New Orleans Friends of Music opens its 58th consecutive season of chamber music on Wednesday, October 17, 2012 when the acclaimed Jerusalem String Quartet takes the stage at Tulane University’s Dixon Hall. The performance begins at 8 p.m., preceded at 7 p.m. by a free lecture by Dr. John Joyce of the Newcomb Department of Music faculty. Admission is $25 (free for Tulane students), with sales at the door or in advance at www.friendsofmusic.org. Full season subscriptions are offered at $125 for the entire seven-concert season.
 
The Jerusalem String Quartet makes their local debut with this performance. This dynamic young Israeli chamber group, has developed a coordinated and beautiful sound in almost two decades making music together. Violinists Alexander Pavlovsky and Sergei Bresler, cellist Kyril Zlotnilov, and new member Ori Kam on viola enjoy excellent international reputations as soloists in addition to their continued acclaim as chamber musicians. The Quartet records exclusively for the Harmonia Mundi label and has released critically-praised interpretations of Mozart, Haydn, and Schubert.
 
Their New Orleans program includes late Mozart (String Quartet No. 22, the “Prussian No. 2”); one of Hugo Wolf’s only works for chamber ensemble, the Italian Serenade; and Brahms’ third string quartet. The Jerusalem Quartet brings a particularly intense focus to the Brahms, honed by recent European residencies dedicated to that composer’s chamber music. The “Prussian” can be heard on the group’s recent all-Mozart recording, which won them their third BBC Music Magazine Award.
 
In addition to their October 17 concert, the Jerusalem Quartet will present a free masterclass at 10 a.m. on Thursday, October 18 at Roussel Hall on the Loyola University campus. The masterclass is free and open to the public. This event is one of several masterclasses that will be presented in the coming season by Friends of Music performers as a service to students and the community.