The South Florida Symphony presents the Blue Door String Quartet on Tuesday, June 17 at 7:00 p.m. at the Josephine S. Leiser Opera Center, located on 221 SW 3rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.
June is LGBT Pride Month, and in celebrating Pride Month, the Blue Door String Quartet is featuring two outstanding composers: the Russian Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the American Pulitzer Prize winner Samuel Barber.
Tchaikovsky, best known for his ballet music (The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake), wrote in a letter about his String Quartet No.2: “I am glad that you . . . liked my quartet; I regard it as my best composition; none of my works flowed out of me so simply and easily.”
The next piece, Barber’s String Quartet No. 2, contains the music for “Adagio for Strings,” the middle movement. The first time Arturo Toscanini, famed conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony Orchestra, played the orchestral version, he remarked, “Semplice e bella” (simple and beautiful).
At the behest of Sebrina Alfonso, Music Director and Conductor of the South Florida Symphony, the Blue Door String Quartet has become the Quartet-in-Residence for the Symphony. Its members include Whitney La Grange (violin), Funda Cizmecloglu (violin), Mario Gotoh (violist), and Arthur Cook (cellist).
The evening will start with a complimentary reception at 7 p.m., catered by Lenore Nolan- Ryan Catering and Cooking School. It will then be followed by the performance at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30. If you’re interested in buying tickets or have any other questions, you can call (954) 522-8445 or visit southfloridasymphony.org.
