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Concert Series 2
Mozart Quartet in D Major, K. 575, Webern Fünf Sätze and Brahms String Quartet Opus 51, No 1 in C Minor
Guest Artist: Byron Wallis, violin
Byron was born in Indianapolis to parents who met playing string quartets. Beginning violin and piano studies at an early age, he quickly developed a love for chamber music. In his senior year at the University of Wisconsin, he joined the Strelow Quartet, graduate quartet in residence. Soon after graduating, with the Taliesin Trio, he was awarded a Chamber Music America Rural Residency grant to perform and live in Blytheville, Arkansas. Returning to studies at Eastman, he became teaching assistant to Sylvia Rosenberg, and upon completing his masters degree there, went on to a doctorate at the University of California Santa Barbara, joining the resident graduate string quartet there.
He has worked with illustrious chamber music coaches from the Vermeer, Juilliard, Orford, Takacs, La Salle and Cleveland Quartets. Among other music festivals, he spent two summers at Kneisel Hall in Maine, following which he was invited to coach the Amateur Chamber Music workshop there. In 2000 he became a member of the Cascade String Quartet, who double as principal players in the Great Falls Symphony. During his tenure there, the quartet performed throughout the state of Montana, commissioned composer David Maslanka, and played Schubert with Yo Yo Ma.
In 2005 Byron moved from Great Falls to Paris, where he has lived since, aside from a sabbatical replacement as assistant professor of violin at Ithaca college in New York. He joined the Alma quartet and later the Talea Quartet, and was invited by the Atelier Musical Tourraine to perform Eliot Carter’s Duo. The focus of his professional life in Europe however, has been orchestra playing, with groups such as the Orchestre National d’Ile de France and the Orchestre de Chambre Francais, with whom he traveled to North Korea to perform. On period instruments, he has played with Ensemble Mateus, Les Siecles, and Insula Orchestra, discovering stages such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, as well as Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center.
Byron enjoys reaching out to non traditional audiences. Aside from teaching in an El Sistema style program run by the Paris Opera, he has performed in street theater shows along side contemporary dance and circus artists, going so far as to accompany Dido’s Lament while hanging upside down on a trapeze.
Friday, March 24, 7:00 pm Union Hall, Rockport
Saturday, March 25, 4:00 pm, First Congregational Church of Blue Hill
Thursday, March 30, 7:00 pm, Maine Jewish Museum, Portland
Saturday, April 1, 4:00 pm, Lemont Hall, 2 Pleasant St, Brunswick
Sunday, April 2, 4:00 pm, St. Columba’s Episcopal Church, Boothbay Harbor
Concert Series 3
Program & Guest TBA
Friday, May 19, 7:00 pm, Union Hall, Rockport
Sunday, May 21, 3:00 pm, Sanford Performing Arts Center, Sanford
Thursday, May 25, 7:00 pm, Maine Jewish Museum, Portland
Saturday, May 27, 4:00 pm, Meetinghouse Arts, Freeport
Sunday, May 28, 4:00 pm, St. Columba’s Episcopal Church, Boothbay Harbor
Friday, June 9, Ogunquit Performing Arts, Mozart & Brahms piano quartets with pianist, Laura Kargul.
DAPONTE STRING QUARTET INSTITUTE 2023 An international program for pre-formed, college level string quartets. (207) About the DaPonte String Quartet Institute (2019) – YouTube
June 17-25, Medomak Retreat, Washington, Maine. Application link coming soon.
Sunday, September 10, 2023 7:00 pm Concert at the Old Walpole Meetinghouse
September 29-October 1, 2023 High School Weekend Workshop at Camp Kieve, Nobleboro, Maine. Application available soon. (207) DaPonte String Quartet | Youth Workshop, Camp Kieve-Wavus, Maine – YouTube
October 7-8, 2023 Adult Chamber Music Weekend Workshop, Location TBA. Application link posted soon.