Saturday, April 16, 2022

UGA.edu: Pacifica Quartet joined at UGA Presents by clarinet virtuoso Anthony McGill ["Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet" by James Lee III]

Anthony McGill, center, and the Pacifica Quartet take the Hodgson Concert Hall stage on April 19. 
(Photo by Eric Rudd Photography)


Mark Mobley

April 15, 2022

The Franklin College Chamber Music Series concludes at 7:30 p.m. on April 19 at Hodgson Concert Hall with Brahms’ autumnal Clarinet Quintet. The Pacifica String Quartet is joined by one of the most prominent Black orchestral musicians in the U.S., Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic. Their program also includes music by Prokofiev and the “Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet” by rising Black American composer, pianist and educator James Lee III.

Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberance and daring repertory choices, the 2020 and 2008 Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet has achieved international recognition as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today. Formed in 1994, the ensemble quickly won chamber music’s top competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. For its first appearance for UGA Presents, the quartet is joined by the brilliantly multifaceted McGill, who made his Ramsey Hall debut in 2016.

“The playing is so suave, so gleamingly elegant and so full of textural riches that you can almost imagine yourself hearing these pieces for the first time. McGill especially is a joy,” San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman wrote of the Pacifica/McGill recording of the Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets. “In all, this is a keeper.”

Lee has a wealth of premieres and other performances this season, given by such ensembles as the Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit and St. Louis symphony orchestras.

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