Ying Quartet

A microphone fell from the ceiling of Smith Theater Saturday night during the Ying Quartet's performance of Leos Janacek's Quartet No. 2 ("Lettres Intimes"). The audience gasped and a quick-handed gentleman caught it before it could do any hurt.But that was far from the only dramatic moment of the performance in the Candlelight Series at Columbia. Janacek's Quartet No. 2 is one of the most explosive, tender and ardent works in the chamber music repertory.When he was 64, the Czech composer met and fell in love with Kamila Stosslova, a young Jewish woman who was already married.

Sunday, Sept. 25 Concert The Alleluias, an interdenominational Christian choral group, will present a Sacred Choral Concert at 6 p.m. at Alberta Gary United Methodist Church, 9405 Guilford Road in Columbia. Concert is free and a love offering will be taken. Information: 301-498-7879 or thealleluias.org. Monday, Sept. 26 Passport services The Passport Acceptance Facility at the Howard County Library's East Columbia branch, 6600 Cradlerock Way, offers passport applications and photos from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

Candlelight Concerts will present three performances by the Ying Quartet, a professional string ensemble, Feb. 22 and 23 at Smith Theatre at Howard Community College in Columbia. The ensemble consists of Ying family members: violinist Timothy, violinist Janet, violist Phillip and cellist David. Natives of Chicago, the siblings began their professional careers in 1992 in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa, as the first recipients of a grant to support chamber music in rural America from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Everyone knows that art dies without a constant flow of new works, but that hasn't stopped any number of organizations from stubbornly wallowing in the past, relying on the tried-and-tired-and-true. The Ying Quartet, one of the bright, younger-generation lights on the chamber music scene for more than a decade now, took a bold stand against such self-defeating conservatism in 1999 by launching a project called LifeMusic. With support from the Institute for American Music, the quartet commissions two new works every year, one from an established American composer, the other by an emerging one. Each piece has only one requirement - that it describe in some way the American experience.

If it's Sunday, there must be music being made somewhere. You can start with a piano recital by Andrea Sokol-Albert, a faculty member of Texas Lutheran University, in her Baltimore debut. Her wide-ranging program includes works by Beethoven, Liszt, Faure, Ginastera and important Israeli composer Ben-Zion Orgad. The recital, presented by the Gordon Trust, will be at 3 p.m. today at Temple Oheb Shalom, 7310 Park Heights Ave. Admission is free. For more information, call 410-358-0105. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's latest program, with dynamic Russian conductor Yakov Kriezberg, gets its final airing -- Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 (with brilliant Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes)

If the members of the Ying Quartet sound as if they've been playing together all their lives, it's because they have. In one of the most remarkable examples of artistic togetherness the music world has seen in years, Timothy, Janet, Phillip and David Ying, four 30-something siblings born and raised in Chicago, have pooled their artistic resources to become one of the hottest chamber music ensembles on today's international circuit. A past winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the first recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant awarded to support chamber music in rural America, the Ying Quartet will perform at Howard Community College's Smith Theatre on Saturday under the auspices of Columbia's Candlelight Concert Society.

Two string quartets for the price of one -- quite a bargain -- is being offered Saturday by Candlelight Concerts of Columbia.By combining forces, the Ying Quartet and the St. Lawrence Quartet, best friends who met as students at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., will be able to play a program of larger works for strings, capped by the youthful brilliance of the Mendelssohn Octet.The Yings are a family of Chinese-American musicians from Winnetka, Ill. The quartet comprises Timothy and Janet, violins; Philip, viola; and David, cello.

Just before all the Thanksgiving meal gorging begins, you can feast on a wide assortment of musical appetizers, starting with visits by two first-rate string ensembles - the Ying and Vermeer quartets. Since earning the big-time Naumberg Chamber Music Award in 1993, the Ying Quartet has been riding high. It holds the titles of quartet-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., and artists-in-residence at Harvard University. The players - all siblings of a Chicago family - have made a particularly strong commitment to American music through their LifeMusic program, launched in 1999, commissioning two new works each year.

Everyone knows that art dies without a constant flow of new works, but that hasn't stopped any number of organizations from stubbornly wallowing in the past, relying on the tried-and-tired-and-true. The Ying Quartet, one of the bright, younger-generation lights on the chamber music scene for more than a decade now, took a bold stand against such self-defeating conservatism in 1999 by launching a project called LifeMusic. With support from the Institute for American Music, the quartet commissions two new works every year, one from an established American composer, the other by an emerging one. Each piece has only one requirement - that it describe in some way the American experience.

