The Jasper String Quartet’s unity comes from its belief in the timeless and lifelong pursuit of music’s depth and meaning. The Quartet shares a commitment to exploring each work to its fullest and to discovering new musical connections through each performance.
The Jaspers joined Oberlin Conservatory as Artists-in-Residence in the fall of 2010, where they perform and coach chamber ensembles throughout the year. The ensemble was the 2009-2010 Ernst C. Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, joining an elite group of previous Stiefel quartets including the Miró, Pacifica, and Jupiter quartets. In 2010-2011, Caramoor invited the Jaspers back for an unprecedented second year. They will also continue their residency with Chamber Classics in Naples, FL, performing in six concerts this season.
The ensemble is dedicated to performing pieces emotionally significant to its members, ranging from Haydn and Beethoven to Ligeti, Webern, and Adès. Last season the ensemble began a series of programs called Understanding… through music. The programs explore a country, time, or event through its music by connecting repertoire to historical or social happenings, the first of which explored music of the Eastern European nations of Hungary and the Czech Republic; the second focused on innovators in music, paralleling Beethoven and Webern’s important musical innovations.
Formed at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jaspers began pursuing a professional career when they became Rice University’s graduate quartet-in-residence in 2006, studying with James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith. The Quartet continued its studies at Yale University with the Tokyo String Quartet, and has performed across the United States and in Canada, Norway, England, Italy, and Japan.
The Jasper String Quartet is named after Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. Its members live in New Haven CT.
Robert Walters, Jr grew up in Lincoln, studying oboe and attending LFCM concerts at Sheldon. He went on to study at the Curtis Institute of Music and subsequently served as principal oboe /English horn for the Metropolitan Opera. He is now a member of the oboe section and the English horn player in the Cleveland Orchestra and was recently appointed as oboe faculty chair at Oberlin College.
While studying at Curtis, Walters wrote a play, Songs of Addiction, which was sent to a director in New York by a friend. It was produced off-off-Broadway in 1991 and ran for thirty performances.
Walters moved to New York in the same year, hoping to establish himself as a free-lance oboist. His success with his play that year and other successful ventures in writing led to an interest in pursuing writing at Columbia University. While he wrote, he played oboe and English horn as a soloist and performer in a number of groups. He also spent five summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and two summers at the Blossom Music festival, where he studied with John Mack, principal oboist of the Cleveland Orchestra.
During this time he also completed an MFA at Columbia. He has written opera librettos and other musical texts, including one for a choral piece written by Robert Convery which premiered at Lincoln Center in 1993.
Jasper String Quartet Wins Cleveland Quartet Award
The Jasper String Quartet has been named the winner of the 2012 Cleveland Quartet Award, presented biennially to a rising young string quartet whose artistry demonstrates that it is on the way to establishing a major career.
The Cleveland Quartet Award was established in 1995 by the members of the Cleveland Quartet, in collaboration with Chamber Music America and eight prominent chamber music presenters. Previous winners were the Brentano, Borromeo, Miami, Pacifica, Miró, Jupiter, and Parker String Quartets. The Brentano, Pacifica, and Miró quartets have appeared on our series.
New CD: The Kernis Project: Beethoven
The quartet writes: “We are delighted to announce the release of our debut album, The Kernis Project: Beethoven, featuring Beethoven Op. 59 No. 3 and Kernis No. 2 ‘musica instrumentalis’. This is the first in a set of recordings on the Sono Luminus label that pairs Kernis’ magnificent quartets with their influences. We greatly enjoy performing these works and feel fortunate to be able to record them for our first albums. Working with Mr. Kernis on his compositions has been enlightening and we would like to thank Astral Artists and everyone else who made this possible. In December 2011, we will record the second disc with Schubert ‘Death and the Maiden’ and Kernis No. 1 ‘musica celestis’. Best wishes and we look forward to seeing you soon!”