Winners of the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition and a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the American ensemble combines old and new with a varied program stretching from Beethoven and Bach to Aida Shirazi and a piece by Ottawa’s own Dinuk Wijeratne, The Disappearance of Lisa Gherardini. Affectionately called “The Heist”, the young quartet’s rambunctious performance of the commissioned work about the theft of the Mona Lisa won them their career-launching award, with tours of North America and Europe starting shortly after. In contrast to the high octane “Heist”, contemporary Iranian composer Aida Shirazi’s piece Umbra is a “process, in which musical events unfold glacially, reveal[ing] and express[ing] itself with reservedness.” Don’t miss their Ottawa debut where the Isidores are set to engage and inspire “through the art of collaboration and play,” using “the vital tradition of the string quartet [as their] playground.”

Isidore String Quartet’s appearance is supported, in part, by the Career Development Program of the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

• Isidore String Quartetstring quartet

Programme

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 (excerpts)
Contrapunctus I
Contrapunctus II
Contrapunctus III
Contrapunctus IV

Aida Shirazi (b. 1987): Umbra

Dinuk Wijeratne (b. 1978): The Disappearance of Lisa Gherardini

Intermission

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827): String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132
I. Assai sostenuto – Allegro
II. Allegro ma non tanto
III. Molto adagio – Andante (“Heiliger Dankgesang…”)
IV. Alla marcia, assai vivace
V. Allegro appassionato