Sunday, Sept. 25 Concert The Alleluias, an interdenominational Christian choral group, will present a Sacred Choral Concert at 6 p.m. at Alberta Gary United Methodist Church, 9405 Guilford Road in Columbia. Concert is free and a love offering will be taken. Information: 301-498-7879 or thealleluias.org. Monday, Sept. 26 Passport services The Passport Acceptance Facility at the Howard County Library's East Columbia branch, 6600 Cradlerock Way, offers passport applications and photos from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

Just before all the Thanksgiving meal gorging begins, you can feast on a wide assortment of musical appetizers, starting with visits by two first-rate string ensembles - the Ying and Vermeer quartets. Since earning the big-time Naumberg Chamber Music Award in 1993, the Ying Quartet has been riding high. It holds the titles of quartet-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., and artists-in-residence at Harvard University. The players - all siblings of a Chicago family - have made a particularly strong commitment to American music through their LifeMusic program, launched in 1999, commissioning two new works each year.

Candlelight Concerts will present three performances by the Ying Quartet, a professional string ensemble, Feb. 22 and 23 at Smith Theatre at Howard Community College in Columbia. The ensemble consists of Ying family members: violinist Timothy, violinist Janet, violist Phillip and cellist David. Natives of Chicago, the siblings began their professional careers in 1992 in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa, as the first recipients of a grant to support chamber music in rural America from the National Endowment for the Arts.

If it's Sunday, there must be music being made somewhere. You can start with a piano recital by Andrea Sokol-Albert, a faculty member of Texas Lutheran University, in her Baltimore debut. Her wide-ranging program includes works by Beethoven, Liszt, Faure, Ginastera and important Israeli composer Ben-Zion Orgad. The recital, presented by the Gordon Trust, will be at 3 p.m. today at Temple Oheb Shalom, 7310 Park Heights Ave. Admission is free. For more information, call 410-358-0105. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's latest program, with dynamic Russian conductor Yakov Kriezberg, gets its final airing -- Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 (with brilliant Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes)

If the members of the Ying Quartet sound as if they've been playing together all their lives, it's because they have. In one of the most remarkable examples of artistic togetherness the music world has seen in years, Timothy, Janet, Phillip and David Ying, four 30-something siblings born and raised in Chicago, have pooled their artistic resources to become one of the hottest chamber music ensembles on today's international circuit. A past winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the first recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant awarded to support chamber music in rural America, the Ying Quartet will perform at Howard Community College's Smith Theatre on Saturday under the auspices of Columbia's Candlelight Concert Society.

Two string quartets for the price of one -- quite a bargain -- is being offered Saturday by Candlelight Concerts of Columbia.By combining forces, the Ying Quartet and the St. Lawrence Quartet, best friends who met as students at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., will be able to play a program of larger works for strings, capped by the youthful brilliance of the Mendelssohn Octet.The Yings are a family of Chinese-American musicians from Winnetka, Ill. The quartet comprises Timothy and Janet, violins; Philip, viola; and David, cello.

A microphone fell from the ceiling of Smith Theater Saturday night during the Ying Quartet's performance of Leos Janacek's Quartet No. 2 ("Lettres Intimes"). The audience gasped and a quick-handed gentleman caught it before it could do any hurt.But that was far from the only dramatic moment of the performance in the Candlelight Series at Columbia. Janacek's Quartet No. 2 is one of the most explosive, tender and ardent works in the chamber music repertory.When he was 64, the Czech composer met and fell in love with Kamila Stosslova, a young Jewish woman who was already married.

Candlelight Concerts' Performing Arts Series for Children will begin its 2002-2003 season with two performances by the Carolina Brass at 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday at Smith Theatre in Columbia. The mixed brass ensemble - two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba - will present a program of music from ancient to modern times. The Performing Arts Series for Children is comprised of six concerts for children ages 4 through 11 and their families. In the series are musical theater productions of Pinocchio and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; the National Marionette Theatre's Alice in Wonderland; Music for the First President by Ginger and David Hildebrand; and a child's introduction to the string quartet presented by the Ying Quartet.