Attacca String Quartet and Venezuelan composer headline chamber event

Janelle McCoy The Chamber Music Society of Southwest Florida hosts the Juilliard-based Attacca String Quartet Monday, March 31 at the Alliance for the Arts' Foulds Theatre at 7:30 p.m. All tickets are $20.

The 2006 Winner of the Alice Coleman Grand Prize, the Attacca String Quartet was a finalist at the International Banff String Quartet Competition in Canada in August. It was also a finalist in the International Chesapeake Chamber Competition. The quartet made its Carnegie Hall debut this season with its mentors the Juilliard String Quartet. They have also appeared with pianist Jerome Lowenthal, pianist Claude Frank, violinist Arnold Steinhardt and the Tokyo String Quartet.

The group will perform Webern's "Six Bagetelles Bartok String Quartet No. 4," as well as the Kelly- Marie Murphy's "Dark Energy" and Reinaldo Moya's "String Quartet No. 1," both being regional premieres written within the last year.

Moya received special praise from the NY Times for his "String Quartet No. 1" world-premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The Venezuelan composer graduated from the world-renowned Youth Orchestra program El Sistema where he played violin under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Music Director elect. The ASCAP 2007 Morton Gould Young Composer Award recipient and Friedman Memorial Composition prize-winner, Moya will be present at the concert to discuss his experiences and his music.

Reinalso Moya "Growing up in a country where over 90 percent of the people are in poverty, Moya found that his outlet was through his passion for music and compositional creativity," said Artistic Director Janelle McCoy. "It was through these gifts, he had the courage to pursue his dreams in the United States, even if it meant being separated from his family. I believe that his music and his personal story resonate particularly with our community because so many of us are from somewhere else. We have come here to follow jobs or dreams of a better life, much like Moya has."

This marks the third concert of Chamber Music Society of Southwest Florida's inaugural season. Founded by mezzo soprano McCoy, the Chamber Music Society will present a total of four chamber music concerts this season that will include international chamber groups, Grammy winning composers and several regional premieres.

Attacca The concerts, themed Journeys, are designed to promote and make accessible chamber music of the last 100 years through lectures, composer appearances and performances in intimate spaces.

The remaining concert for this season showcases the international

award-winning Amernet String Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at Florida International

University on April 28.

Concerts are on Monday nights at 7:30 p.m. at the Foulds Theatre in the Alliance for the Arts.

"The Foulds Theatre offers a rare opportunity to be close and personal with these exciting musicians while they perform highly provocative chamber music," said McCoy.

Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Chamber Music Society website at www. chambersociety.org.

.. If you go

>>What: Chamber music series; the Attacca String Quartet and composer Reinaldo Moya

>>When: Monday March 31 at 7:30 p.m.

>>Where: The Foulds Theatre in the Alliance for the Arts, 10091 McGregor Blvd.

>>Cost: $20

>>Info: For tickets go to www.chambersociety.org