\u2019\u201d Yee said.<\/p>\n In choosing contemporary works to champion, the Attacca obviously seeks well-crafted music, but its relationship with the composer is also important, too. \u201cWe tend to play music by people we really like as human beings,\u201d Yee said. \u201cCaroline Shaw is a very lovely person, one of my best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n If the relationship between the composer and performer is strong, they said, it adds something \u201cextra\u2019 to the interpretations. The Attacca\u2019s message is simple: \u201cListen to how much we love this music and how much we love the person who wrote it.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the Attacca had released three previous albums, none gained more attention than Orange, which contained six of Shaw\u2019s chamber works. \u201cOur album with Caroline Shaw got a lot of attention and rightfully so,\u201d Yee said. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of that album, and I think Caroline is doing something really new and interesting and relatable.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OrangeThumbnail-300x300.jpeg\")
<\/a>But the quartet is best known for its emphasis on the musical here and now. In 2019, for example, the foursome released Orange<\/em>, a Grammy Award-winning album<\/a> devoted to the music of the 2013 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, Caroline Shaw.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Attacca-Grammy-300x230.jpeg\")
It has undergone personnel changes since then, with Yee and Schroeder being the only remaining original members<\/a>. Violist Nathan Schram was recruited seven years ago, and violinist Dominic Salerni joined at the beginning of 2020 just after the quartet\u2019s Grammy win<\/a>.<\/p>\n